Alpacas

Alpacas are members of the South American Camelid family.  They are smaller than a llama, standing at 30 - 38” at the shoulder and are kept for their amazing luxurious fleece.  There are two kinds of alpaca; the huacaya which has sheep-like woolliness and the suri that has long spiral locks. The colour of the fleece ranges from black, brown, fawn, grey and white.  Within those colours there are about 23 different shades.  They are a herd animal and do not like to be kept on their own, so it is always recommended that a minimum of three alpacas should be kept together.

Alpacas are charming, intelligent animals, shy but very inquisitive.  Although they are not keen to be touched, with careful training, the alpaca can be harnessed and will also stand patiently while toe nails are trimmed and injections given.  They do spit, but usually at each other rather than at humans.  Only if they feel intimidated will they spit at humans and will occasionally kick.  However, their feet have a soft pad so a kick is not normally painful.

The gestation time for an alpaca is 11-11½ months, and has been known to go on as long as 12 months.  Females can be mated again 3-4 weeks after the birth of the cria (a baby alpaca).  Although females can be mated at any time, as they are self ovulating, most females in the UK are mated during the summer months, as crias stand a much better chance of good health if they are born during the summer.

They are very easy to look after, needing an area of grass of about 1 acre for 4-6 alpacas.  Fresh hay and water should always be available and a small amount of dried supplementary food is given on a daily basis.  We feed our alpacas Camelibra all year round and during the winter we also give fibregest and alfalfa.

So why keep alpacas?  Firstly for their fleece; they are shorn once a year and the fibre is then sent off to a mill to be processed into yarn or can be woven into cloth.  The fibre can also be used to fill duvets, cushions or animal beds.  The alpaca fibre is very fine and, with careful breeding and good nutrition, it is possible to rear animals that have super-fine fleeces resulting in a luxurious, soft silky yarn that can be made into luxury garments.  The fibre has excellent insulating properties and is also hypoallergenic. A good income can be made from breeding and selling alpacas.  More and more people in the UK are keeping alpacas and therefore there is always a need for new stock.

Some people keep alpacas because they want to keep the grass down on a piece of land.  Alpacas are also very good guard animals and will protect animals such as sheep and chickens from predators.  But they are also just adorable animals to have, they look wonderful in the field and are so calming that if I have had a bad day I just go out into the field and spend a bit of time with the alpacas and before I know it I suddenly feel much more relaxed.