- Although a suri looks very different from the more common huacaya, the conformational traits to look out for are generally the same. The animal should be well proportioned, have straight legs and back, a rounded rump and correct bite. The ears may be slightly longer and the muzzle shorter than a huacaya. more »
- At Benleigh, Allan Jinks commenced the layout plan 10 years ago, when he planted Tagasaste, more commonly known as Tree Lucerne around the perimeter of a paddock. Two barriers of chicken wire, 60 cm apart and 1 metre high protected the young plants, with the intention of allowing the alpacas to eat the tops as they grew, thus making them more bushy. Ultimately more chicken wire was placed over the top, and the bushes grew to fill the wired cavity. The result has developed into an alpaca-manicured "box" hedge. more »
- Over these past few years we have always had problems with feeding hay to our alpacas. We started by feeding Lucerne at times when the girls needed something extra. They would pick through the Lucerne, nibble the leaves off the storks and leave the storks on the ground, which I would then have to then pick up and throw on the garden for mulch. While the hay was on the ground they would also take great delight in rolling in it, to show me just how much they could get into their fleece. more »
- The aim of being successful as a grazier requires the manager to be successful in the task of growing grass. Growing grass is the engine room in driving the profitability and sustainability of the grazing system. Once grass can be grown then it is up to the capacity of the manager to maximize the benefit of this resource. It is very important to understand what the ideal requirements of the animal are, how much energy they require and what the pastures can achieve at various stages of growth. It should always be the objective of the manager to keep the animals above a reasonable condition score in order to maintain the animals' productivity, their capacity to breed, and their capacity to maximize weight gain and fibre production. more »
- This prolonged drought is starting to bring home to members - and their alpaca - just what a prolonged drought entails. We think of this in terms of a shortage of water, and this may well be the most obvious shortfall. The more insidious shortage occurs following a failure of the seasonal rains responsible for a pasture that carries you through into the next favourable growing phase - usually Spring. We are now experiencing a protein drought of two colours; depending on whether you have had a few showers of the wet stuff or not, you are experiencing a green drought or a brown one. In the green drought the pasture looks green, because of a small sparse shoot that is 90% water, so does not provide sufficient protein to fatten lambs or maintain late pregnant animals in adequate condition. The brown variety does not even have the green shoot, because gale-force winds rip the moisture from the soil before the stunted/ overgrazed grass can respond. more »