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Alpaca


Patmobile
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Does anybody keep alpacas?  I'm thinking of keeping a few on the land behind our new house.  I thought they might help to keep the grass between the trees tidy and reduce unwanted undergrowth.  I was thinking of goats or sheep, but alpaca look nicer and less of a problem to maintain.

Any advice?

Patrick 

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At between £3,000 and £6,000 each, you must have deep pockets! (My neighbours breed them). Unless you are thinking of llamas? They are cheaper, I think. Still just expensive and pointless pets, though! At least with goats you can drink the milk, make cheese, and enjoy curried goat!

M

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I think you might find that they do an awful lot less damage than a goat though!!! ( Apparently if you leave their field gate open , they just stay put too!!) Soft pads for feet don't damage the grazing, they protect other stock from foxes,they eat very little and require very little attention, sale of their wool covers their keep..... The only way to make a profit is to breed - (especially females!) They do keep the grass down in fields, and when I look at the cost of employing someone to cut my grass for -say- the next 15 years, it would actually cost less to purchase 4 or 5 alpacas...it's not quite as crazy as you first think!! ( your neighbours will want protection for their livestock at lambing too- lots of Brownie points me thinks!!!)

And then there is the tourist factor......

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Yes - except that there is virtually no market for the odd 2-3 fleeces per year. Commercial spinners aren't interested unless they can buy in guaranteed volume - which they do in Peru! You might find the odd hand-spinner who might give you £30 for a fleece - that won't even pay the vet's bills for the year! And you have to pay someone to shear them! Just expensive, trendy and useless pets for rich landowners, IMHO Still, it's not for me to tell people how to spend their money... Now, if anyone would like to pay me a fee to introduce them to my neighbours... shall we say £100? [:)]

M

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Spot on M

Keeping Alpacas reminds me of the keeping Ostriches craze that hit the UK in the mid 90s.  Its just a big con, a form of pyramid selling, because the only people making money with these zoo animals are those selling supposidly prime breeding stock to the towny smallholders.  These animals are of no practical use (unless someone can enlighten me) on the smallholding over anything sheep, goats, poultry can do.  They are fashion statements,  rich peoples toys, oh look, they must have a lot of money because they keep alpacas (and no doubt there is a BMW X5 on the drive also).  But its your money and if you want to set up a zoo, then go ahead.  IMHO sheep are far more sensible,  they will do all the grass eating you want and you dont have to overwinter them,  just put them in the freezer and enjoy.  Now that makes sense if you are trying to avoid spending  money on someone to cut your grass, does it not ?

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I think people are being very unfair here. I don't know of too many horses, dogs or cats that are only kept for making money or for utilitarian purposes. I think Alpacas are beautiful. I  would love to own some of these gorgeous and gentle animals but I'm sure I never will. What a pleasure it must be to have some beautiful Alpacas on your land as wonderful pets and also have the added benefit that they eat grass, sounds pretty good to me. 

Having said that, I could imagine how our neighbour farmer would feel about having these animals. But at the same time, I think he feels the same about anyone that would bother to walk their dog and not keep it in a small pen everyday.

Good luck Patmobile and Nicos, would love to see photos when you get them.

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Thanks WJT- We did look into getting a few when we retire in France, but that won't be for a few more years yet! Also the land we had our eye on is not for sale!!! Probably another pipe dream!![:P]

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Nico's there is nothing wrong with pipe dreams, I have a few of my own. My biggest one is that I live in hope that I will one day win the lottery, but I never buy a ticket, so chances are you stand a much greater chance than I do to realise your dream. I guess we will have to count on Patmobile to post the photos then. [:)]

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Well, I haven't said I'll definitely get some yet!  And if I posted photos you might see that far from driving fat cat BMW 4x4s, we have a pair of Smart cars in the drive.

Yes, I can see that there would be a cost involved in keeping them, and that the fleeces might not fetch a lot in return, but there is also a significant cost in mowing the grass and chopping down undergrowth with a débroussailleuse.  What's more, a lot of the mowing cost is the government's rip-off tax on petrol.  Why should I pay tax to keep my grass neat?

Then there's the mower's carbon footprint to consider (ha! what a load of unscientific b*ll*ocks!) and, far more to the point, the fact that I detest gardening.

Taking all that into consideration, alpacas begin to look like an attractive alternative.  Nice looking and friendly, too, so I'm told.   I would like to know a bit more about the costs and work involved, though, before I become, for the first time in my life, a keeper of livestock.

Patrick

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I know nothing about Alpacas.  However, I have kept or looked after lots of different animals including goats, sheep, horses, cattle and chickens.  I've yet to come across one that didn't need more work than you would imagine.  Most need worming, regular injections of some sort - at the very least rabies and tetanus -, some need shearing, most need some sort of foot care.  They all seem to be abe to escape, and always want to be wherever you would rather they didn't go!  They also sometimes get injured or sick and they all die eventually.  If you're taking on livestock for the first time then you are indeed being very sensible in doing good research first.  Animals of any species are rarely as straightforward to manage as you might think!  Why not try an Amazon search for a good book on them before you do anything more?  A sensible place to start I would have thought.  I'll try googling and see if I can come up with anything helpful.

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/llamaalpaca.html

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I did  most of my research on google and then phoned many of the owners for a chat. Having spent about a week doing research, I wouldn't hesitate in having a few. There are day and weekend courses in the UK you can go on to learn about their care. There are also several breeders in France. There are two main types with different coats. Offhand - one copes better in the hotter summers. Go for it!!!! ( and enjoy your research!) Let us know how you get on[:D]

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I've just remembered I kept hens when I was a lad of about 8 or 9.  My dad wanted me to do something useful about the place and this was it.  I remember making a shedload of pocket money from eggs and the occasional bird for the pot.  I could never bring myself to kill them though - someone else had to do that.

I even started breeding, and so began to learn the facts of life.  It all ended in tears when the fox got in and killed most of them - and then I was sent away to boarding school. 

I have done some googling on the subject of alpacas, too.  I read somewhere that they aren't keen on escaping.  A simple low fence suffices, because they don't like jumping.  And they will see off a fox, too, apparently, although foxes are very scarce in this part of France - shot on sight as pests, I suspect.

Are they noisy?  I haven't found the answer to that anywhere.

Patrick

  

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  • 1 month later...

No alpacas don't make a noise, The most they will do is a humming noise, this noise its self is quite a nice sound.  Don't know about alpacas but llamas will make a loud noise  when they see danger, like a fox or dog, Which gives you time to get out of the house and check it out.

I have 8 llamas soon alpacas

They do have use's apart from cleaning land,

  • Wool -  I spin wool, why don't you take up spinning its a great hobby. Alpaca wool can be made into the most warmist and softist garments you can think of.

  • Dung, alpacas and llamas will make a few WCs in the field and mess only in there pile, which makes cleaning easy and also the best dung in the world for gardens. You can put fresh dung on your garden with no risk of burning the plants. Its great stuff, and cheaper & better for the plants/land then cemicals fertillizers. I have raised beds & use llama dung , everything just thrives including earth worms.

  • Packing, you can train a alpaca like a llama to carry a pack for going to picnics or moving pine cones/fruit picking.

  • Cart driving, again like llamas you can train them to pull a cart, for a trip to the local shop.

  • Anti-stress, alpaca and llamas are know it be anti stress animals, its true there- aloof, quite, calm nature can calm a stress person down, by just sitting down and watching at them. Also there are not pushy like goats and horses, they will come and check out what your up to but will keep a personnel space distance between you. They are not fence / escape artistes.

  • They are one of the most hardy, of all livestock, taking very little in the way of upkeep.

  • You can eat them, i know people who have, tastes like beef/lamb. ( although they a bit expensive per kilo to be doing that but for somone who has a big herd with to many males.

 

I have goats, cows, horses,pigs, sheeps, birds ect..ect.. but llamas are my fravoite.If you have a look at www.ecoferme.com theres more info on looking after them and such.

If you do dicide you want some, I can find you some ( I know of two males for sale a the minute one dark brown one and a brown& white  for 1000euro each)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I breed and train llamas (and train llama owners) for a living and they are extremely intelligent animals and tend to learn quite quickly (I have no doubt that Alpacas do as well but I have never trained any).

 

If anyone is ever considering buying young llamas, be very wary of getting very friendly young males as they may have been over handled and when they were babies and when they are a large 450 male they could become quite dangerous (known as “berserk male llama syndrome”).  We personally never handle any of our young males until they are 12 months old.

 

Rgds,  Mike L

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That is very interesting. I know nothing about llamas and alpacas and found that fascinating.

After reading your post Mike I had a quick search and found the below site interesting particularly what they say about handling in the first four to five months. Because it states that if they aren't handled at all but for only injections that could affect them as well. But as I said I know absolutely nothing about Llamas.  I would love to have some of these beautiful animals but realise it will most probably never happen so will have to live vicariously at the moment. [:)]

I wonder if Patmobile ever got a few in the end.

 

http://www.llamapaedia.com/problems/bms.html

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We have an alpaca on the farm. We were given him by his previous owner who no longer wanted him. They had 2 castrated males (I dont know why!) and when 1 died they didnt want the other to get lonely. We have a few sheep here and the alpaca fits in nicely. He is a wonderful beast. he quickly became "chief" of his little flock of sheep and they follow him everywhere. He stands guard against dogs and foxes, although he is now used to our pet dog and tolerates her. He is a bit timid, but will aproach if you are quiet and will eat out of my hand. If you catch him and put your arms round his neck he wont struggle and will let you put a wee halter thing on and is happy to be led around on it. He has never once been aggressive towards us, doesnt spit (sometimes spits at the sheep if they annoy him though) He makes no loud noise, just the odd wee grunts and bleats and needs almost nothing in the way of care. We are in the Tarn and he is outside with the sheep in all weathers. They have a barn to shelter in and the alpaca is perfectly happy with that. Bear in mind Peru etc where alpacas are common have climates with extremes much higher and lower than France!

He eats the grass and nettles etc, and eats the hay we give the sheep in winter. He gets sheared once a year - we do this ourselves, although the first year we got someone in to do the sheep, they were wary of him at first but he posed no problems. One thing to bear in mind is the wool contains no natural oils like the sheep so the clipper blades need constantly lubricated when shearing or they go blunt in a few tens of seconds.

In the three years we have had him, he has cost us nothing, never needing vets attention etc.

If they werent so expensive, we would get a few more. Not to pose with, but because we like him.

 [:)]

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  • 4 weeks later...
We have rescued llamas and love them. PCWhizz echoes my views of the alpaca trend ten years ago or so.  I bought all the magazines, went to all the shows, met some great people and also some awful people but gathered a lot of information and decided llamas were cheaper and even better guard animals for goats and sheep and I could brush out enough for my spinning needs. I resisted being sucked up onto the pyramid.  So I looked in Loot free ad paper one day and saw a llama to good home add and then adopted another from a couple who were moving, then I transported them and my goats to France.  Vets bills have been nil and they are not as susceptible to illness as some breeds of sheep.  They guard the goats and the hen house is in their compound as well.  They screech when the neighbour's cows come near my veg patch and also when wild boar are about.  I wish you luck and if nearer the time you want some more detailed info please do not hesitate to PM me.  Washy.

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  • 8 months later...

[quote user="Nicos"]I wonder if Patmobile got any alpaca????

I've got the bug again...must be that time of year!!!![:-))]
[/quote]

Not yet.  There was a lot of work to do on the house first.  Now I need to clear about 2000 sq m of trees that have covered what was once a nice paddock.  When that's done I reckon I'll get a few just for fun.

Patrick 

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