TEN THINGS I HAVE LEARNED THIS YEAR

1) Finding the right alliances in the alpaca industry is almost as important as finding the right alpacas, maybe more.  If you buy the wrong alpacas you can still breed up.  Not too many people have the skill set to do it all.  Usually you are stronger in one area than another.  I think this is especially true in the alpaca industry as it is so new we can’t know it all.  Even our vet’s are inexperienced. So our network of colleagues is even more important to us.  Doing the Erin Fall Fair with a fellow breeder was a lot easier and certainly more fun than if I was doing it on my own or competing against her.  The alpaca community is a rather co-operative group.  Unlike other livestock industries there is a high level of sharing of resources, ideas and information. There are a few Facebook groups dedicated specifically with this objective in mind. I think a good number of us would like to thank Nancy Hutchison for starting the Healthy Alpaca group so that we could all ask those questions that we needed answers to.

 2) Our livestock guardian dogs are worth their weight in gold.  Over and over again they have proven their value to us.  Our dogs are working dogs and live outside with the alpacas 365 days a year.  While I really love my dogs I find I love them even more when they aren’t in the house shedding and underfoot.  Like most guard dogs they bark.  Sometimes it is rather annoying but one thing we have learned is if they are barking for an extended period of time there usually is a good reason.  Sometimes it is because the males are fighting and she is trying to get them to stop.  One evening I went out to check what the commotion was all about and found one of our males had gotten in with the females and Rory knew he didn’t belong there. I was very happy that I reacted quickly as it had to be our ugliest male was on top of one of our most promising maidens.  Three o’clock one morning she started her non-stop barking again.  My husband went out to see what the fuss was about and found a cria had been born in the wee hours of the morning.  I guess neither the cria nor the mother were paying attention to the fact that cria are supposed to be born during daylight hours.  Shortly after that we woke up one morning to find that none of the females or their babies was in their paddock.  We quickly got dressed ran out the garage door to find all the escapees with the dog in a nice little group just outside our house.  It is so interesting to watch them at work.  We have had a few incidences where the neighbor’s dog or coyotes are at our fence line.  The first thing Rory does is moves the alpacas as far away from the threat as she can.  Then she always places herself in between the alpacas and the predator.  So our dogs provide a level of security on many levels.   

3) Education is key, not only for what you learn but the synergy you take away from the event. I then like to throw in a little travel along with my education, as it is for business purposes it adds up to a tax deduction.  We try to combine our holidays with something alpaca related.  A few years ago we flew into Portland Oregon, drove threw the beautiful redwood forests, down the cost to California, up Mount Hood then ended our week at Northwest Alpacas for their “How to Breed and Succeed in the Alpaca Business.”  The following year we went to Syracuse, New York for a weekend to see how the American’s do up their alpaca shows and I must say we were impressed.  They certainly know how to do things in a big way.  We have travelled to Quebec City for the second Alpaca Show at Expocite.  We stayed in a very quaint little flat in Old Quebec City while we did the tourist thing and attended the show.  There is nothing like the old world charm of Quebec City and the friendliness of a small group of alpaca breeders to make a vacation memorable.

Next on the agenda was a road trip with just the girls to Syracuse for the Empire Alpaca Association’s Symposiums.  While I certainly enjoyed all the education events hosted by Alpaca Ontario I feel you get the most bang for your buck south of the boarder.  Hopefully we Canadian’s can aspire to their level of participation at these events so we can put on the same calibre of events as they do.  It was nice to see a good Canadian contingency at this event.  Our next trip was to the Snowmass Auction in Arizona.  More on that below. 

4. Every serious alpaca breeder should go to the Snowmass Auction.  Honestly I thought I died and went to alpaca heaven.  Once you get past the fact that the who’s who of the alpaca world is at this function then you move on to focus on the alpacas.  You get to go in the pen and put your hands on 75 Snowmass alpacas.  With some alpacas, I thought I really can’t believe they get this good.  Then others it occurred to me that we have as good as this at home which certainly made me feel good.  Honestly I can’t remember the last time I got such a high that didn’t involve alcohol. 

5. As in so many things in life there are always conflicting points of view.  So you need to learn to trust your instincts and do what you are comfortable with.  Then realize that sometimes you will have to do things that you are not comfortable with anyhow.  I know there are a number of farms that worm by injections on a monthly basis.  My vet believes you should worm as needed so the alpacas do not build up a tolerance to the.  So last year we wormed only once when one male became ill, and had no further problems.  This year we did not worm our herd until we had one case of menengial worm with a fibre male so we wormed with the injectible Ivomec.  While I certainly don’t like to watch the effects that menegial worm has had on this alpaca, I also don’t like giving shots.   We have some alpacas that are very friendly and don’t mind being handled but the majority of them like to be curious but at a distance.  So I really don’t like having to catch them then stick them with a needle.  It makes me think back to a few years ago when one of our absolutely friendless males took ill.  The vet thought it could be one of three things and decided to treat for all three ailments to ensure we covered all the bases.  After 5 days of injections Rio recovered nicely but it took almost three months to be able to get any where close to him again.  I know this is something I am going to struggle with in the future as we find the right balance and methods of worming. While my gut says I hate doing this I will likely just have to suck it up and do it any way. 

6. Males are totally unpredictable in the alpaca world.  I’m sure most men have those exact thoughts about females but we won’t go there. For us, the females are always the same.  The males, well that is just one big crap shoot.  Last year we had a number of males of different ages in one paddock.  We did have a problem with one male being rather aggressive with the others.  Since at that time we had very limited property we asked some one who had bought a few other males if she would take him off our hands for nothing. Problem solved.  When we weaned our male crias they went into the big boy pen with no incidents.  Well this year it has just been a free for all.  Conclusive one of our herdsires and a fibre male who had herdsire libido but not the fibre to match arrived to turn our nice little world up side down.  We knew Conclusive needed his own pen but didn’t know he needed a separate hemisphere.  He strutted up and down that fence line trying to get at anything that came close, male or female alike.  I’m thinking buddy how are you ever going to win the ladies over by biting them over the fence.  One of his offspring stood on the other side of the fence acting the same way as his sire.  Hmmmm perhaps the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all.  One day Conclusive got in with the other males.  I watched as he tried to do his macho thing then saw two of his sons each taking their shots at him.  I have to say for a while I was inclined to let them take their licks in hopes that it may take him down a notch.  However my husband pointed out that they could actually do some damage and while it may be good that he learned how to play nice with others he was a lot more useful to us if he got to keep his family jewels intact.  So we moved him to the front, added some extra to the boards around his pen and moved the rest of the males to the very back of the property.  This solved the male problem but only temporarily.  We then put three yearling males in with the larger males as we had done in the past.  However when I went out later that night to check on them and found one hiding underneath a gate panel I knew this transition was not going well.  When the two Snowmass boys that we purchased at the auction arrived we gave them time to settle in then opened the pen up so they could have one bigger paddock with the three little guys.  Again a no go.  It’s like these little guys had a capital L on their foreheads.  Fortunately they have found a new home and left today.  As I wrote this I received two pictures of them settled into their new home.  While they may have to contend with the sheep hopefully they won’t be forced to play hide and seek again against their will. 

7.  Because of point 6 I now totally agree with the concept that you can’t have enough paddocks.  For three years we easily coped with just a male and female paddock.  We currently have four paddocks and are adding more.  This doesn’t have to be with permanent fencing.  We have used gate panels and portable electric fencing to provide different configurations as needed.  The one thing we learned is that when using portable electric fencing you need to make sure that “electric” is the key component.  Thinking that alpacas don’t challenge fencing we let them out to graze on some nice grass behind our house, they were fenced in but the fencing was not charged.  As we were painting our house I noticed the alpacas starting to roam the yard.  So I ran in to get my pail of grain as I can usually get them to follow me any where with my bright red pail.  Wrong again.  This time the succulent green grass was far more appealing than that old bucket of grain.  So they wondered around so more.  Fortunately they are herd animals and do like to stay together and we were able to get them back to their paddock safe and sound. 

8. While I don’t want to keep on the male bashing but again I need to point out a challenge with the males.  Being a herdsire seems to be an acquired or learned trait.  Last year I had three two year old males that I was hoping to use.  One rose to the occasion from day one.  He had the female down in no time flat and knew where the parts needed to go.  I understand that fertility can be an issue when they are younger and this certainly proved to be the case. As I did my spit checking in the following week’s females kept dropping like flies.  However, we did get two cria from him that we are quite happy with.  The next male I wanted to use had the bravado but the parts didn’t rise to the occasion nor did they come out to play so it was a no go for him.  The next male just didn’t have a clue.  The female would be lying on the group with that come hither look and he would walk over her on his way to eat some hay.  This went on for a few months then one day I walked away and left them alone to their own devices.  Finally the light went on and he knew what to do.    Fast forward a year and our long awaited Snowmass boys arrive.  We have been waiting all summer to get them through quarantine and I don’t know how many states and provinces.  We have the first two females ready for breeding with the two boys ready for action.  One has no problem, the other he tries the standard position, gets up, gets down again, gets back up, walks around tries the head, stands or her back (wonder if she liked the back massage, better trim those nails) sniffs her but then walks away.  This goes on for an hour with no success.  The next few breedings were very similar but after much patience and adjusting the breedings did take place.  I know now far more about the male alpaca antinomy then I ever thought I would.  Then finally the light when on and the deed was accomplished with no fuss or muss. So the lesson here has got to be good things come to those that wait. 

9.  The government can be the farmer’s friend.  At least they can help your pocketbook.  The Ontario Soil & Crop Association has a number of good programs to assist the farmer with education and most importantly funding.  They have some very knowledgeable people running some rather interesting programs.  The Environmental Farm Plan can provide funding for cost sharing for improvements such as predator proof fencing, waste and water management.  The Growing Your Farm Profits program has some great thought provoking seminars and funding as well. 

10. I remember my mother commenting when I was younger that I was born in the wrong century.  In my younger years Little House on the Prairie was one of my favourite shows and I dreamed of being Laura Ingles.  Fast forward a couple of decades and we now have our own farm.  While our farm still needs a tremendous amount of work I believe we have it all.  A century old stone house filled with family and friends, a beautiful old bank barn filled with alpacas, pastures for grazing, and a forest to stroll though.   While the house certainly has its flaws it has an abundance of character and when we have had enough of renovating and country life we are a just a hop skip and a jump away from city life and the real world of the GTA.  While I don’t want to disagree with my mother I think I was born in the right century after all as we have the best of both worlds now.