Homespun Alpacas

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2010-04-01T15:39:00.001-07:00

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Effective Advertising - Deconstruction

2010-02-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

This is by far the best advertising I have seen for alpaca fiber. I asked Vanity Apparel if I could write about it and they kindly said "Go ahead".

So what makes this effective?

1. The documentation in plain numbers of how many fiber producing animals there are in the world. Not just the United States, but the whole world. When you look at the numbers, it brings the idea home that there just aren't that many alpacas out there.

Those of us who live in Washington and Ohio tend to lose sight of that fact. These two states have the lions share of alpacas in the US and that makes it difficult to point out there just aren't that many to the local buyers of product.

2. The micron report. Out of all the alpacas out there, how many have the micron that the alpaca that provided its fleece has? This tidbit adds a sense of exclusive luxury.

3. The soft yet targeted rebuttal to mass production. I like how the individual alpacas whose fiber is included in the product are listed along with their micon. This lets the consumer know just how special their product/item is. A pride point to be talked about.

4. A website to verify the statistics that were quoted if one is in doubt.

5. All the statements are positive. No bashing of other fibers or other ways of processing. Just the positive aspects of this fiber, processed this way.

Weaning, or what happened to the milk bar?

2010-01-29T11:13:00.000-08:00

Tank got an extra month with his mom because I did not want to put him in with the big boys all by him self and Pinon was too little to wean.

So the day came like any other day. We took the little boys for a walk, practicing their halter training skills, and their picking up their feet tolerance, as well as being poked and prodded and fiber looked at.

But wait! They were let out in the big boy pen. What a blast. Running and jumping and looking at all the new things. It did not hit home that they were separated from their mommies until night fall. Then, then we had whining. Poor things. I would have been more sympathetic, but the one doing the whining was Tank. The older, much bigger cria. Little Pinon was somewhat upset, but took it in stride.

The mothers did not look back. They would occasionally come to the fence to touch noses with their cria, but for the most part, it was peaceful on the girl's side.

Now it is a week later and everyone has adjusted. Now on to the new crias, the first one is due late March.

Triangle loom weaving

2010-01-26T13:59:00.001-08:00

I am working on a shawl on the tri loom using my homespun black alpaca yarn and some pretty blue wool with some shiny beads.

I love the contrast. I am using two two ply strands of yarn. I found that the two strands work better than a single large strand when using alpaca.

It is slow going at the moment because the black is hard to see without good light. The window side is great, the other, not so much. Will have to figure out another way to light the loom. It is 7 foot across the top, so it a mite big to be lugging around, expecially with the shawl already started on it.

Washing Alpaca

2009-12-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

The way I wash alpaca fiber is simplicity itself.

1) Fill the container of your choice, bucket, sink or tub with warm water.

2) Add a small amount of dish liquid or shampoo, swish around.

3) Add fiber and swish it around. I find it is easier to put it in a lingerie bag before putting it in the water, but have done it without just fine.

4) When you think the water could not get more disgusting, drain the water, take out the fiber, and refill the container with the same temperature water. Swish the fiber around. This is a rinse. There will be many.

5) Repeat the rinse step until the water looks clearish after you have swished the fiber around. This is a matter of taste. I like my fiber super clean so keep going until I get that clear water.

See? Now wasn't that easy?

Alpaca Fiber 101

2009-12-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

There has been talk on some of the email lists about what alpaca fiber is, what it does, and what it is used for.

First, let's start with what it is. Alpaca fiber comes in two different varieties as defined by the breed. There are huacayas, they are the fluffy ones and suris, these have the dreadlocks.

Huacayas have crimp. There are a many different styles of crimp within the huacaya. Think of all the different kinds of crimp with sheep breeds.

non-existent crimp,
low amplitude, low frequency crimp,
low amplitude, high frequency crimp,
high amplitude, low frequency crimp
high amplitude, high frequency crimp

The take home message is that if you want a certain style of crimp, ask the Shepherd what kind the alpaca fleece in question has.

The suri has no crimp, and is slick. It should also be shiny. Work with suri like you would silk or mohair. It has great drape.

Now softness is another question. Alpacas have quite the micron range, everything from 15 microns or less, to brillo pad. Again, ask the shepherd if you cannot get a sample or pet the fiber.

I have been spinning and knitting with alpaca for over 9 years. I have made socks, hats, scarves and a felted it. It has memory if you choose the correct fleece. You would no more expect silk to have memory, so why would you use suri and expect it to. If you are buying yarn, ask what kind of alpaca it came from. It does make a difference.

Alpaca Business Plan, Part 9 Executive Summary and other parts

2009-10-20T07:19:00.001-07:00

The executive summary is quite easy now that you have finished the document. Keep the summary to a page. It is okay to go over and it is okay to just have one paragraph. What is important is to include the important bits. Let the person who is reading it know that you have done your homework, but don't give them minutiae. This is where the elevator speech comes into play. If you can tell the person what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you will succeed in the time you have on an elevator, then you have done a great job.

Now add a table of contents. Most word processors will do this for you.

If you have a very long document, add an index in the back. Most word processors will help you with this.

The final piece is the cover page. This can be as elaborate or as simple as you wish. I put a picture of a cria, my logo, my name, address, phone number and the date of completion.

If there is a item that you think is important and I have not covered it, please add it to your business plan. I have tried to give you the framework on which to start. Good luck and I hope this helped.

She was knitting her life back together

2009-10-19T10:14:00.001-07:00

She was knitting her life back together

Each stitch

Each knit

Each purl was pulling her back together

Except she was just knitting

She didn’t like to purl

Just to be obstinate and perverse

She kept knitting

Feeling different

Not knowing, or caring, that is called the garter stitch

A quite respectable stitch

She was knitting her life back together

Figured she had knit enough to cover her legs

Now working towards the head

How much to knit, to ravel what had become unraveled?

To know, one must keep knitting

Until it is done

In the meantime,

She was knitting her life back together

It started out clutching to reality

It became something stronger as it grew

As it grew, it became an epiphany

Beautiful

As it became beautiful, reality grew

Soon, the knitting was done,

She was done

She had knitted her life back together

The Birthday Party

2009-10-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

And now, some short fiction!

Polly wanted a new collar according to Mom. One which Polly could wear to her birthday party. I suppose if Polly had been a child she would have asked for a party dress, but I had never heard of a party collar before. Most families don’t have birthday parties for their dogs. My family, on the other hand, celebrates all the dog’s birthdays. There were nine dogs at our house to celebrate Polly’s birthday. Most had even brought presents, although I think their owners thought Mom was a little off too.

Polly’s birthday party had been in the planning stage for weeks. Mom had been on the prowl in the pet stores looking for and buying treats: Prizes for the games and such. She had even gone on the Internet to check out Petopia in the hopes of getting a treat so novel and new that all of Polly’s friends would be in awe.

Polly’s present was a big surprise. Mom wouldn’t even tell me because she thought I might tell. Sometimes it is hard living with a mom who thinks dogs are people.

Well, Mom doesn’t actually think dogs are people, she just treats them that way. Take for instance this birthday party. All the dogs we knew, along with their human parents, are invited. Games are planned and there are treats to give out. Mom did buy Polly a new collar, not a dress, so I guess she hasn’t totally lost it. Yet, it takes a bit of explaining when my friends come over for the first time.

Let me introduce you to my family. My name is Amy, and I live with my parents and Polly and Pepper. Polly and Pepper are dogs. Both of them came from the pound and are of an indeterminate small breed. Unlike most dog lovers with childreen I had met, I was not considered one of the puppies, but rather, the dogs are just little furry people. These are my siblings, so to speak. My parents are human, I think. Dad is an engineer and is quite adept at playing along with Mom’s schemes with the dogs. He also tends to really get into the whole thing and play it up. Mom stays at home and takes care of me and her babies (that would be Polly and Pepper). Mom has several degrees which means that when she translated for Polly and Pepper, they tend to sound very erudite. It can make for a really funny sight.

Polly is long legged and blonde, Pepper is back and white with short stubby legs and slightly roly-poly. Mom thinks Pepper aspires to be a Navy seal or an otter. The only thing holding her back is her intense dislike of water. It is funny because Polly is the thin athletic looking one who mostly likes to sleep, while the short roly-poly Pepper likes to go for loooong walks. Go figure.

But I digress, I was describing Polly’s birthday party…Polly wore her new rhinestone collar, pink of course, on the big day. Pepper was decked out in a nifty new blue collar for her “sister’s” birthday. Mom spent the entire morning in the kitchen making liver pate cake. She was stymied on one thing though, how to get Polly to blow out the candles, so she got Dad to engineer trick candles that blew themselves out. He, needless to say, spent all morning in his work shop, murmuring calculus equations. I think that he does this to keep Mom out of his workshop. She tends to hold her head and start moaning in horror when Dad starts on his math explanations.

Polly and Pepper bounced around and were hyper with the smells. Polly started shaking with anticipation, which meant that Mom would pick up Polly to comfort her trauma. Being picked up put her closer to the food which was probably her intention anyhow. Mom can figure out my nefarious schemes before I even get my whole story out, but was blind to Polly and Pepper’s.

The guests started arriving. Henry, a German shepherd mix from down the street was first. Henry went to obedience school, so he was failrly well behaved. He came in with his mom and sat. Sunny, a black lab, was next. It was a mess from then on because Sunny was a happy, yet really dumb dog. He ran around the living room wagging his tail knocking things down. When he knocked down a bowl of dog crackers, it was a mass of puppies on the floor. Bandit, a blue heeler, showed up during the free for all and gladly jumped into the melee. The all settled down when all the crackers were gone and luckily no one stared a fight.

Mom called “Games!” and Henry, Sunny, Bandit, Polly, and Pepper all came running. Mom always carried liver treats or cheese. If she called, all the dogs in the neighborhood would come running. Mom put them in line. “Sunny, you go first, then Henry, then Bandit, then Pepper, then the birthday girl.” The game was follow the leader. Mom was the leader. She went over a chair, under a saw horse, around a tree, then sat a the table. Sunny loved the game and followed mom quite closely, all the while smelling her pockets. Bandit took a short cut back to her mommy and took a nap. Henry followed Sunny on the off chance he was on to something good. Henry was still a rapidly growing puppy. Always hungry. Pepper bounded and leaped over every obstacle with great enthusiasm, remember Mom saying Pepper wanted to be a Navy Seal? Polly thought the whole thing was rather silly and had to be coaxed into participating. Mom gave them all treats for trying and made sure they were at their proper places at the table.

“Cake”, she said, ”is served” Which was Dad’s cue to bring out the cake.

The cake was a vision, at least to the dogs. It was a mound of liver pate with 3 candles on its top. There were dog bones placed all around the top and sides for decoration.

Mom placed the cake in front of Polly. Polly immediately leaped forward onto the table to eat the whole thing. Mom knew her baby, and had counted on this. She had timed the candles to go out about the time the cake hit the table. Mom had measured the rate of burn of the wicks and had cut them to the correct length. Dad’s method was way to complicated, it would have been Polly’s 30th birthday before he would have completed it. The lunge and the candles going out a the same time made it look like Polly was blowing out the candles. Mom also had her hand in Poll’s collar. This stopped Polly from eating the whole thing.

Pieces were distributed to all. Mom fed the parents coffee and cookies. Yuck! I got a coke and cookies. The dogs were all amazingly well behaved, although mom moved Pepper into the kitchen to eat her portion. Pepper eats very slowly and would give her cake away if asked.

This ended the party. It seemed everyone had a good time, no one got hurt, and there were no fights. The humans were amused. Dad wasn’t even pouting about Mom not letting him use his invention for the cake. All in all, a typical day at our house.

Looking forward

2009-10-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

I went to the New Mexico State Fair every year we lived there. One year as we were going through the goat barn, we stopped to see the 4H display. One child was raising pygmy goats that, unfortunately, kept dying. She documented all the goats she had raised to get to the one she went to the fair with. I am sure that must have been heartbreaking, but she started over with a new kid each time.

I think of that resolution and focus when I have deaths on the farm. Teddy died on Tuesday and it just about broke my heart. I have other alpacas that need me too, so can't let grief prostate me. We have hit our rainy season, the poop needs scooping or it becomes a health hazard, the hay needs to be in the feeders to make sure they eat. My alpacas are sissys and don't like to get wet to graze. Yet, I still look for him in the field. Intellectually, it is easy to tell one self that life goes on. Emotionally, it is quite another thing.

National Alpaca Farm Days

2009-08-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

HomeSpun Alpacas will be celebrating National Alpaca Farm Day September 26 and 27.

Join us to learn more about alpacas and how these lovable creatures can change your life.

Alpaca fiber and products will be available for purchase.

Details to follow.

Reflections on Tubing a Cria

2009-08-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

Teddy's mom does not produce enough milk which sometimes happens with first time moms. The predicament came when he refused a bottle. He not only refused, but was adamant in his expression of disgust of the whole thing. After trying for 4 days to get him to drink and waiting to see if his mother produced more milk, we went to the vet for help.

The vet watched the mother and cria interact and came to the same conclusion we had. They were both doing their part, but there was a shortage of milk. Sometimes the cria will only nurse on a teat or two instead of all 4 cutting its own milk consumption. Or the mother may not stand for the cria to nurse his fill. Teddy was going to all 4 teats and his mother was standing for as long as he nursed. So a bottle was attempted and refused with much fanfare.

I went home after a brief class on tubing and a weight/ounces to feed chart. And two warnings:

Make sure it goes in the esophagus and not the lungs: the wrong one will cause death.
Be sure to crimp the tube as it comes out so that the cria does not breathe in milk. This can cause pneumonia and possibly death. Every time I tube the poor guy, I am super aware of it going down the left.

So here we are 2 1/2 months later and I can tube a wiggly cria by myself. I can pour 12 ounces into the tube and not spill much. Teddy is healthy and growing. It is such a relief and joy to see him playing with the other crias.

A feeding every three hours 6 am until 9pm sounds okay until you realize that, unlike a human baby, you can't take this one with you. So I plan outings around his feedings.

Teddy is weighed every day to ensure that he is getting enough milk. While the chart is handy, it is not always on the mark. Right now, for instance, he is drinking 84 ounces at 29 pounds and only making a gain of 0.2 or 0.3 a day. The chart says he would be 35 pounds to get this much milk. When he stalls, I add more milk in small amounts, or if it looks to be a large amount, I add an extra feeding. If you feed too much, the excess can cause problems and make the cria ill. You don't want to fill the stomach more than half full. This week he is getting fed every two hours in the morning and every three in the afternoon/evening.

I used the feeding syringes when I first started. That was great when he only had 4 ounces at a feeding. Now I pour into the feeding syringe (sans plunger) with a drinking bottle. Makes it easier to control the flow and wiggle factor. I am looking for an empty mustard/condiment container to feed with. I had purchased these for fiber dyeing, but can't find them right now. The tip fits into the feeding tube directly making the whole process easier.

I have a skill I never wanted to learn, but it is a valuable one. If a cria needs colostrum, I can tube it, if the cria refuses the bottle.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 8 - Financials

2009-08-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here is the hard part. What do you want to count for and against your alpaca business? That is completely up to you and your accountant. However, I would like to suggest some areas to discuss.

Animal expenses:

Vet visits
CDT
worming
pellets
minerals
hay
fiber testing
ARI registration
Stud fees
Microchips
Tools ( shovels, rakes, etc)
Supplies (1st aid, feed and water buckets etc)
halters and leads
sharpening service
membership in associations
books, videos, and seminars
alpaca purchases
alpaca insurance

If you look at the IRS publication 225 ( Farmer's Tax Guide) you get a feel for the sections.

Income from a purely alpaca standpoint would be from breeding, and selling of animals. If you branch out, then there are many income ideas: fiber, seminars, books, herd sitting, agistment are just a few.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 7, Farm Information

2009-08-13T19:10:00.001-07:00

The farm information section is where you detail the accomodations you have made for the alpacas.

Where do you buy your hay?
Who is your vet?
What kind of pastures do you have? What kind of grass is in the pastures?
What kind of fencing do the pastures have?
What kind of shelter is available?
What is their water source?
How will you manage the manure?
Who will do the daily labor?
Do you need insurance?
What kind of pellet/mineral mix are you using?

These are the same kind of questions that people ask new buyers to ensure a good home. I am sure there are more I could ask, but that covers the basics. If you think I left one out, please let me know.

HomeSpun Alpacas has ~3 acres in pasture. It is currently divided into 4 pastures, but we rearrange as needed. The pastures are fenced in with 2x4 horse fence, woven. The pasture provides the majority of feed, but we buy about 2 ton Orchard grass hay for 16 alpaca from the local feed store.

We provide 3 sided shelters in each pasture for the alpacas. There are trough feeders in the shelters to feed pellets in. The pellets are provided by Puget Sound Nutrition Group. Dr Waltner provides the makeup for our area. The water is provided in buckets in the pasture from a well on the propery.

We have 2 vets, husband and wife. Puget Sound Vet Clinic. They have a nice hospital facility and do make farm calls.

I do all the daily labor. My husband and son help on the weekends and nights as needed.

The manure is composted and used in our garden. We have not outgrown the compost output yet.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 6 - Herd Growth

2009-07-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

Herd growth has many facets:
How many alpacas do you want?
How many are you planning on breeding every year?
How many will you keep?
How many will you sell?
What is your expected production rate?

What is the ideal number of alpacas for your farm? This could be the maximun number the land will support or the number of females necessary to produce the amount of alpacas you want to sell or the number of fiber boys you need to make product.

I first figured out how many alpacas I could reasonably support on the land. From that number, I worked on the number of females and males that would be ideal for my sales goals. Remember goals are just that, goals, so have a fall back plan if you don't make the sales you were expecting.

Northwest alpacas has a great herd growth calculator. You type in the number of alpacas you have now and it estimates the number you will have in future years.

You can see that the cria add up faster than you think. So have a plan in place to sell as you are growing. This does two things, it puts you in the marketplace and makes you practice marketing and selling. You learn what works and what doesn't before you find yourself in a position of having to make a sale. It also brings in new bloodlines if you buy to replace what you sell. If you don't plan on that, then it puts money in the farm budget.

Now is the time to think about what to do with the boys you will be getting. Will you show them, sell them as fiber boys, or keep a fiber herd? Just something to think about.

I would like a herd of 10 breeding females. If I get 50% boys, then I will need to sell 5 boys a year. I also need to sell 5 females to keep the herd at the ideal size. The females sold could be yearlings, pregnant maidens, and/or the production females. I also have some older females, so am planning on when they will retire to have a replacement in place.

As I am growing to that size, I am selling the females that don't fit my business plan and most of the boys. The number can't be written in stone because while statistics say there will be a 50/50 spilt, I have had years with all girls and ones with all boys. It works out in the long run, but to plan year to year for it is tricky.

An update on the crias at HomeSpun Alpacas

2009-07-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Tank is our middle child. He has been putting on about a pound a day and is a strapping male. Tank is 4 weeks old in this picture.

Teddy was very ill and had to go to the hospital. They inserted an IV - I got to help - and after he came home we took it out too. This is the result. A happy, healthy cria. Thank you Puget Sound Veterinary Group! Drs Scott and Jackie worked hard on stopping this little guy's diarrhea. Everyone there was very patient with me calling and wanting updates.

This is the newest cria. He does not have a name yet, but we are working on it! He is a cutie too.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 5 - Business Products & Services

2009-07-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

The business products and services section is where you talk about what you are going to sell. First identify what your products and services are going to be. This may be repeated in the section on marketing, but it is a different slant than what we are focusing on here. Are you in the business to sell and promote fiber boys, fiber products, raw fiber, breeding females, herdsire services, or future herdsires? Huacayas or Suris?

Tell about your criteria for each one. What do you consider a herdsire? What would you consider to be prime blanket? Not all blankets are created equal, the 17 micron fleece will bring more per pound than the 35 micron fleece. What are your standards for an acceptable X?

Address anything unique about your services or products. Think of the people who raise organic vegetables, they detail what is unique about their product and show how it fits into a healthy lifestle.

The following is what I put down as my business products and services:

HomeSpun Alpacas will sell huacaya alpacas for the breeding market. We will also sell fiber and products made from their fiber such as yarn and blankets. We will focus on black.

Our fiber goals for fineness are detailed in the long term goal section.

Breeding Females
Breeding females should be the ones with fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They have easy births and plenty of milk. Their crias are healthy and strong.

Breeding Males
The breeding male alpacas also have the fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They produce crias that are consistently better than the dam and themselves. They come from a line of alpacas that produce healthy crias. Their fiber stays fine even with the onset of breeding and age.

Fiber Products
The fiber that the alpacas produce is warmer than sheep wool and generally considered stronger. It has been marketed as rivaling cashmere, and the truly fine fleeces do with a micron under 20. There is a wide range of fiber produced by an alpaca. The blanket is the prime and the most marketable. The neck is second. The leg and belly are thirds. Each of these kinds of fibers has their use in the market place.

Prime The prime fiber is used for blankets, sweaters, scarves and hats. It is soft and able to be worn next to the skin.
Seconds This fiber is used for socks and things that are not worn next to the skin. It is also used as felt.
Thirds Thirds are used for rugs, insulation, and as weed barrier.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 4 - Goals

2009-06-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Short term goals are goals you want to achieve in a short period of time. I usually choose a year for this, but choose a time period that makes sense to you and your business.

What are you going to do this year to bring your alpaca business forward? Outside breedings, buy a herdsire, sell females or fiber boys, make business agreements with others for trading are just a few ideas. What do you need or want to avoid?

What do you want to achieve with your alpacas? Lower micron, higher shear weight, easy births, milk production, crimp style, color are examples. Also include things you would like to get rid of.

What marketing are you planning? Will it help you achieve your goals? Is marketing one of your goals? What do you want marketing to do for you?

What profits would you like to see? How might you go about producing a profit?

Brainstorm and see what comes up. Don't worry about reality just yet. Dream.

Goals are your destination, worry about getting there after you figure out where you want to go!

Now take all of your great ideas and write them up in a couple of paragraphs. It can help to make concrete, active statements like "We are selling three alpacas in 2010" rather than "We plan to sell three alpacas next year."

Long term goals just take that information a bit farther. Think 5 or 10 years down the line.

What would you like to see then?

What steps do you need to take to get there? What do you need to focus on?

HomeSpun Alpacas Short Term Goals

The initial business focus will be on quality (fleece and conformation) tame, halter trained alpacas. During the first two to three years, we will strive to improve the herd’s fiber.

During this time, we will also be breeding for black. To complement this objective, we will search out the most appropriate black herdsires to breed to our black females. We will also use finely fleeced and crimpy alpacas to bring down the micron and compliment the crimp in our brown females. They will be bred to the most appropriate male, regardless of color.

We will use males that dramatically improve upon the female’s crimp and decrease any guardhair.

Long Term Goals

It is the intent of the owners of HomeSpun Alpacas to build a fiber business selling yarn and products made from our own alpacas as well as building the herd of females to around 10 head.

Our breeding goals are:

Soundness of body and limb
Uniformity of fineness and extension of blanket fiber throughout the brisket, shoulder,
hip, head, neck, and leg.
Lack of medulation (low percentage over 30 microns)
Luster or brightness
Staple length (minimum of 3 inches a year, preferably 4 to 6 inches)
Volume (the more finer fiber the better)
Crimp
Easy births and plentiful milk supply
Good mothers (females)
Settles females quickly (males)
Mellow temperament

The fiber goals for micron counts are as follows:

Age Micron
Up to 12 months 16
1 - 2 years 18
2 - 3 years 20
3 - 4 years 21
4 - 6 years 22
6 - 8 years 23
8 - 14 years 26

To achieve our goals we need to:

Make smart breeding decisions to produce the high quality fiber that is most marketable.
The males chosen for breeding will have cria on the ground that are an improvement over either parent. The conformation will be correct and the crias will have the same correct conformation and be healthy.
For the strong fiber, we will find a salable product to produce. Rugs, felt pads, and teddy bears are one of the options on the table as are quilt batts.
Raise the herd numbers to be able to produce a quantity of fiber that can be made into enough product to not only support the alpacas, but make a profit.
Refine a product line that will sell on the high end market. Currently focus is on yarn kits, blankets, shawls, and vests.

This focus will allow us to make a profit out of our poorest quality fiber as well as the high quality fiber ensuring there is no waste.

To be continued

2009-06-25T14:04:00.001-07:00

I am sick, but will get the short term goals piece done soon. We did have a cria this morning! Light fawn male. Pictures to come.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 3 - Mission Statement

2009-06-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

A mission statement is a concise statement about your business' reason for being. Why did you start raising alpacas? What made you think that raising alpacas would be a good business to get into? What are you doing differently from the other farms? What makes your alpacas the "ones"? What are the values or beliefs that guide you raising alpacas? What kind of relationship do you want with your customers and alpacas?

Answer any, all or none of these questions as it suits you.

It should be short and memorable. If you can spell it out in that infamous elevator speech, then you have done well. If you can print it on the back of your business cards, you get the gold star.

Think of it as a tag line with some explanation. Leave out buzz words and fluff. State your goal and what makes you unique. Tell the world why they should do business with you.

I have listed some websites that have good ideas on how to write mission statements if you are stuck.

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm

http://www.tgci.com/magazine/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Mission%20Statement.pdf

http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/businessstrategies/article65230.html

Here is the first draft of my mission statement. I think it lacks some pizazz, so will be working on it as we go through the other steps

HomeSpun Alpacas' Mission Statement

HomeSpun Alpacas provides well-rounded support to its customers, from herd health to shearing to business plans, we are there for the customer. Our goal is to breed healthy, quality alpacas and develop a practical program of alpaca education.

For Thursday, think about your short term goals and next Tuesday we will work on long term goals.

Alpaca Business Plan Part 2- Farm Overview

2009-06-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Having taught Freshman English, I know starting is the hard part for most. So today we will start in the middle with the easy part: Your farm overview. This is a snapshot in time of what you own and where you are in the business. We will later put this information in the main body of the document and in the assets portion. It feeds into the financials too, but don't worry about any of that yet, that will be a later topic.

The first step is to list the resources you dedicate to alpacas, assuming you are raising alpacas on your own land. If you aren't, but would like to, skip to the next paragraph. If you plan to continue agisting, there are still some manner of alpaca accessories you own--these are important too. If you would like to go down the jungle trail, please turn to page 394. To the point: How many acres do you have total? How many are fenced for the alpacas? Do you have room to expand? What buildings are you using for the alpacas? If you are storing alpaca stuff in your garage, list that too.

Next, let's do a little prognostication. Are the land and pasture adequate for the present and next year? If not, what do you need to accomplish to make it so? If they are fine now, how about in 5 years? What would you like to see on your property in 5 years? More alpacas, a bigger barn, somewhere to put the hay - make a list. This is not a list of to-do items, but things you would like in an ideal world.

What alpaca accessories do you own? Halters, buckets, chute, scale - make a list of this too, with how much you paid for it. These are assets.

How many alpacas do you own? Do not include the upcoming cria in this section. Alpacas are also assets, so put a price on each one.

This information can be in list form or in a nice narrative. Remember, this is your business plan, make it work for you. Only include that information that helps you make decisions. Everything else is noise.

Next time, we'll talk about mission statements.

Note: As I work on the whole, I will be editing all sections. When this is finished, I will put the whole thing together in a PDF for anyone interested.

In the meantime, here is what I have come up with for my Farm Overview section:

Farm Overview

Property

Our current property is just over 5 acres. The alpacas have 3 pastures consisting of about 1.5 acres. We are in the process of fencing another acre to bring the total to 2.5 acres available for the alpacas. Each pasture has a shelter, water and a hay bin. There are interconnecting gates between the pastures which enables us to increase pasture size as needed.

One third of the garage is used to store alpaca items and hay.

Current Operations

I have been raising alpacas for 9 years. Over that span I have sold 12 alpacas, plus 5 consignment alpacas. We have 9 females and 5 males with 2 cria expected this year.

halters
leads
buckets
shelters
hay bins
chute
shearing table
shearing equipment
tooth-a-matic
emergency kit
horse trailer
trailer hitch (mine is special - worthy of its own blog post)
herdease software
camera
photo printer
Green panel pen w/creep gate
heated buckets

Cappuccino Chip
Millennium Jubilee
Cinnamon Kiss
Mary Pitcher (Mollie)
Raven
Rheia
Andante
Andantina
Sweetart
Bond James Bond
Ink Jet
Apollo
Heart's Afire
Baby - unnamed cria by Mollie

Improvements Needed

The current capacity is ~20. Our fields are very productive and we supplement with hay/pellets. The existing facilities (including the new pastures) will keep up with herd growth as long as the projected sales happen.

Pictorial update on Mollie's Cria

2009-06-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

The baby is doing well. He is gaining slowly and taking lots of naps.

His mom keeps him close, she is especially bonded to this baby.

He loves to pose for the camera. Doesn't hurt he is just so darned cute.

From front to back, baby, Mollie, Mollie's grandmother Cappuccino Chip, and Mollie's sister aunt Cinnamon Kiss.

Baby doesn't seem to take it personally that he is getting tubed. Still interested in people.

What a ham!

How to Write an Alpaca Business Plan - Part 1

2009-06-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Given that every business needs a business plan, how do you write one for alpacas? We don't want to manufacture millions of widgets or raise thousands of cattle no matter how well these business models are documented. There are some books and web sites that give you the outline of an alpaca business plan, but I found them lacking. I am a technical writer by trade, so I dived into those dry books on how to write business plans and applied it to my alpaca business.

I took home the message that you need goals. What gets managed, gets tracked. What gets tracked, gets done.

I acknowledged the need for a financial plan, if not actual financials. Not only answering the question of am I making money, but how will I make money.

Detailing where my alpaca business is today and where I want it to be in the future opened my mind to more possibilities. How many acres do I want, how many alpacas, do I want machinery or material goods to help . In an ideal world, what do I see as my end goal? Now how do I get there?! What are the risks?

Business Plans are the roadmap to success. Once you have the goals set for your one year and 5 year plans, it is easy to make day to day decisions. Should I put in the new pasture, or buy a new alpaca is transformed into the question "Does buying this new alpaca fit into my business plan, does putting in a new pasture fit into my business plan?" I have passed up many alpacas because they do not fit into my business plan. I raise black alpacas, with some brown and fawn sprinkled in. Fawn does not always cover black... But I digress. Even though the alpacas were quality and were well priced, I saved my money for the new pasture because my 5 year goal is to have 10 production black females. To do that, I need more room. Fencing is the priority.

Deciding on which breedings to do is easier with a business plan. Which male will drive my business forward towards my goals? If you have the 20/20 goal of 20 pounds of fiber at 20 microns, then you would want to look at the males that will add density and fineness to your females instead of say color.

The business plan is the way to tell the IRS you are serious and not a hobby. It is one of the criteria for a business, along with stationary, and a bank account. :)

A business plan helps you budget your expenses and income.

Given the scarcity of business plans amongst alpaca breeders, I think there must be a reluctance about writing them. They can be a long or short as you want. They can include financials or just a general goal. The can be involved or simple. It really is up to you. I thought it might help for me to walk you through the steps of a business plan with an alpaca slant on the information. Many of the books that are out there are thinking along different lines of manufacturing or production of one item. Farming and ranching have their own unique issues.

Follow along with me for the next couple of weeks as I rewrite my business plan and talk about the steps involved.

Mollie's Cria Finally Arrived!

2009-06-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

The cria I have been waiting so impatiently for finally arrived last Thursday. 15.6 pounds of bouncing baby boy.

Day 1

Mollie delivered him like a champ and other than a bit of misunderstanding on nursing, things went smoothly. Oh, it was my misunderstanding. I am supposed to stand waaaaay back and observe. Not participate. Was worried when she would not let him nurse, so got more involved which made things more bungled. Left them alone in a small pen - and low and behold, nursing. Get close, stops nursing. Got it, she is shy:) Or, she doesn't want the silly humans meddling with her precious cria. She is the most nurturing of any alpaca mother I have seen, actually licking his face and nuzzling him.

Day 2 - 4

He lost weight - not a big surprise, most lose about 1/2 pound, but he lost a little over a pound. That is worrisome. The second day he lost weight too. Not as much, but I tried him on a bottle and he spit it out. He tongued it out. He protested quite vigorously. So, I got a 3 cc syringe (minus needle) and filled it with yummy whole milk. He would take about an ounce that way, then would dramatically choke and spit out the milk. He stayed the same weight , on the 3rd, and 4th day.

Day 5

Off to the vet we go. He is a vigorous drinker, says Dr Jackie. And sometimes those are the ones that are difficult to supplement because they want mom's milk. He drinks from all 4 teats and is stripping her dry. She stands patiently while he nurses. The two of them have it figured out, but still no weight gain, because Mollie is not producing as much milk as he needs. We are approaching this from a couple of angles. Baby is getting tubed with milk 3 xs/day with 4 ounces each time to make up the difference between maintaining weight and gaining. Herbs and medicine are on order to stimulate milk production.

The crazy thing is that Mollie will sometimes bring him to us when we come in the field to tube and sometimes not. At least she has decided I am not going to do unmentionable things to him. She accompanies him on each weigh in and we tube in the field with her.

Day 6

No weight gain. He doesn't like it when we get to the end of the third ounce. We are working on technique to make it more comfortable for us and him. He takes the tube well and stands still for the first 2 ounces just fine. He needs all 4 ounces though, so it is a conundrum.

Today, Day 7, we finally have a weight gain. A very modest 0.1 pound. However, he is more active and feisty now, so I think the supplement is doing its job.

Oh, by the way, that shyness she had, it is all gone. At the vet's office she stood and nursed while everyone was wandering around admiring the baby.

The take home message from this would be to weigh each cria for the first 10 days. See, I was listening Dr Scott.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

2009-06-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

Summer is upon us. We've been advised that the weather may reach as high as 90 degrees today, and all of the alpacas are taking the day off. It's their humorous (and sometimes concerning) tendency to lay like death itself when they're napping in the sun. About the only thing that can interrupt their lazing is the promise of being hosed down. Being very formal animals, they don't submit to being indiscriminately sprayed, but rather stand patiently while you wet their legs. If they're feeling particularly warm they love to have their belly sprayed with water, and will submit to awkward positions to make it easier for the hose to get under them.

Buttercups have displaced the spring-time dandelions, and the grass grows so quickly I think if you looked closely you could see it happening before your eyes. Cottonwood hangs lazily in the air, and I can't imagine doing hard work of any sort. The alpacas need tending, true, but at this point that is an excuse to experience the weather, then retreat back to the air-conditioned house.

Things will pick up soon. We are due for a baby, and once the first comes they will all no doubt be popping out like popcorn in a kettle, and there will be much work to be done. But today, today is to be savoured.

Conspiracy Theory

2009-06-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

The pregnant ladies and Cappuccino stayed in the front pasture while all the rest moved next door. This is the first time I have separated the females, but as I was watching the new game of "sniff the pregnant lady and wake her up, then run", I decided that it would be in the best interest of all concerned to move the young whippersnappers out of there.

The pregnant ones have a new game too. It is called "lay around and watch Mom go crazy". I am going out and checking on Mollie, who is due any minute, about every hour to see if she looks like she is in labor. They all cush together and don't even bother to get up when I wander over, oh so casually, to check out fetal movement and behavior of the dam. I expect they are taking notes to give at the next alpaca symposium on how to drive your caretaker stark raving bonkers. What symposium, I hear you asking - You thought the alpaca shows were for us? "Look relaxed, chew your cud, see if you can get the cria to show her a foot or something, that is always good."

Cappuccino is the master of not showing labor. In the nine years I have had her, I have been present at 2 births, she literally waits until I leave - usually in the car- before she pops the cria out. When I return, there is a happy healthy cria. I think the next trick they will pull, is hiding the cria until it is a couple of days old. "What, this old thing? I've had it for days."

Blackberry 1, Mower 1/2

2009-05-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

We are clearing the last field so that we can fence it for pasture. It has been left for three years, which in the Pacific Northwest means it is over run by blackberry. It may not be as quick as Kudzu, but it gets points for tenacity and those thorns! Rented a brush mower to clear just the new fence line. That is not going to happen. The canes wrapped themselves around the wheels and the blade to bring the mower to a halt. Now to rent a guy with a tractor to brush hog.

The alpacas love the blackberry leaves and in their pastures they keep the blackberry under control - eaten to the ground. Thought if I could just get the thing fenced, I would let the pacas out to clear the rest. They did not read the book that says they are grazers. Mine are browsers, they eat anything they can reach with those long necks and prehensile lips. Everything except thistle. But that is another story.

Blackberries try to take over my back yard every year too. I chop it back to the fence line twice a year. So far it has not advanced, but if one takes their eyes off it, it will take over the house.

This is a view of the back of the property - we have blackberry - anything that is not a tree and is green is blackberry.

Looking at one of the 5 foot posts being overrun by the blackberry.

Ranch First Aid Kit

2009-05-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

First aid kits are nice to have until you have someone bleeding or broken and then they are indispensable! I like to be optimistic that injuries will remain rare on the farm. We rarely have them, so it is not at the top of my "to do" list to plan for them. Most of what happens around here involves the bumps and scrapes known to most mothers of five year olds. Sad to say, the bumps and scrapes are mine!

After attending a first aid class for alpacas, I got to thinking about the things I use or might need in case of an injury. I put together a kit from what the vets recommended plus a bunch of stuff that I use.

Needles and syringes. I stock 1/2 inch 20 gauge and 1 inch 18 gauge needles with 3cc syringes.

Stethoscope. I bought a Littmanns because I can't hear a thing out of the cheap ones.

Thermometer. I like the bendable ones, never can tell when the alpaca will jump around.

Gloves

Garbage bags. These are great for transporting a placenta or heating up a cria in the bath. Put cria in the bag - head out- immerse in warm water until temp comes up. Also good for a prolapse.

Lubricating gel. Goes with the thermometer or if you need to help a cria being born.

Chlorhexidine (Novalson) scrub and solution. Cleaning wounds or disinfecting navels.

Gauze sponges. Looks like a small gauze square, but really soaks up liquid.

Telfa. This is a non-adherent dressing. Put on raw spots that you don't want the bandages to stick to.

Cotton rolls. Used for bandaging.

Cling. Used for the outside of a stiff bandage.

Vet wrap. Used for bandaging or wrapping tail when breeding. This stuff can be wrapped too tight. Practice on yourself to get a feel on how tight is tight enough.

Towels and blankets. Many uses: wrapping up wounds, breaks, cleaning wounds, drying off crias.

A sheet, preferably waterproof, that has emergency info on it: Vet name, phone number, address, and normal info. Think of your ranch sitters when making this out. They may not know what is normal.

Any medications that your vet feels is good to have on hand. Check to make sure that it has
not expired and that you are storing it porperly.

Bandage scissors. Can trim bangs as well as cut off bandages. These are the ones with the rounded ends.

Paper and pen to write down the info for the vet.

Human first aid kit. I use a Red Cross one.

Duct tape. Can use for a great variety of things, but it wraps nicely around a towel if you need a third hand on something, it can hold bandaging in place if you can't get the hang of vet wrap or cling. Don't wrap too tight!

Paper tape, or white tape. The stuff the hospitals use to tape everything down.

Cell phone

Waterproof container to put everything in. This keeps the dirt as well as water out of your supplies.

I bought most of my supplies at Valley Vet, but I am sure there are many other places to get these things.

Thoughts upon Winding up the Shearing Season

2009-05-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

As we wind up the shearing this year, I realized that we have accumulated quite a bit of specialized stuff that goes with the shearing process and owning alpacas.

We have used the shearing table for at least 9 years. Hundreds of alpacas have been sheared on this table as we sheared for others. It has a couple of dents and scratches, but it works every year. It allows us to shear with as few as 2 people. More are preferred, but in a pinch, 2 can do it. The ability to do toenails without a fuss and trimming teeth makes this a must have in my book.

The chute is invaluable for weighing the alpacas or shearing them if you are alone as I was last year. Most of our alpacas know the drill and will walk on, wait a bit, and then back up. It is comical to watch them when I wasn't quick enough to get the weight and have them get back on the scale. "What, I just did this!" is the look I get. You can also do toenails and teeth in the chute.

MSA makes the chute and the shearing table we use. The customer service has been great. When we loaned out the shearing table one year, the belly band was cut. No problem, they sent us a new one right away with instructions on how to uninstall the old one and put on the new one.

Heininger shears have stood up to many years of shearing. No problems, they always work. While they are heavy, they are workhorses.

The tooth-a-matic is a new item we bought last year. This tool is a fast and easy way to trim teeth. The dremel tool is handy for fighting teeth, but on the larger teeth, it is easy to overheat the tooth. You can find it here: http://www.thealpacarosa.com/toothamatic.html

Those orange toenail snips. Doesn't everyone have those?

First aid kit. I recently attended a class on alpaca first aid. The kit has some handy items in it, and you can buy them from most of the alpaca stores. I added a flashlight among other things. Emergencies seem to happen when you are least prepared. I also added a bunch of stuff that I found while looking at the horse first aid kits. A human first aid kit is a must have too. I will talk about this more in length in a future blog

A blower is nice for a couple of reasons. It blows out the fiber and gunk from the cutter/comb between shearings. You can blow the fleece while still on the alpaca to get out some of the dirt. If you have sand, the shearer will love you if you do this. Do not blow out show fleeces!

Handy links for Shearing and afterwards

2009-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Shearing

This site has specific instruction on how to shear the parts of your alpaca. Nice to have to start out with. http://www.gatewayalpacas.com/alpaca-farming/alpaca-shearing.htm

Here is another video about setting up your shears. It covers some new topics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqyUQzfqCs

Skirting

Place your fiber on 1"x1" mesh , wire or plastic that has been attached to a frame. The mesh openings allow the dirt, any vegetative matter and second cuts to fall through. A second cut occurs when the Shearer comes back over an area that he/she has already cut. You skirt one side of the fleece and then turn it over and do the other side. Pull out any fiber that is coarse, excessively dirty, or very different in length from the rest.

Skirting Table instructions

http://www.hawksmountainranch.com/skirtingtableinstructions.html

Washing

Once you have the fiber picked clean of debris and second cuts, you are ready to send it to a processor, or wash it yourself. I use a multiple wash process

If your washing machine does NOT agitate on the rinse and spin cycle, then use that. It makes it so much easier. We do not want to make a felt lump of your nice fiber! So if your washing machine agitates, do not use it.

Fill the washing machine with warm, think baby bath warm, water. Add some shampoo or gentle dish detergent. Swish this around with your hand. Now add the fleece, a bit at a time. Dunk it so that the pieces are wet and don't float on the top. Keep adding the fleece until your machine is full, or you run out of fleece. Swish the fiber around a bit to make sure the shampoo is distributed and everything is wet. Let it soak for about 5 minutes then spin the water out.

Remove the fiber from the machine. Fill the machine like you did before, with the warm water and shampoo. Add the fleece and swish. Let soak, then spin.

Now I take a bit out of the machine and put it in the sink with clear warm water. If it is still dirty, repeat the cycle. If it is clean, then take the fleece out of the machine and fill it one more time, but this time, don't add any shampoo. This is your rinse. Swish the fiber a bit and spin out the water.

Now spread it on a screen, the skirting table you built - you built one didn't you? - or put it on a clean sheet to dry. Turn the fiber over occasionally to help it dry. I live on the wet side of Washington, so sometimes this is a challenge.

If your washing machine is not appropriate for this, then the steps are the same, it just takes some ingenuity to get the fiber a bit dryer than soaking wet when you repeat the steps. I have done this process in the sink and the bathtub without too much stress and excessive water all over the bathroom and myself.

Engaging Alpacas

2009-05-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

On average, our alpacas do a pretty good job of ignoring me and going about the business of grazing. They are rather excited about sweet feed and new hay, of course, but it doesn't seem they're really dancing in celebration of my food-procuring abilities.

There are times that our alpacas engage me on a personal level, though, and that's always an interesting experience. I say it's interesting because they seem to be on a completely different mental plane. With dogs, you know where you stand fairly well...after all, they are one of the oldest animal relationships humanity enjoys, and they are by nature pack predators (ergo possess that problem-solving intelligence us predators share). To an alpaca, however, such simple procedures as poop-scooping are a mystical experience. If I keep at it long enough, eventually most of the alpacas will come and stare at me and the rake with a sort of aimless curiosity. Similarly, a new feature to a field is thoroughly sniffed, taken as an opportunity for new games, and eventually accepted and ignored.

It's a bit difficult for me not to anthropomorphize this experience, imagining the alpacas displaying human curiosity and playing human games. I think it's just as much a mistake to assume they are playing thorugh some predetermined psychological process, however.

Really, I think that's a big part of the fun of raising animals of any sort, and especially animals of as removed a mindset as alpacas. What is it that ties us, as living creatures? What games do we enjoy playing? How do we relate to eachother, and what is the content of the character of that relationship? Ultimatly, this too is an aimless curiosity, done for the fun of pondering with no intention of answering with finality.

Setting up the Shears

2009-04-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Guest writer: Roxanne

First, read the manual. Heniniger has really good instructions for putting it together and how to tighten everything. However, there are only drawings and no pictures. I thought pictures might help us.

First thing to do when setting up the shears is to put on a sharp comb. This is the one that has all the teeth, or has a name on it like camelid or ovina as shown in the previous blog. Slide the camelid comb onto the two screws. The camelid comb requires no gap between the comb and the machine. Now tighten the screws, very snug. You don't want them falling off when the machine is running!

The camelid comb should look like this.

This is how the cutter looks when it is half on. You must first loosen the tensioning knob before trying to put it on. Then attach the post onto the hole in the cutter, slide the other hole onto the next post and tighten the knob clockwise, just enough so that it can't fall off. We will tighten it more later.

This is how the cutter looks when it is on the machine and slightly tightened.

Oil the machine in the groove, between the cutter teeth, in the hole in front of the knob. You can barely see it on the picture above.

Now, adjust the blade tension. Turn the knob until you feel a slight resistance. Start the machine, then loosen the tension. Then retighten until you feel some resistance and the pitch of the machine lowers slightly and it gets a bit louder. You will develop an ear for this and this makes all the difference in shearing being easy!

Now you are ready to shear. Start on a small portion of fleece to see if the shears need adjusting. It should feel like the fiber is falling off, no effort. If it does not cut very easily, then stop and tighten 1/8 turn. Try again.

A couple of hint here.

Blades that are too tight get dull and hot fast.
Blades that are too loose will build up felt under the cutter and you will never be able to tighten it enough. This makes a wedge under the blade so it cannot connect with the comb. In that case, take the blade off, remove the felt, and put it together again.
Please ensure you do not loosen it to the point the blade falls off when running, scary.
Never shear towards your hands. I have a friend with a nasty scar from that mistake.
Be aware of where the on off switch is at all times and any "helping hands".
Be patient. Being able to shear your own animals is a great freedom. It is worth the trouble to learn blade tensioning.

A link to the How to set up your Shears on Youtube
And a link to a pretty good video of an Alpaca Shearing.

Good luck!

Shearing in a chute - alone: Part II

2009-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Guest Writer: Roxanne

There are several supplies when you are shearing with a chute by yourself:

The shears with sharpened cutters and combs. We use the Heininger shears with the camelid cutters and jet combs, but have mohair and ovina cutters too. They all work. The camelid cutters leave about 1/4 inch fiber on the animal. This is nice for those very pink skinned alpacas to prevent sunburn.

Heiniger Shears

Mohair Comb

Camelid Comb

Ovina Comb

Oil to lubricate the shears.
We use 30 weight, but that can make a mess on the fiber until it is washed. Never have had it stain, but if you are worried about that, then there is a shearing oil that is white. Oil often as the alpaca does not have lanolin to lubricate the shears and they get very hot otherwise.

An extension cord is an essential component because there is never an outlet where you want to shear.

Good lighting, especially for those dark animals will make shearing that much easier. Portable lights work if you don't have fixtures where you want to shear.

Bags to collect the fiber. Since you as the shearer get to touch the whole fleece, it is easier to sort as you go. There are lots of charts out there that tell you where and what each cut should be, but each alpaca is different and

Feeling the fleece is the ultimate test. If it feels like blanket, and it is on the leg, then add it to the blanket.

A rubber band and small zip lock bag for a fiber sample. Put a handful of fiber in the rubber band before you start shearing, then as you shear that area, put the rubber banded fleece in the zip lock.

3x5 cards. Write on them the animal's name, the date and the grade of fiber, then put it in the bag with the fiber. This information will come in handy.

A chute. I use all 4 of the head ties and the belly bands. Open one side at a time to shear that side. Do not put you head in the way of any legs. From personal experience here, it hurts.

Toenail cutters. As long as you have the alpaca all handy, cut their toenails.

Any shots that alpaca may need. Again, as long as they are there, it is a good time to do shots.

A bag of patience. Really, this is a must. Quit if you get too flustered.

An alpaca vet phone number in case of emergency.

A Doctor's phone number in case of human problems.

Even a young helper will be a big help as they can collect the fiber in the different bags or feed pellets to the alpaca to keep them happy.

Shearing in a chute - alone

2009-04-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Guest writer today: Roxanne

Shearing time is upon us again. We have always sheared our own alpacas, John shears them and I help. Last year though John hurt his back and was unable to complete the shearing. There were 3 alpacas left. So, with 8 years of watching him shear, I thought, I will do the rest in the chute. Alone.

Ambitious plan. I had a chute, I had the shears, I had 3 alpacas in full fleece in June and I had an experienced shearer on the couch to help.

Two out of the three were very patient with me. One was wild. The chute has challenges and many benefits. The challenges are the straps and the working area. The straps are also a benefit. They help hold the alpaca up, but when you get to the belly, it is difficult to shear around them. I would take one of the straps off and shear under it, reattach and repeat with the other one. This works fairly well. I had more of a problem with kicking. But common sense will keep you from getting hurt. Unfortunately, I was devoid of common sense the first time I did a back leg. I was kicked in the face, but no harm done, just my pride wounded.

I had John adjust the shears and change the blades with each alpaca. This helped a great deal, as some of the alpaca's fiber would not cut. Turns out the finer fleeces need the blades tightened more.

Other than the heads looked kinda funny because I sheared around the halter, they turned out okay. The wild one looked like a two year old had taken scissors to it. It is a lesson in strength to hold the Heinengers for that long. It was difficult to float the shears over the alpaca and not make second cuts. I did the blanket, neck, then legs and belly. The chest is actually easier to do standing because there aren't any folds.

If you plan on doing this yourself in a non-emergency situation, I would apprentice to someone first. Getting to know the sound of shears when they are tightened correctly is something one gets with experience and will save you a lot of frustration and time. If the shears are too loose, the blades get felt in between them and they do not cut. If they are too tight, they get hot and dull very quickly. Properly tightened shears feel like you are pushing the fiber off.

At the end of the day though, all the alpacas were sheared. No one was getting heat stress. No one was cut. So it can be done. If you are local to me and would like to help with shearing, or learn to shear, just give us a shout. We usually do shearing on a table as it is much easier to control what is going on. But it takes helpers.

Elegant solutions are the ideal

2009-01-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

...while the reality often works out to be something entirely other than "elegant," given the incredible complexity of life. Still, striving towards the ideal often produces insight, so it's not all for naught.

An example: if we are assume our alpacas would thrive given shelter, we're going to need to supply one, in this case a barn. This is a good solution to most weather problems that could threaten our alpacas.

Consider, though, these two things: now there are frequently walked paths, discouraging grass, encouraging mud; and these animals that keep their waste in relatively neat little piles may decide to put one of those piles in their barn. Yes, they are can be relied up to be rascals. So what do you do, assuming you don't want to be sliding in mud and manure every time you go to feed them pellets, and you'd prefer to limit their exposure to the parasites that frequent their waste?

There are a lot of potential solutions to this problem. We have chosen to put a raised matting filled with gravel: this gives us the sturdy walkway of concrete without sacrificing drainage or flexibility.

After a few weeks hay and dirt accumulate in the holes in the matting, restricting drainage and raising the real possibility that the earth will eventually swallow up our little tool, and we'll just be left with a raised mound of mud. So it entails it's own maintenance.

However, you can see with each step we're managing problems of lesser consequence. Ideally, we'll reach a sustainable solution: one that works with, rather than against, the natrual tendencies of the animals and nature in general. In the meantime, though, I'm not slipping onto my behind in poo-mud, so I can't say I'm not happy with progress.

The end of one story

2009-01-20T16:13:00.000-08:00

You learn a lot of things on a farm. You're so close to so many of the fundamental processes of existence, in the sense you're carefully observing the world around you, and asking yourself questions based on what you see. Why does grass grow? How will the alpacas react to a new food? What purpose do predators serve?

One of the most fundamental processes is more difficult to grapple with, but still omnipresent: the life-death-rebirth cycle. Why do we die? What happens to those who do? Where does new life come from? What is it like to die?

These are not easy questions, in that the basic answers are often unsatisfying. We may take some comfort in knowing that our bodies are of the earth, and our death is simply our return to what we were before birth. We may understand that death is necessary to life. Still, death is uniquely painful to witness.

So it was with Master Po. Without a constant regime of milk, his body was unable to generate enough heat to survive the cold northwest winter, and his rumen (like a cow's stomach) was unable to digest the hay he was filling himself on. Our veterinarian is an hour's drive, and nearing the end of the ride, Master Po died in my arms.

This is not an easy thing to have happen. This is a farm, however: there are no elaborate burial rituals, or services for the departed. In a few days, things are back to normal, maybe with a sense of something being missing, but that too fades. This is farm, which is like saying "that's life," but without the bitterness that phrase is usually said with. "That's life" in that life is what it is, and as a farmer you try and see the sense in things, because you believe in a rational life worth living, and if life entails pain and death and loss, than that too, is life.

Farm update

2008-12-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Master Po let us know he doesn't need us to come feed him any longer, and after a couple days of heating up a bottle, trudging out to the field, and having him look at me like I'm crazy, I'm content to let him get what he needs from the fields and from his mother. He's still gaining weight, albeit slowly, so I'm actually pretty happy about this development. His fiber is the highest quality I've seen thus far, I'm really looking forward to seeing that fiber made into a useful product...it's going to be heavenly.

At some point the girls figured out we hadn't locked the gate to the fallow pasture, and broke through to munch on the lush grasses. To my surprise, they actually seem to be getting along just fine with the chickens. Considering they're pretty good at managing their resources (they sample from most of the field, rather than just chomp on the nearest grasses), I'm happy to let them have both fields. Forget rotational grazing: We have a designed ecosystem!

That's just what farming is, isn't it? A designed system. I like imagining my job as farmer is to enhance natural processes, make them work for me. We take a basic relationship of pasture, grazing animal, and predators, and see the potential in it. That fiber is useful for more than dulling a predators claws...perhaps if we protected the animals from harm, and then harvested their fiber? And just like that we've entered into a complex, mutually rewarding relationship with our environment and the creatures in it.

Fall is in fullswing

2008-10-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the farm is gearing down for winter, along with everything else. The alpacas are playing in the fallen leaves, and the babies are delighting in picking things up with their mouths and running around with them. Our pasture should last a month or two yet, but we've got a big stack of hay in the garage.

Master Po's fiber is growing beautifully, and he's going to make a fine fiber-boy (the industry's term for a boy not appropriate to be a herdsire but with fleece of a high enough quality to be more than a pet).

We've left one of the fields fallow to give it a chance to put down roots before winter, and set our chickens loose to spread around the alpaca manure looking for bugs. It's not a pretty job, but they seem happy to do it!

It is a rare treat, going out on Master Po's nighttime feedings, to witness nature during night. There's not much to see, but the sounds! We've got owls, and toads, and crickets, and coyotes, and something small in front of our house that just sort of groans. And on a clear night, you can see a blanket of stars, so many the sky seems bathed in little pinpoints of light.

It's not a bad life, being a farmer.

New fields

2008-10-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

The alpacas we had separated to a different field to wean are rejoined with the main herd today. It is great fun to allow the little ones to explore forgotten areas, remake old friendships, and prance through the field in wild exuberance!

The alpaca is a wonderful creature: its curiosity and basic whimsy propels them to do all manner of things when they encounter new things. For instance, when Cinnamon Kiss, a mother pregnant with her first child, entered the new field, she started to prong up and down the field (think pepe le pew), with a full complement of babies joyously following her. The other adults excitedly investigate the "newcomers," sniffing them and then hopping back, swinging their necks around for no discernible purpose other than the pure fun of it.

Of course, the areas of the barn that had once been separated into two were now one, and the first thing both groups of alpacas did was investigate the others' hay; the grass is always greener and all that, I suppose.

When you get to watch this sort of display of unbridled enthusiasm for life, it makes you proud. Proud that you are a part of providing for their basic needs so they can partake in such luxuries as play, and proud that you belong to the same earth as them, receive the same deal.

Strength can come from unexpected places

2008-10-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

At this point, the entire family portion of our family farm is on shifts to feed the baby, every two hours. He drinks without enthusiasm from a bottle, and rarely drinks very much. We hope that he's doing this because he's getting enough from mom and regards us as an unwelcome barrier to a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, the next day he's lost seven tenths of a pound, putting him below his birth weight.

This still isn't a cause for panic...something is going wrong, but he is healthy looking (he is moving around, his coat is still of the most glorious softness, and he is actively trying to resist us grabbing him). We've bought a bottle baby not too far into the past raised on goat's milk diluted with whole milk, and though our vet didn't recommend anything other than whole milk, the baby we bought is positively chunky off that mixture (and never had any problems with the richness of the milk). Given his behaviour, we figure he considers the milk we're giving him unpalatable, and the Alpaca Field Manual suggests goat's milk more closely mirrors camelid milk in calories and fat content. While we're wary of making too many dramatic changes in his diet, we try the new mixture.

He eats with gusto. The next day he gains two tenths of a pound, and begins moving around the small "medical stall" we've got him and mom in. The day after, he gains six tenths of a pound, putting him above his birth weight. Each day he gains a little more weight, and each day he looks a little stronger. We risk letting him out of the stall (our concern was the mother walking him around the field, and other babies playing a little too rough), and he fairs well, gaining even more weight. Soon, he is running for short bursts. We ease our shifts to allow for him (and us!) to sleep longer at night, and we notice he is beginning to stand fully, legs straight and unshaking.

He regains his vision; most likely initially lost from an in utero virus. He is gentle and quiet, but playful, and at one point we see him mischeviously pushing his mother around by jumping and shoving her. He may as well be trying to push our barn around for their relative sizes, but his mother permits him to move her to a different feeder. The other babies accept him into their little gang, though he rarely runs with them when they spring across the fields, and his neck-wrestling is almost comical in its gentleness. When he sees us now, he totters over at an easy pace to check if we're feeding him. He is not clever, he does not eye us with the excited suspician of the other babies (a sometimes valuable trait--you don't necessarily want a mob of friendly farm animals as much as you want a manageable herd), he regards us and strangers alike (like my friend in the picture) with simplicity and curiousity. It occurs to me that despite all his weaknesses, he radiates a kind of strength, like water. On a whim, we've named him Master Po.

An inauspicious beginning

2008-10-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

It seems appropriate to start a blog with a tale of birth.

It is a warm day in late September and right on schedule our herd matriarch, Cappuccino Chip, is going into labor. With alpacas, this is a painfully difficult "wait and watch" affair: alpacas very rarely have birthing difficulties, and it is best to be on hand for any problems, rather than actively participate. She has this baby with no small amount of strain, but eventually--head first, like a diver--the baby falls onto the ground. A beautiful baby boy, with white anklets just like his mom!

It soon becomes obvious that all is not well. The baby is not really trying to stand--with alpacas, this usually take minutes--and upon closer inspection, his eyes are lined with a red streak. Worse, he appears to be completely blind. We rub him down with a towel to try and dry him off as well as jump start his muscles, and when that does little, we put a dollop of corn syrup on a finger and offer to him. He sucks greedily, the first positive sign we've had.

Within an hour, he has not stood up. Moreover, he's resting: A bad sign. Hoping to give him some motivation, we stand him near Cappuccino's udder. Normally, she has vast reserves of milk available. This time, though, she doesn't have almost any in her back two teats. The baby is also unable to see where he should be nursing; he tries mightily but completely misses the target, and his muscles often fail him, sending him sprawling back to the ground. The veterinarian is called.

She comes with a bottle of colostrum from a local cow (vital for inheriting immunities, as well as calories), and confirms his blindness. He nurses from the bottle with some help, and over the next 24 hours we manage to get two bottles of colostrum into him: Not enough to really satisfy his needs, but enough to keep him alive. Over this period of time he figures out how to stand, though he is standing on his pasterns (the alpaca's ankle quickly has another joint, like a dog. In essence he is standing on his ankles for support) and his muscles shake with the strain of keeping him balanced. We catch him nursing from mom once or twice.

The next day his weight remains the same as his birth weight, which is actually very satisfying (alpacas often lose a little weight the second day of birth). Perhaps he is getting enough from his mom that the bottle isn't necessary? At this stage we can't really risk finding out.

The next day is relatively uneventful. He loses a tenth of a pound, but that is not a huge cause for concern. We've got him on a two hour day-and-night eating schedule of whole cow's milk. We're guarded, but hopeful.

To Be Continued...