Having adequate pastures and dry-lot area to support your herd is essential to maintaining overall health.
Loafing and grazing areas should be free of standing water and open dirt areas where the alpacas tend to roll and cover themselves with dust during the dry seasons.
Standing water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other parasites that attack weak animals and cause such problems as West Nile Virus, rain rot, mite mange and other skin or systemic disease.
In addition, the pastures should contain a mix of nutritious grasses such as brome, orchard and alfalfa.
While this is ideal, reality can be significantly different. Space constraints, draught, in efficient paddock configuration, drainage, herd size, changes in temperature, too much rain, not enough sun light or any number of other events can impact your pasture’s capacity to support your herd and make the solutions very challenging.
This article is intended to offer some suggestions first to new breeders in the process of designing pastures and secondly to the existing breeder wishing to fix or improve grazing capacity.
New Breeders
If you are a new breeders and in the process of designing your pasture configurations, you are in an enviable position because your pastures are not yet committed. I think most breeders will admit that their pasture configurations could be more efficient. Every time I move alpacas from one pasture to the next I think to myself; “if I had it to over again, I’d have done it differently”.
So, please take this advise from someone who’s learned from his mistakes, take your time and design your pastures with future growth in mind. The few alpacas you either now own or are considering purchasing are going to reproduce and result in more alpacas that will need adequate grazing area, shelter and access to clean drinking water.
You’ll need to consider how you will move alpacas from barn to pasture or from pasture to barn with minimal handling. Also, you’ll need to handle our alpacas occasionally for weighing, worming, nail clipping, breeding, etc. So, consider how you will design catch pens where the alpacas can be moved when needed.
Another thing to consider is your capacity to separate late term pregnant females, weanlings, mature males, and general herd populations.
Finally, consider how you will rotate alpaca groups between various pastures to avoid parasite build-up. The best lay-out allows for pastures to stand fallow for 45-60 days in order for parasites to run one life cycle and die before grazing alpacas there again.
Existing Breeders/Pasture Improvement
I have found the most challanging part of pasture management is maintaining grass supplies throughout the growth season. Compensating for rain fall (or lack thereof) can be a real challange, especiall as your herd grows and when psature space is limited.
If the ground contains the right balance of nutrients, your grass will thrive and will hold those nutrient which will be passed on the your apacas as the grasses are consumed.
I recommend contacting your local agricultural extension office to find out who performs soil testing in your are. By taking soil samples from various places around your pasture, the soil testing agency can determine the nutrient levels reguired to support the type fo grasses you wish to grow and the amount of grazing demand.
Planting, furtilizing and over-seeding is essential to maintaining the quality of grass from year to year. Environmental changes, paracites continual grazing demand, etc. can significantly impact the quality and quantity of grass from year-to-year. Once your pastures are well grown with dense root systems, you will still need to re-seed each February, test and feed each spring.
The points mentioned above hold true for existing pastures. Fpr example, if pastures hold standing water, create drainage to remove it, clean dung piles daily (especially in the wet months), spray your nimals against biting insects and keep your alpacas off of dust patches as much as possible.
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