We Love Alpacas
Alpacas for lifestyle farming
So as Adeline’s birthday treat we visited Surico – an alpaca farm nestled in the gently bubbling hills just shy of Lake Rotorua. As one of the nearest alpaca farms to us, we couldn’t resist a visit. And we’re rather glad we did.
Within minutes of arriving our host Hermione took us through to a pen and we watched the very miracle of creation unfold a few feet in front of us. Yep, it was breeding time alpaca style – and this meant one very happy male whose orgling sounds were bouncing around the hills.
Update – and here’s one I found on YouTube:
In the pen next door were the new born crias and their mums, all humming reassuringly to each other. Beautiful little things. One female who had given birth a week ago was already lying down next to the fence – this being typical female behaviour indicating that one whole week was long enough to be footloose and fancy free. She wanted in on the action.
Hermione took us around her farm and introduced us to some of her 150 alpacas living on just about 32 acres. The majority are white suris (see this post about suri alpacas) and that’s the real focus of their breeding programme. It’s all about genetics, and Surico have some great credentials – have a look at their show results. Just standing in the paddocks chatting to Hermione whilst the alpacas approached inquisitively made it well worth the trip. There’s such curiosity in those big doe eyes and they radiate an appreciably calm energy.
As we left, I made a suggestion to Adeline: we don’t HAVE to get married next year. We could buy a starter herd instead.
“Er, no.”
Ah well, everything in good time…
Posted by Anthony.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: alpacas, fiber, fleece, genetics, orgling, stud males, surico, Suris
We Love fleece
In: alpaca business
27 Jan 2010Well, this is a rather barren time for our alpaca dreams. We’ve settled in New Zealand and are having a great time. No lifestyle block yet. After getting our web design business established it’ll be straight onto planning our (gasp!) wedding.
Anyway – back to the title. We do love fleece. Especially rare fleeces of a, shall we say, international variety.
So we’re delighted to have worked on a project all about the very best wools, fibers and blends from around the world. Here is the result: www.internationalfleeces.com. More on how we approached the project.
Based in the US, International Fleeces is an importer and retailer of fibers for hand spinners from around the globe. They are eco-friendly, animal friendly, practice fair trade, and have unique fibers. So they fit perfectly into our desire to only work with ethical companies. If you’re a spinner yourself, visit the site, sign up for the newsletter or say hello to the owner (she’s lovely).
Posted by Anthony.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: fiber, fleece, spinning, websites
So, we’ve made the move.
In: alpaca business| blog
29 Oct 2009Goodbye London UK, hello Tauranga NZ. And – oh boy – we’re so glad to be here. So phase one of our plan is in effect: get settled, establish our core web design business and get to know the local alpaca farmers in the greater Bay of Plenty region (first up – Surico Alpaca whose white suris we spotted as we went on a recent jaunt to Lake Tarewera).
WeLoveAlpacas on hold
Unfortunately the worst GBP/NZD exchange rate since the 80s has forced us to postpone plans for a lifestyle block and setting up our WeLoveAlpacas operation. Still, it’s not all bad – our revamped web design site was featured on moluv.com, business is busy and we’re excited to be creating an online shop for an international fleece company at the moment. Cue lots of amusement at the fantastic supplier photography and subject matter we’ve got to work with. We’ll keep you updated on the launch. It’s going to be a beautiful site…
Posted by Anthony.
- (4) Comments
- Tags: alpacas, surico, Suris, web design
Choosing your stud male alpacas
17 Jul 2009Can’t decide? Go for the one with the biggest testicles.
Hmmm, I wonder what sort of search traffic that will refer?
Anyway, despite the early flippancy this is a really serious subject. As wannabe alpaca breeders, we’re facing the questions every newbie alpaca owner has to answer. Top of the list is how to select a quality foundation herd. Everything flows from this point, so it must be the correct blend for your circumstances. For us we’re starting off with the bare minimum herd size due to finances – a couple of pregnant females with cria, which we’ll then breed from. Which brings us to the lads.
Stud males cost a fortune, which reflects their immense value to breeders: a stud male will ’share’ its genetic material to the sum of 50% to all cria born. So stud males have a significant influence on your herd’s genetics. It’s important to get the selection right.
So as a new alpaca owner how do you identify a quality male? One that has won shows is an obvious quality. But does ‘best in show’ really translate to best for your starter herd? The male that won that coveted first prize was only judged against its competitors on the day. And who knows? Maybe that winning stud looks great but doesn’t get down to business that well.
Maybe it’s producing a lot of fibre. Maybe its fibre characteristics are impressive (this is a whole other post waiting to happen, I’m learning all about this at the moment). But you must also look at the temperament – how does it act around other males and females? When it’s introduced to an open (erm, ‘receptive’) female, how does it act? Really you need a calm, self assured, confident lothario that knows what to do. What if the show winner uber fibre producing male is actually aggressive to females? Alpacas don’t do kinky, so a male should not start biting and scratching its new acquaintance.
It turns out there’s an established set of criteria for objectively assessing a stud male’s suitability. Every industry has its bible, and in the alpaca world it’s Eric Hoffman’s (hallowed be thy name) The Complete Alpaca Book. This is to the alpaca industry what John Seymore’s Guide to Self Sufficiency is to The Good Life generation. It includes the charts detailing physical characteristics, criteria for judging phenotype, genotype, behaviour and sexual potency. So here we get to the title: if you had two male alpacas with similar genetics, behavioural and fibre characteristics to the point you couldn’t choose between them, go for sheer testicle size. Seriously: the bigger, the better.
Delve further into the murky world of male stud selection here. And a big thanks to Katy from Fairhope Alpacas for the picture of stud muffin Brutus’ Firecracker. Even the name is potent.
Posted by Anthony.
With 3 months until we move to NZ, I’m becoming concerned about moving to the country after spending so many years in cities. I’ve never lived in rural isolation before and have been fretting about safety. How would we protect our land and our house? I don’t think the cocker spaniel we plan to get would offer much protection. I’m not really a fan of aggressive guard dogs which have a strong prey drive either.
The solution? Livestock protection dogs.
Then I had a conversation with Katy on Twitter who mentioned she’d just got their livestock protection dogs. Her great pyrenees dogs will protect their land and alpacas. Apparently the biggest danger to alpacas are packs of dogs. All it takes is for a few local dogs to get together and sure enough the pack mentality will surface. That includes hunting pray. Alpacas are an easy target – they lack the size and strength to adequately defend themselves against such a threat.
So the solution is to keep livestock protection dogs (also called livestock or flock guardians). I’ve looked into this and I think we’re going to choose either great Pyrenees or maremmas. Both were originally bred in Europe to protect livestock from wolves and bears, so they’re BIG, strong dogs with similar traits – independent, strong willed and gentle with their flock whilst being fiercely protective of them.
Differences between livestock protection dogs and other working dogs
The primary difference between livestock protection dogs and other working dogs is that they don’t have such a strong predator drive. Put a maremma puppy with a flock of chickens and it will bond with them and protect them, whereas a golden retriever is more likely to start catching them and bringing them to you.
Other working dogs are also likely to be tolerant of others as they work in groups, whereas livestock protection dogs are solitary, wary of strangers and extremely territorial. Those are excellent traits in an animal used to protect a vulnerable prey animal like the alpaca.
Here’s an example of a great pyrenees with goats:
And here’s a great pyr being used as a springboard by some more pygmy goats:
Finally, this is a great post specifically relating to livestock guardian dogs and alpacas: http://www.owning-alpaca.com/livestock-guardian-dog.html
Posted by Anthony.
Alpacas + geeks == true
23 Jun 2009
Recently I’ve been flirting with retro gaming again. It’s not purely driven by nostalgia – some of those games I ‘wasted’ hours days on as a kid have truly stood the test of time.
As my flirtation grew into something more serious I stumbled upon an old hero of mine – Jeff Minter. Jeff (owner of Llamasoft Ltd -ah! first clue) used to make utterly baffling games which seemed totally different to everything else out there. His games might not have played to convention but there was a definite formula to them:
1/ Camelids. By the truck load.
2/ Actually it’s just #1. But it’s an important point.
I like how my recent foray into the wonderful world of retro gaming dovetailed with my interest in alpacas by finding a perfect point of similarity. I also like how Jeff now owns a farm in Wales (ah, the motherland) which is home to llamas and alpacas, and has a blog on livejournal with the subdomain stinkygoat.
Cheers Jeff – great times and a great inspiration.
Posted by Anthony.
- (2) Comments
- Tags: alpacas, camelids, retro gaming
What to do with the poo?
In: alpaca facts
29 Apr 2009
One of the great things about alpacas is that everything they produce can be used in some way or another. Their fleece is very desirable and is the main reason for keeping them, but even their waste can be put to some good (and creative) uses.
Unlike sheep or cows, alpacas will always poo in the same place, creating a shared dung pile (and saving leg work for those who have to collect it). For those of you who haven’t seen it before, alpaca poo looks a lot like rabbit poo, it is in small pellets which dry out fast and don’t really smell.
Collection
Collecting alpaca poo is easy providing you follow a few rules:
- Pick it up daily, or it will dry out and become light enough to roll down a hill or fly away in a strong wind!
- Keep your dog away from the pile at all costs, dogs are attracted to the scent of alpaca poo and would chew their own paws off to roll around in the stuff (and eat it) yuk!
- Always wear gloves. Well, that’s just common sense.
If you feel that shovelling poo is somewhat below your station then no need to worry, our friend technology has come to the rescue with the amazing poo hoover (no seriously). Just install one of these babies and you’ll never need to set eyes on that stinky wheelbarrow again.
Creative uses for poo
The most common use for alpaca poo is as fertilizer. Alpaca poo can be used straight away because unlike other kinds of manure, it doesn’t burn the garden. Apparently it grows great veg, especially tomatoes.
In peru, alpaca farmers collect the poo and compact it into bricks. Once it has dried out it can be used as a biofuel source which burns like charcoal and doesn’t smell.
Finally, for the crafty amongst you, you could always try making alpaca poo paper!
alpaca photo and alpaca poo photo from flickr.
Posted by Adeline.
- (2) Comments
- Tags: alpacas, poo
Minimising risks as new alpaca breeders
In: alpaca business
22 Apr 2009
To people like us leaving established permanent, full time office work for the green, fresh pastures of alpaca breeding, it’s really important that we can keep a semblance of financial security as we make the change into the unknown. The last thing we need is debt and money worries as we try and start a new life.
Although we’re aiming to establish a breeding alpaca herd, we’re not going wholesale into it immediately as there’s a huge risk that we won’t get it right initially; this risk is only exasperated by our status as urbanites inexperienced in rural life in general and livestock management in particular. I have an inkling there must be more to it than we saw in The Good Life.
Alpaca agistment – no land required!
Luckily with alpacas there’s an easy in-route: agistment. This is where you own alpaca(s) but it’s kept on an alpaca breeder’s farm. You pay for the ‘running’ costs such as vets bills, food etc. But with this approach you can grow your herd without needing land, and then if you do get some land then you already have your starter herd. Here’s an example agistment service.
Research and build a network
We’re doing what we can to learn upfront by connecting with alpaca breeders on Twitter (try searching for ‘alpaca’ on Twitter), reading our way around alpaca websites and visiting local breeders. But still, nothing can prepare us for actually living that life.
Diversify
The key for us is multiple income streams. We spread risk this way. Adeline and I sat down and listed the available avenues for income generation based on our skills. This is our list:
- the alpaca business – primarily selling alpacas and fibre, but also capitalising on our current careers working with the web by providing brand consultancy and usable websites for new and existing alpaca breeders.
- remote freelancing – during our time working in advertising agencies we have a lot of contacts for freelance web work. The key will be identifying what work we can do remotely as most of our contacts are UK-based.
- remote work through our web company www.webdesignpeople.net
- remote reiki attunements which is something I’ve done since 2002. I’m looking forward to having the time and energy to do more of this.
- photography and on-demand canvas printing themed for the alpaca and reiki websites.
- print and web work in the local area of NZ we end up in.
Between that lot we should generate enough income to avoid debt and hopefully gradually invest in alpacas. And it should also bring some well-needed balance to our currently one-sided lives.
So that’s the way it is for us. Hopefully it will be a solid enough foundation to gradually move over to full-time alpaca breeding.
Experienced alpaca breeders – how did you get started? It’s really useful to see how you got to where you are now and it’s great motivation for us newbies too! Plus it’ll be much-needed ammunition against my dad who thinks I’ve gone mad 
Posted by Anthony.
- (7) Comments
- Tags: agistment, alpacas, Business, income
Why alpacas?
In: alpaca lifestyle
21 Apr 2009
We have been thinking about raising alpacas for a few years now, but it has only become a serious option in the last few months. This is mainly because we are leaving our lives in London and moving to New Zealand. At first we had planned to carry on geeking it up in NZ, basically doing the same as we are now just in a nicer place. But over the last couple of months we have both become dissatisfied with our lifestyle – so much so that we decided to change it all and pursue our dream.
You dream of alpacas?
No, not exactly, our dream is more about living sustainably and doing something we love instead of working away for ‘the man’. It just happens that we both also love alpacas, and they fit into the kind of lifestyle we want perfectly!
The perfect investment
We all know the financial world is a mess at the moment. Who wants to invest in the banks after the mess that they caused? Certainly not us. But alpacas can turn out to be a fantastic investment in the current climate, as AlpacaFarmGirl points out.
Photo from flickr
Posted by Adeline.
- (3) Comments
- Tags: alpacas, lifestyle
10 reasons why alpacas rule
In: alpaca facts
15 Apr 2009
Sometimes you get so bogged down in the sheer detail of starting up a venture like moving to a new country to breed alpacas that it’s easy to forget just why you want to do it.
We’re making a big lifestyle change in moving from apartment in London + commuting to office + geek jobs to living on a (hopefully) sustainable lifestyle block in NZ. And we’d be doing that even if alpacas didn’t feature in that vision.
But for us alpacas seem to just fit perfectly into our plans. They have a lot of characteristics that make them suitable for what we’re trying to achieve.
- They’re managable - they are much smaller than their big brother the llama. Even basic sheep fencing (no barbed wire though) will keep them in their paddocks.
- They have a friendly disposition (this also helps with #1). Personally, I don’t want to keep animals that hate me.
- They’re intelligent, curious and often playful, and they have calm energy (or at least I’ve always felt calm in their presence). After spending 10 years working in offices, it’s a pleasant change being around creatures that radiate positive energy.
- They pronk.
- Unlike me, they are hardy with decent immune systems. This means they are easy to look after and don’t get many diseases – perfect for the first-time livestock handler.
- They give birth in daylight (and – oh yes – I really like my sleep).
- You don’t need many of them to make a return. This means you can make a living without having much land (about 5 to an acre is suggested). Australian-style mega ranches with thousands of identikit lowest-common-denominator animals does not work for me.
- The business model is ethically sound – returns come from selling animals to other owners and from fibre production. As I’m a vegetarian, I couldn’t in all honesty raise livestock for slaughter.
- Alpacas are gentle on the land. As I mentioned before, they have soft padded feet instead of hooves.
- Oh yes – Adeline chirps in at this point with ‘They’re cute’. Sometimes the female perspective is disarmingly accurate. The fact is, I just love them
Posted by Anthony.
- (3) Comments
- Tags: alpacas, lifestyle
About us
We're Anthony & Adeline and we run a canvas prints business. We packed in our jobs in London and in October 2009 we moved to Tauranga in New Zealand. Aiming for a little more balance in life, we hope to shift our focus over to alpaca breeding.
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