Land

Land requirements and how to prepare your pasture is important before you make your purchase. Alpacas do not need a lot of area to survive and adapt well to small places.

It is possible to keep 5 to 10 Alpacas per acre on your farm. However, there is specific preparation of your pasture that must be done before you bring your first animals home.

Your Alpacas will need a fenced area or pen generally referred to as a paddock. Alpacas have soft pads on the bottom of their feet and will wear down this paddock to a fairly compact soil where nothing will grow. It is a good place to keep thier food and water.

If you are fortunate to have some pasture land you will need to ensure that it is well fenced. Turn your Alpacas out in the pasture for limited periods of time. If you do not, an Alpaca will wear down the soil until it looks like your paddock and you will lose this valuable area.

We have been told that an Alpaca will not challenge a fence. However, we have seen our male Alpacas not only challenge a fence but go right through one to get to a female. If you are breeding Alpacas you will need to keep your male and females in seperate paddocks with a good fence between them.

When you are considering proper fencing material remember that the Alpaca is a prey animal. Know what predators are in your area and what it will take to keep them out.

We have a 6 strand electric fence all around our land. The reason for this is that we have many packs of coyotes in our area. This type of fence is what is needed to keep them out. Many a night we have heard the coyotes challenge this fence but they have not been able to get in.

For paddock fencing we use what are called "cattle panels". These are strong wire panels that come in sections around 4 feet tall by 16 feet wide. You can build a nice wood frame to support the panels or use steel fence posts. Both are effective. The wood frame looks nicer but costs more.

We have tried electric string for fencing the inside paramaters of our land. An Alpaca goes right through this without feeling the electric jolt as their fleece is too thick. We also tried thin wire fencing but this is what our male Alpacas tore down.

When designing and building your Alpaca paddocks and pasture area be sure to include a catch pen. Until your Alpacas are well trained and used to you, it will be very hard to catch them.

A catch pen is made with the same internal fencing material or cattle panels as mentioned above. It does not need to be a large area. This pen can be anywhere from 12 foot square to 20 foot square. It must have a gait.

Your Alpaca will also need a shelter. They do best with a 3 sided shelter and a dirt or wood floor. The size of the shelter will be determined by how many Alpacas need to fit inside to get out of the weather.

Alpacas love cold winter weather. I have found ours sitting outside in the middle of a blizzard. But when tmeperatures get well below zero they will seek shelter especially at night.

In the spring it is important to have shelter for your young cria. Long days of rain and cold can be devestating for your new babies without protection. Be sure mom has lots of room to bring them in without being crowded.

The summer heat can be very tough on your Alpacas. We shear our animals early in the spring to avoid over heating. A shelter is still needed in addition to shearing to get your Alpaca out of the sun on the hottest days.

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