Evaluating Your Hay - Quality Hay for Your Alpacas

You are what you eat. So are our camelids. Most alpaca farms rely on hay to feed their herd some or all of the year. It is important to feed them quality hay or you can end up with thin or unhealthy animals.

Hay comes in 1st, 2^nd and sometimes even 3rd and 4th cuts depending on the growing season and the weather at cutting times.

First cut hay is course with a lot of grasses and doesn’t have a lot of legumes such as alfalfa and clover. It may have quack grass, timothy, and brome. It may be weedy too. It dries quicker.

2nd cut hay is very rich in nutrients and has higher protein. It is greener than the 1st cut. It smells sweeter as well. You have to rake and dry this crop of hay more than the 1st cut because it is heavier and thicker. Also it is more likely to rot or catch fire if baled wet.

3rd cut hay is really, really thick and green. It is rich and has a really sweet smell to it. It has a lot of legumes and less grass which may be harder to digest. It is more difficult to dry.

Alpacas typically eat 2nd cut hay whereas cows, horses and goats usually do well on 1st cut hay.

The best time to evaluate hay is before you buy it. Ideally you’d want to go out to the field before it is cut and see the plants and the stage they are in. Or you can go once it is cut and on the ground before bailing. But for most of us summer is our busiest season and we’re lucky enough to get the necessary things done and get the hay in the loft. In that case, you can spend some time over the winter evaluating your hay and deciding if your source is worth sticking with.

Here are some quick tips to evaluate your hay:

1. Pick up the bail. - A good bale of hay will sag when you lift it up by the twine. Now drop the bail from at least waist level. It should bounce. If it thuds, it's a dud. Now, cut the twine or wire. The hay should spring out. If the bail had been packed too tightly it has likely trapped moisture leading to mold growth.

2. Look at the color. - Now that you have a bale open, look inside and see what color it is. If the outside is bleached from the sun, that's ok. But the hay should have a bright green color inside. This is an indicator that the hay has higher proteins and vitamins. Thumbs down on yellow and brown colored hay. No nutrients translates into sick alpacas.

3. Stickiness. - When you open the bale and pull the leaves apart, do they stick together? Yuck. No good. This is an indicator of mold. Does the bale feel warmer than others? Reject this loser, too and get it out of your loft. It is composting and could ignite.

4. Take a whiff. - Sniff that hay! You know what mold smells like and you can definitely smell it in hay. Quality hay smells sweet and grassy.

5. Work those eyeballs. - Really look at the hay. If you're buying alfalfa, make sure it's leafy with soft stems. In grassy hay, look for seed heads. REJECT! Lots of seed heads are an indication that the grass was cut when it was more mature and has lost protein value and palatability.

6. ‘Listen’ to your animals. – If you see them refusing a bale, trust that they are doing it for good reason. There can always be a bad bale in a good batch of hay (from the edge of the field, packed too tightly before they adjusted the twine properly, etc). Get rid of it and give them another. If they refuse all the hay (which happened to me one fall), first make sure it is good hay and if the only reason they are refusing it is preference, douse it with a molasses/water mixture to make it more appealing until they adapt to the taste.

7. How was it fertilized. – Ask your hay farmer what they use for fertilizer on the field and how often. You don’t want clumps of manure falling out, making it unappetizing to your animals and possibly carrying parasite eggs with it. Nor do you want hay from a field that has had little or no fertilizer –that will grow nothing but empty food for your animals. Organic fertilizer in the form of composted manure is better than chemical fertilizers.

8. Test it. – Your feed company will often do this at no charge and give you a write up on how much you should supplement your animals with grain based on the nutrition of your hay and the demands on the animal (pregnancy, lactation, etc). Or you can have it tested by your local university or a private company.

9. Secure good hay for the next year. – If you are satisfied that your hay is of good quality and feeding your animals well, talk to your hay farmer and make sure you can secure hay from that same field next year. If you are not satisfied, begin seeking a new source now. Or consider buying a hayfield, seeding and fertilizing as you want it and either haying it yourself or hiring a hay farmer to do it.

Like anything, we can only do our best within the confines of everything we are doing in our lives. Thus, most of us cannot obsess about our hay. If all that time allows for are the first four of the list above, you can get by fine as long as you monitor your animals for condition and vibrancy and make adjustments accordingly. But if time does allow, finding and securing an excellent hay source is well worth it. 

Feeding an Orphaned Alpaca Cria

It is unfortunate, but does happen sometimes, when a mother either dies or cannot nurse her cria. The good news is that there are options to keep your cria alive and well.

One of the four major causes of death for crias is starvation.  For the well-being of the cria you need to get him to learn to bottle feed while monitoring him.

Bottle Feeding
• How Much - A cria should consume 15% of body weight to grow. Spread feedings out over 7 feedings a day for a newborn and working down to 4 a day for a one month old cria. You can do one at 10-11pm and then not again til 6-7am and still get in many day feedings.
• What - There are many different options of what to feed the alpaca cria. Here is what we chose to feed:
2 T probiotic yogurt (vanilla or plain)
3-4 oz half and half
5 oz raw cow milk (or goat or whole pasturized is OK)
• Bottle - a human baby bottle is fine. Cut an "x" in the nipple to make it flow better.
• Positioning - Make sure the crias head is tilted upward like it would be nursing from his mother. Otherwise the milk could go into the wrong stomach compartment, ferment and wreak havoc. You can get him going by putting him between your legs with his head in front of you and putting bottle in his mouth and gently squeezing milk into his mouth so he knows the source. Eventually we found that once he knew we were feeding him we sat and let him come to the bottle since putting him between our legs was stressful for him.
• Weaning - many bottle fed babies wean at 8 weeks. They should be fully ruminating (chewing cud) and be of good weight and body condition before doing so.

Grafting the Cria to a Nursing Mother
It is not difficult to graft a baby onto another mother but it does take patience, persistence and positive energy!
• Place baby and adopted mother in a small isolated area initially. You may be inclined to want to keep them with the herd but this will prolong getting them to bond.
• Halter mother and praise her when she settles down.
• Hold hot compresses on the mother to get her milk to let down.
• Hold baby gently under mother and squeeze milk onto his nose/mouth.
• Milk mother and put some on babies nose/mouth if nursing is unsuccessful.
• It certainly won't happen the first attempt so be patient and don't give off negative energy while doing this. For us it took almost three days of doing this every 3 hours. We bottle fed while the nursing couple was learning.
• Another tip that may or may not help: put a scent on baby from nose to tail and also on mother's nose and head so they smell alike.
If you have a mother that has a 4 month old cria you can wean that cria and use her. Or you can use a heavy milker. The risk here is that the dominant baby will get most of the milk.


Monitoring the Cria
• Gain should be 1/2 lb or more per day.
• Tail up when nursing
• Generally content - not humming or pacing.
• Passing manure regularly.

Preventing Dehydration
If your cria is showing signs of dehydration (weak, head curling back, temperature down, etc) and you cannot reach your vet, consider some of the following to keep your baby going. If your cria dehydrates, it kills the kidneys fast and then there is very little you can do to save them.
• Tube feeding - get a tube and keep it on hand. There is risk of perforating the esophagus or putting the feed into the lungs so it is imperative to consult with your veterinarian for training on how to insert the tube. Do this before you need to use it!
• Syringe Feeding - You can use a syringe to get milk in them but it is slow and tedious and often they don't get enough milk.
• Sub Q Fluids - Keep IV fluids on hand (from your vet) and you can inject fluids under the skin wherever you can. This will really perk up a listless cria.

Good luck. Patience, patience, patience.

Select for Health and Longevity in Breeding Stock

Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas achieves high quality fiber through multiple aspects of farming.

First and foremost, breeding stock should be selected by focusing on health traits. Sires and dams should have a genetic and individual history of a highly productive life, low parasite loads, minor or no heath issues, high breed-back ability, and solid conformation. Second, breeding stock is selected based on fiber traits of staple length, low micron and density. But they are not the ultimate decision makers. The longevity and health traits are much more important to the long term success of fiber producing animals and their farmers.

The pasture, hay and soil, and in some cases, grain, set a solid base for producing high-quality fiber. Supplying the alpaca with the best possible feed is the farm's goal. To maintain a healthy alpaca, free-choice minerals must always be available and preferably in separate dishes so the animal can choose what it needs specifically.

The other factor to producing high-quality, usable fiber is proper care of the fiber before harvesting. Keep hay manger and pastures free of noxious weeds that contaminate the fiber. Keep barn and yard clean of all hay or other debris that could contaminate the fiber prior to shearing. Keep animals dry prior to shearing. Hire a quality shearer to harvest the fiber properly. Store you fiber in a dry location. Skirt your fiber rigorously. Finally, choose your mill carefully.

Quality fiber pays well. A solid, well-executed plan for breeding stock selection, feed and harvesting of the fiber is worth it.

Here is what they say about the fiber at Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas:

"I am enjoying working with your fiber. It is so-o-o nice! Thanks for your business."
Nancy • NEWAIM Fiber Mill • Waldoboro, Maine

" I have been unable to find yarn as nice as yours. I will just have to wait the six months until yours is milled."
Feng • Washington, DC

Marketing Tip: Smile!

I was walking in town today with my husband and saw a woman walking along pushing a dolly. What grabbed my attention was her fantastic SMILE! It was so happy, sincere and infectious that I burst into a smile myself. I turned to my husband and asked, “Did you see that woman’s smile?" His response, "How could I not?" This propelled us into a conversation about smiles and really has me thinking about the impact genuine smiles have on me and others.

I recall when we lived in Italy for 6 months, I used to market (for groceries) at this one butcher’s shop where all the employees smiled as if you were their favorite customer. They would engage in conversation and share the best way to prepare things. I also would buy my fresh pasta and cheeses from another purveyor who would smile and burst with enthusiasm while serving each customer. No matter how deep the line of customers was she was not flustered. She’d smile, chat and even give out recipes and cooking instructions for the pasta. These people obviously enjoy their work which makes them a real pleasure to buy from.

SMILES are the little things in your marketing effort that can make a big difference in the success of your business. You probably won't see it in many marketing books, but a simple, sincere smile is one of the most important and powerful marketing tools you and your employees possess. Whether you see customers face-to-face or work with them via phone or internet, a smile shows (or projects) you care, are interested and enthusiastic. A smile strengthens the bond with your customers and increases their confidence in you. Hence, they are much more apt to buy from you and return again.

If you or your employees are not smiling enough, why not? What message is being sent? What can you do to increase the smiles in your work place? It doesn't have to be costly to increase employee satisfaction, and it will increase productivity and sales. Smiling is a no-cost, high impact, marketing essential. Smiling is the original viral marketing medium. Commit to implementing a few smile increasing initiatives today. Think about what can you do today... right now! Find something to smile about and pass it on.

How to Take a (Much Needed) Vacation from the Farm!!

Farming is 24 / 7 / 365 and often physically, emotionally and mentally demanding. Perhaps more than any profession, farmers need a break; a vacation away from the farm for two days, a month or even a year. The benefits of taking a vacation from such work are indisputable. A vacation is a must have, not a luxury. And there are countless creative ways to make it possible.

Indisputable Benefits of Taking a Vacation
• Live Longer! Everyone needs to recharge their battery; thereby keeping stress levels lower and keeping you healthier physically and emotionally.
• Improve your Mental Health and Creativity! Taking time to relax makes you less prone to experience burnout, making you more creative in your life and work.
• Strengthen your Relationships! Uninterrupted time away with loved ones nourishes relationships. Stronger relationships provide the foundation for increased life enjoyment in the good times and provides the strength you need to get through the stressful hard times.
• Find Creative Inspiration! Taking yourself out of your routine and surroundings spurs you to look at things and think in a different way, often resulting in great creative inspiration.
• Become more Productive! The mental and physical benefits of vacationing lead to increased quality of life, and that can lead to increased quality of work on the job.


Creative Ways to Have the Farm Looked After
• Employees – if you have employees, make it a part of their contract that “x” number of days/weeks per year you will be away and they will be expected to cover for you. Train them far in advance to do tasks that you normally do.
• Hire a Professional Farm Sitter – there are professionals who advertise this service. They can either come by the farm a certain number of times a day or live in your farmhouse to watch over the farm. Prices vary greatly based on the scope of the work and the individual doing it. For the professional you might expect to pay from $36 per day for two farm visits to a smaller farm up to $100 for a larger farm. To find a farm sitter: ask another farm of a name, look in your local newspaper, put a wanted listing on the farm page of Criagslist or in your state's agricultural magazine.
• Train a Competent Person to Be Your Farm Sitter - there are many trustworthy, competent people with no experience that can easily be trained. What you need is someone with a strong work ethic, a strong sense of responsibility, who is resourceful and motivated. Price could range from no charge (internship, barter) to $20 per day (neighbor teen) and up. Who could you train? A very enterprising, trustworthy high school student; a pre-vet student from a nearby college; a vet tech from a nearby small animal vet office; an employee of a friend or family member who is motivated and trustworthy; a person who grew up on a farm; a person who recently lost their job; a person who needs a temporary place to live; a young person who lives with parents and would welcome the get away; a retired farmer; a friend or relative; get creative – the list of potential people is endless.
• Farm Sitter Exchange – these types of cooperative groups have been used forever and successful for many different situations: babysitting, dinner exchanges, house swaps, etc. You exchange no funds. When you use a farm sitter you get negative points in your account. You work off your negative points by sitting for someone else’s farm but not necessarily the people who cared for your farm. It is a ledger of points and you are free to use anyone in the network you trust. Where to find one? Join an established Farm Sitter Network; start your own regional network or; create your own exchange with a few nearby farms.
• Neighbor/Friend Barter – maybe there is something you can offer a trustworthy neighbor in exchange for farm sitting. If you sell goods you could provide them with goods (eggs, milk, fiber, etc) at no charge in exchange for a week’s worth of farm sitting.
• Boarding – for a more long term vacation you may want to consider boarding your animals at a qualified farm. You could then rent your home to generate income.

How to Fund the Vacation
• Savings – Regardless of income, everyone has the ability to forego something in their daily life in order to set aside a fraction of their income. It is a time-tested solution.
• House Exchange – You can vacation all over the world doing a direct house exchange. You live in their house, drive their car and they yours. You hire a farm sitter to come by a few times a day to do chores and look after the animals. Google “house exchanges”.
• Agri-tourism / Rent your Farmhouse - A farm vacation is New England is a sought after experience. With the rent you generate it can pay for your vacation plus a farm sitter. (Advertise on VRBO, Criagslist or through a local agency)
• Inexpensive Vacation – the point is to get away. Go visit relatives, go camping, or go farm sit for someone else to get a new perspective.
• Combine Ideas – use the farm sitter exchange and rent your house too for a no cost vacation.

Other Considerations
• Peace of Mind - Essential to the success of your vacation is that you have peace of mind that your assets are secure and well cared for. For each individual farm this will mean finding the right person/people at a price (or barter situation). Know and articulate your expectations. Have a contract with the farm sitter to make things black and white.
• Insurance – You may wish to consider insuring valuable animals to further protect your assets while away.
• Provide Detailed Information – Always leave detailed instructions on how to care for the farm. Make sure vet and other contacts are easily accessible. For longer vacations you may even want to send a note to your vet(s) that you authorize vet care and specifics about the extent of care.

What Others Say About Getting Away
“Our family goes on a camping trip for 1 week every summer. Either our college age son, if he's home, or neighbors take care of our farm. We connected with them by being friendly neighbors. We did pay them a little but we help each other out a lot, so what we paid them would not be typical. We had written instructions, simplified our routine and also double-checked for safety issues. We also leave a list of people to contact for each potential type of problem and are available by cell phone. We value our annual vacation because of the uninterrupted time with the family and we come home with a renewed appreciation for our farm and animals.” • Nancy Kish of Agape Hill Farm

“The Northern Vermont Farm Sitter Network works very well in my area and has enabled the people involved to have a competent and experienced sitter take care of things while they're gone, without feeling like you have to pay someone or feel bad about convincing them to take care of an overwhelming about of animals. Most of my friends have a cat or a dog, not llamas, goats and chickens.” • Lee Findholt of Wicked Good Farm

Karen Nicholson, of Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas in Stowe, VT, has a herd of colorful alpacas, two French Alpine dairy goats, 6 Indian Runner ducks, several laying hens, two dogs and two cats. Over the years, her family has been able to get away for a few weekends and a week each year with farm care from professional farm sitters, farm sitters they have recruited and trained or relatives. They are now living away from their farm for six months while farm sitters live in their house rent free in exchange for caring for the farm. Any comments or questions can be directed to: Karen@stowealpacas.com

Do the Rot Thing - Composting Your Camelid Manure 101

Human society and its agriculture depend on the health of the soil and water. Your alpaca manure can either be an asset to your farm or a contaminant to the environment. By employing simple on-farm composting techniques you can easily turn your manure into a marketable product or integrate it back into your farm in as little as 120-360 days.

Identifying a Composting Site on Your Farm
The quality of your composting site will have a significant impact on the ease of pile management and the quality of the compost produced. Considerations in choosing your site:
• What will you be composting (manure, hay, other?) and where on the farm will that material be coming from? Obviously, the shortest distance to travel with the materials is desired. If you are composting materials other than the waste from your farm it may require a permit.
• Will you compost throughout the winter or have an active summer pile and a winter stock pile?
• You will need enough space to begin a pile that is mountainous in shape with a convex top, 3-8 feet high and 6-15 feet in width at the base. The pile will be turned over the course of several weeks so that the entire pile has been turned over itself and is now in a new location.
• Will you turn your pile by shovel or bucket loader? If bucket loader, then you will need space to move about with the equipment.
• A sunny location speeds up the process.

Follow the minimum recommendations for environmental protection.
• Min. distance to bedrock: 3-6 feet
• Min to ground water: 1-1/2-3 feet
• Distance to property boundary or public roads: 100 feet unless permission is obtained.
• Distance to wells, springs, surface waters or wetlands: 25-100 feet upslope and 300 feet downslope of the pile. (A site should not be located in an area with potential for flooding.)
• Site slope: 2-3% grade is ideal, 1.5-6% tolerable

The Recipe
You are striving for approximately 60% moisture content and a ratio of 25-30 parts carbon per 1 part nitrogen (C:N - 25-30:1). This will create the habitat and diet for your decomposer populations (earthworms, microorganisms, etc). While it is important to understand how the recipe is arrived at, I don’t recommend going through a six-page worksheet of calculations to create compost on your farm. Below is a simplified version of how the recipe is arrived at followed by a very simplified estimate of what you want your hay/bedding to manure ratio to be.

1. Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio - Bedding to Manure Ratio
• Manure – what is the carbon/nitrogen makeup of your manure? You can have it tested or you can approximate C:N – 16:1.
• Bedding – this is usually a carbon component (paper, hay, straw, cardboard). Again, you can have it tested or estimate it to be C:N – 45:1.
• Ratio of bedding to manure – From the above you can see that your manure already has a high level of carbon as does the bedding. Now you just need to get the right mixture. After factoring in moisture content to the above two figures the calculations would bring you to a ratio of about .32 pounds of bedding to 1 pound of manure (or Bedding:Manure – 32:100) Simplified even further this comes out to be roughly 1 part bedding to just over 3 parts manure. In the summer months this means you will need to add (1 part) bedding to (3 parts) manure if scooped directly from pasture piles. Although it would seem that your winter pile would have too much bedding and not enough manure, remember that you are adding moisture/urine. The winter mix will likely be correct but after monitoring it can be amended.

2. Moisture Content – this is critical to the pile health and a good method of determining if you are getting your C:N ratio correct. To monitor, dig 12” deep into the pile and grab a handful of material and squeeze. If it is:
• Dripping = too moist (about 65%+ moisture content, want 60%)
• Damp and glistening = Ideal 60%
• Crumbling = too dry (below 60%)
• Sniff – if it has a gassy smell it is too moist or too much Nitrogen (manure)

Turning
You should plan on turning the pile about once a week. Turn pile ¼ at a time by taking material from the side and dumping it on top. Your pile should, again, be a mountainous shape with a convex top after you have turned it. Continue turning ¼ at a time until the pile resembles loose crumbly dark soil. It should take about 3 months in the spring/summer months. An alternative to turning it yourself would be to pasture pigs with your pile. They’ll be in hog heaven and you will too as they do the turning for you!

Pile Monitoring
Ideally you would do this every time you walk by the pile; at a minimum once a week.
1. Temperature – you want it to reach 130 degrees w/in a few days to a week. It will need to stay at this temp. for several days to kill pathogens and seeds. You can monitor with a 3’ probe thermometer or dig in and if too hot to touch you’re over 120 degrees. If it is excessively hot you are killing your decomposers.
2. Moisture – Look at the pile and reach in and take a handful and squeeze. Is it dripping, glistening, crumbly? Add more bedding if too wet or manure if too dry. Open top to allow rain in if too dry.
3. Odor – smell the pile as you work it and inspect for moisture. It should smell earthy. If it doesn’t it means it is either too low in carbon (bedding) or low in oxygen (too moist or too dense).
4. Visual Inspection – Dry? Damp? Crusting on the surface (reduces available air in pile)?

The Finished Product
Curing – After composting is finished, allow your pile to cure for 1-3 months. Make sure it is covered.
Testing – you can test your finished product so that you know how you did or what you are spreading on your pastures or to aid in commanding an excellent price for it.

Ideas for Selling
Bag it in used feed bags and sell to local gardeners or place an ad on Craig’s List for someone to buy and take away the whole pile. Top dress your pastures in the fall and you will have lush pastures in the spring. Just price a bag of “Moo Doo” (composted cow manure) and you’ll know how valuable your composted manure is!

Simplified into 5 Easy Steps
1. Recipe - Pile your manure and bedding in a mountainous heap with a convex top in a ratio of 1 part bedding to a little more than 3 parts manure.
2. Turn – Turn your pile over itself ¼ at a time once a week for 3+ months til done.
3. Monitor your pile – feel, look, smell to see if you have the right mix.
4. Cure – after you have made “dirt”, cover it and let it cure for 1-3 months depending on the time of year.
5. Harvest – Use or sell this valuable resource generated by your farm’s waste! And feel good that you “Did the Rot Thing” for the environment by composting!

Taking Care of the Rumen

We’ve all experienced it at some point - some major stress in our life or we’ve altered our diet less than gradually or taken medication or something as simple as drinking different water while on vacation and it results in serious digestive upset! Well, alpacas are just as susceptible or more so to gastrointestinal upset than we are. While discussing alpaca digestion can be quite involved, I’ll attempt to offer a few simple ways to ward off potential problems.

Digestive Flora
Scientists estimate that we humans have trillions of microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi and assorted parasites) living on the outside of our body and hundreds of millions in our digestive tract. Our bodies coexist with these living microscopic organisms, keeping us healthy most of the time and helping us digest and absorb vitamins and minerals from our food and water. These microorganisms (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc) are also teaming within the alpaca.

The population dynamics of the different species found in the forestomach will depend on the alpaca’s diet. This brings me to my first Tip: Avoid abruptly changing the diet for exactly this reason – the microorganisms are specific to the diet. If you change the diet abruptly the alpaca now has a population that is designed to serve a different diet and they can wreak havoc while simultaneously the forestomach has no population of the microorganisms to work with the new diet. This results in stress and a gastrointestinal challenge for the animal.

Stress
Stress impacts all the physiological systems including gastrointestinal function and health. Stresses such as: too much heat or cold; too much, too little or the wrong kind of food; aggressive companions or crowded conditions or transport and shows can lead to digestive tract problems such as colic, constipation, urinary tract problems, parasite problems, ulcers and so on. These range in seriousness from mild to life threatening. Tips: As their keepers this is one of our tasks – stress management. We can also breed for this trait choosing alpacas that are not compromised under stressful conditions. Always be alert for signs of digestive tract upset such as reluctance to eat, reluctance to stand, diarrhea, constipation, gut ache, self-isolation, change in eating habits, and food preference.

Parasites and Deworming
Parasites are one of the most important considerations in the digestive and overall health of the alpaca. We’d need an entire article to address this completely. But here are a few tips that can keep parasites in check. Tips: Keep stocking density low per pen; pasture rotation is a must; when necessary use dry lot feeding to help control a parasite problem; quarantine animals coming onto the farm; keep animals in good condition; and run fecal exams on a regular basis. For deworming - Tips: It is best to treat the individual animal not the herd. Giving dewormers to animals that don’t need them only upsets their digestive flora unnecessarily and encourages parasite resistance to the drug. Also consider giving probiotics after any medical treatment to encourage the reestablishment of gut flora.

Water
Water is one, if not the most essential, nutrient critical to proper digestion. Fresh, clean, high-quality water should be available for free choice at all times. Tips: Abrupt changes in water can lead to digestive troubles. Consider bringing your own water to shows, in transport and when relocating an alpaca to a new farm. It could make all the difference in your animal’s health during this stressful time.

Feed
It’s worth the time it takes to learn how to determine if feed is of good quality. While there are so many factors, there is one simple thing to know that can make a world of difference for your alpacas. Tip: Have you ever eaten a lettuce from a plant that has bolted (gone to seed)? It tastes horrible, it’s difficult to digest, and has poorer nutritional content than an immature plant. The same holds true for your hay and pasture grasses. Always try and put animals on immature pasture (mow if necessary) and the same for hay.

Crias and Weaning
The newborn cria is a nonruminant animal. Milk is digested in the third compartment whereas in an adult about 50%+ of digestion takes place in the forestomach or first compartment. It takes the cria about 12 weeks to ruminate as an adult and even then only at about 80-90% of adult function. Tip: Before weaning make sure you have observed healthy ruminant activity, then gradually wean the cria from the dam (together at night but not daytime). If transitioning to a new farm consider weaning at 5-6 months and observe healthy behavior and digestive function before the cria leaves the farm. Also, the temperament of the alpaca and the situation it will be going to will greatly impact their success at weaning and the impact it will have on their digestive upset.

Other Tips
• At changes of season gradually put on pasture and take off.
• Consider having hay from the same source available at all times so that the alpaca can use this as its base of food at all times while taking in new food (different pastures or moving to a new farm).
• Avoid forced grazing where the selection of food is limited and scarce. They will eat things that upset them before starving.
• Be very careful to not let alpacas get into grain bins causing potential forestomach acidosis. Use bungee cords to secure them closed.
• Gradually change grain products or hay.
• Consider bringing all your own hay, water and grain to shows or to send along with an animal relocating to it’s new farm.
• Sit and watch your herd for 5-10 minutes a day to make sure they are eating, ruminating and pooping/peeing normally.

Summary
High quality feed and water – gradual changes – manage stress.

Karen Nicholson, of Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas in Stowe, VT, has a herd of eight colorful alpacas bred and managed for valued production traits including: fiber excellence, conformation, reproductive vigor, hardiness and temperament. Also on the farm are: two French Alpine dairy goats, Indian Runner ducks, broiler chickens and several laying hens all integrated into their farm management program. While the information shared is not meant to replace the protocol set up by your veterinarian these methods are being successfully used with many different types of livestock including camelids. Any comments or questions can be directed to: Karen@stowealpacas.com