Now, we dry lot and have pasture turn out time.  When we bought this house there were small holding pens, enough to house the alpacas until we could build the right set up.  We now have 4 male pens (with no pasture), each pen holds 2-3 males that are compatible.  We have 4 large female pens, each pen currently has 7 adults, two pens have 4 adults and their crias. Each pen has gates going out to pasture or gates going to the next pen.  We designed the set up so each pen has a large 3 sided metal enclosure (it doesn't get too hot inside, my worry), water, trees for shade and entertainment if you ask Stormy (fruitless mulberries are edible) and space to roam.  We are set up for flood irrigation and have irrigation rights off of Butte Creek so we can irrigate.  We are in the process of fencing off another pasture.  As a matter of personal preference, I like to dry lot my alpacas and turn them out the pasture once or twice per week.  I have more control of the feed and they still get to frolick and play in pasture areas. The pastures don't get grazed down to bare dirt.  Although alpacas don't really graze to bare dirt, they can get close.

Here are some pictures of the current set up:

Our three sided shelters, one in each pen with gravel underneath so when it rains a lot they can get out of the mud.  My alpacas can't stand the mud!  We poured a footing and secured the shelters with bolts, this grade of metal shelter can withstand winds up to 120 mph, which up until last year, I would have told you that we never get that kind of wind.
 

The females turned out to pasture.  It doesn't look like much, they have been eating on the particular pasture all spring and it's almost gone.  This is a buffet compared to what the alpacas in South America get.  In the Spring of 2009 we are seeding the entire pasture.  Our fencing is not just split vinyl, it doesn't show in the pictures but the fence in back is 5' and covered with non climb wire, the bottom is buried well into the dirt for added protection.  Split vinyl alone would not be adequate, so I wanted to point  out that there is wire covering the fencing.


 
A hill isn't a necessity, but it makes life good!  Babies, herdsires, females, everyone plays "king of the hill," as soon as we open a gate everybody charges for the hill.  My husband was looking for dirt awhile ago to fill a new planter he put in the yard, he was looking at the "dirt hill" and I said that I would rather pay $500 for a load of dirt from the trucking company, this hill is the bomb!



A barn insn't a necessity, our first set up didn't have one, I can now breed anytime of the year because during a cold wet, soggy day I have an extra stall at all times with bedding, water and feed to put mama and her baby into.  We have used the stall as quarantine or as an area to treat a sick alpaca.  My stall houses my chute so if they get out of the chute they are still contained.


We have mats in the barn for the horses to stand on when they are being cross tied, but it also works well as shearing time, you can see the shearing ties on the ground.  It provides shade, water and electricity.



A catch pen is a must.  Even if you use portable panels or some other sort of containment.  These critters are faster than most people think and they find the best escape routes.  Our catch pen serves as secondary containment as well,  you can't get into any pens without going through 3 gates!  It serves as a breeding pen, I intentionally put it between the girls, while you are doing breeding near the girls, the "open" girls will kush near the fence line.  I use this area for training as well.  Our pen is a bit bigger than most, but it's only 10' across so one person can easily catch an alpaca.  I like the longer pen so I can have multiple alpacas in the pen at once without overcrowding.

Flood irrigating the small pasture, we built up small berms so that the water doesn't flow into their paddocks while we flood. 


Every farm needs one of these!  Sorry this one is not for sale!  Thanks to my husband all of this happens.

So that is the set up, what else do we do...

Feeding: Our alpacas get free choice orchard grass hay, pellets once per day, free choice water and free choice Stillwater Minerals. 

If I have late term females in the winter or thin alpacas, I add up to 20% alfalfa or feed grassy alfalfa.  It does loosens their pellets but they adjust within a few days and go back to normal feces.

Worming:  In the spring I like to use a broad spectrum wormer, Ivomec. Then we only worm every 12 weeks rotating wormers unless we do a fecal and have worms.  Some worms present is nothing to be alarmed about, just worm them. If tapeworms are present, we use Equimax for equines at the usual dosage, it works great.  We never worm or vacinate during the first trimester.

Toes and Teeth: Each alpaca is different when it comes to toes and teeth, some never need maintanence, some need their toes trimmed every 4 months or so, none of mine need theirs trimmed more often than every 6 months.  On teeth I have about 4 that need teeth trimmed once per year or every 18 months.  The method we use on teeth is the ob wire and then file them off to a natural appearance with an air dremel.

Shearing: Shearing is done once per year, usually in May for our climate, sooner is okay, but by June it's too hot here.  Yes, we do some of our own shearing but once we reached over 30 alpacas we  hired a shearer. We help him out and it takes about a day to shear everyone.  We send our fiber off to be made into yarn, we sell it for $6.00 per ounce completed.  We also send part of our clip to co-op and sell some raw fiber.  I make scarfs and hats too for gifts and selling at the shows we attend, but I find that the yarns sell best.

I send most of my fiber to be processed at Willow Bridge Fiber Mill, Jean and Roy
are very nice to work with and your yarn is beautiful!  Check them out and tell
them Anita sent you!

Alot of people ask me how much yarn do I get from one alpaca.  Each alpaca
shears a different amount, so I usually say from each pound I get between 10-
12 skeins of yarn, 2 ply, sport weight, 2 ounce each skein.  So it depends on
each alpaca, the weight and the ply of your yarn, etc...  It also depends how
clean your fleece is, but this is generally what I end up with each time.



Shearing a show blanket...notice all the extra help and for show we try to get the entire blanket it one peice and then roll it up into the sheet underneath for skirting at a later date.  This is Ivy under all that fiber!


Shearing another show blanket, we took 1st place out of 6 at the AOBA Nationals in 2008 with this fiber!  Way to go Jaggermeister!


ButterKup all stretched out for shearing, Ken is in back trimming toes and Cortni is one the side with a collection bag.

Vaccinations:  The only vacination I use (I know I am different than alot of other farms) is CD and T, once per year on adults.  As crias at about 6 weeks I give 2 cc and then 4 weeks later I do a booster.  Then they are done for a year, I do them
all at shearing time.

The only other aspect we haven't discussed is maintaining their paddocks.  During the winter  months they get cleaned once per day, during the summer I like them cleaned in the morning and at night to control flies.  Everything goes into the compost pile, old hay, the poo, bedding, horse poo, yard clippings, you name it it goes into compost, we keep it moist and turn it with the backhoe.  We use it everywhere and give it away to neighbors and co workers for their gardens, we have never had compost that we couldn't find a home for it. We have friends who list their paca pellets on craigslist and sell out in a day!

As you can see from this short over view of our program, every farm is different, some vacinate more, some do strictly pasture, some strictly dry lot, some don't worm unless they have worms, some will tell you that they give vitamins weekly, every farm is unique and have their own methods, you have do find what works for you and your alpacas.

I figured that since I have about 15 sucessful births each year, very low disease and parasites, great sales and a healthy herd, I will keep doing what I am doing.  We do show and usually place in the top of the the classes so the judges like our alpacas...and so do we!!