Euan talking to NSW Department of Primary Industries for the "Get Animals Ready" campaign right after the 2019/2020 bushfires.
How times have changed since the 2019 bushfires and this month the focus is on our flood evac plan - Let’s hope we and all the other livestock owners do not need to use it.
Have you updated your fire and flood plan this year?
NSW Department of Primary Industries NSW SES Australian Alpaca Association #littlevalleyfarm #huntervalley
Alpacas need shelter, please don’t let others convince you of anything different to that fact. The most essential & basic shelter are trees, they can provide deep shade in Summer and protection from rains and wind in Winter.
A permanent structural shelter with sides, is extremely important particularly for the protection of newborn cria and recently shorn alpacas. Simple shelters of poles and shade cloth can be erected in the absence of trees, but we highly recommend having a permanent shelter or shelters.
We have several different types of permanent shelters at Little Valley Farm. A 4 x 4 metre or larger is useful and can be used on your annual shearing day or in extreme weather conditions such as rain and windy conditions. Not all alpacas will use the sheds but it gives them the option and is extremely useful for penning them when necessary.
Fresh drinking water is a must in or around each shelter especially if penned. Alpacas will drink two to ten litres per day.
Feed bucket to help keep the feed dry avoiding mould build-up and helps reduce feed wastage.
Alpaca ‘Summer Palace’
Here are some examples of sheds we have. Below is our Alpaca Summer Palace with lots of extra shade provided by the trees and excellent cross ventilation inside. The shed has 1/2 earth and 1/2 brick floor. They prefer the earthen floor, we like the brick which stays drier longer. The shelter has opening shutters to control wind and light. Cold rainy days we close them but mostly they are open. The back are has two gates which can be closed if we need to catch them. The alpaca’s love sitting out the front of the shelter looking over the paddocks and towards the house.
Below is our Twin Shed is nicely situated in between two paddocks, so it is convenient when we do our weekly paddock rotation of the alpacas and mini donkeys. It also provides us a couple of pens to catch the Alpacas.
It has lot of cross ventilation and plenty of trees for deep shade on the northern side. The summer western sun is an issue but they move towards the large trees down the paddock on hot and sunny afternoons.
The drinking water trough is close by and they love the dirt floor to roll about in.
Twin Shed placed in between two paddocks
Twin Shed lot of gates to help create small pens and plenty of ventiliation with a solid wall to avoid the wind and rain.
Want to read more about managing your own herd? We have some great reading material to get you started. Click here. Attending one of our weekend workshops. Click here for workshop info.
More about Daniela and Euan at Little Valley Farm here.
Miniature Donkeys are a recent addition to the farm. They are cute, fun, highly inquisitive and just a bit silly. So why not have them! However, the main role of these little beauties is to help us in the application of a ‘regenerative system’ to manage the farm.
Alpacas are excellent small farm or acreage animals. But as the herd grows potential issues with animal health and pasture management becomes more problematic. When we started our journey on the farm we always had multi animals on the paddocks; free-range chickens, low line Angus and Belted Galloway Miniature cattle and even some Dorper sheep. Each had their issues and advantages.
Free Range Chickens; there is nothing better than real free range eggs and when chickens roam you really get to know their wonderful personalities. They were great at breaking down manure on the paddocks, especially older manure the dung beetles didn’t get to. But Chickens are excavating machines, we lost gardens, grassy areas and spent large amounts of time keeping them out of vegetable patches.
Sheep; we never really bonded with the sheep. If you eat meat they have an advantage, but our lush summer rainfall meant constant problems for their feet. They also leave manure everywhere which was ignored by chickens and dung beetles and an additional worm-risk when running alpaca. They also require different fencing, usually 6 plain wires with a low electric strand, which we did not have. It took a year but they figured that out and soon ate every edible tree they could find. They did not lost long.
Miniature Cattle; we loved having the cows, and even loved our temperamental and destructive lowline bull. We produced some wonderful calves and even experimented with on-farm butchering (with some purchased steers). Once you get to know cows well, you soon turn off meat-eating and just love being around them. Cattle manure is easily spread and the dung beetles did a beautiful job putting nutrients into the ground. In 2019 feed costs skyrocketed, and a small farm like ours with a heavy winter frost and very little winter rain does not stock cattle so easily. In good years we were fine, but bad years made it unsustainable.
We sold all our cattle in 2019 and have had a much larger Alpaca herd even since. But a single breed of animal has its own issues.
Alpacas have some incredible advantages, they are gentle on the land with soft feet, they eat comparatively little for their size, they have a couple of limited manure piles, they don’t break fences, are easy to handle with lower infrastructure costs and they are selective grazers who are gentle on the pasture. But from a regenerative process pov many of these advantages are disadvantages. Eventually the pasture has highly productive areas around the manure piles and very little nutrients is put back into the other areas. They also prefer shorter grass and when our summer grass gets to knee high they will often avoid it and over graze other areas. In a short time we noticed they were forced to eat closer manure piles and in March 2021 we had our first ever problems with intestinal worms.
The system we ran with the cattle and alpaca was perfect to help control worms and manage feed and pasture fertilisation with limited mechanical intervention. Bovines and Equines actually help break the worm cycle for the Alpaca. They also ate grass and hay the Alaca would not eat, and we ‘harrowed’ their manure, or it was spread out by dung beetles and chickens, returning nutrients more evenly to. the pasture. We did not strip graze, but we were able to use 22 acres split into 13 small paddocks very effectively for rotational grazing.
So why Miniature Donkeys? in short they will help us for the same reasons as the cattle, but with a few other advantages: they are wonderful with people, they are small (150kg vs a 300kg cow), and they have great personalities. In the end they are the next evolution of finding and perfecting a sustainable system on the farm. They are not the only part, our planting system is also key - but that’s for another post!
Besides running workshops in the Hunter Valley, Little Valley Farm also provides mentoring and guidance for new alpaca owners.
If you are looking into having alpacas on your farm and are not 100% sure then this booklet by AAA called "Managing Alpacas in Australia", is a great and super easy read to get you started.
Also, at our workshops, we provide the Ag guide 'Farming Alpacas' which is a more in-depth overview of managing alpacas.
For now, check out the booklet on alpacas and you can purchase online from us. Simply click here.
We will be updating our livestock sales list later this month. Click here to see what is currently available.
"Knowledge will give you the opportunity to make a difference on the farm and for your new herd of wonderful alpacas."
Join us for our unique alpaca workshops at Little Valley Farm.
Simply contact Daniela for availability in 2020. Classes are kept small due to our COVID safe procedure.
Click here to see our workshop info.
Though we had a nasty start to the season due to the effects of prolonged drought exacerbating the fire season, and now the current Covid19. We now have predictions for a wet winter.
With rainfall comes insects and parasites, and we are reminding alpaca owners to remain vigilant as we approach winter, especially since we have been enjoying warmer weather right through to late April.
Conditions are right in many regions for insect populations to ramp up, which is reportedly already happening with flies across Australia’s central region and brings a host of issues for livestock owners.
Pasture growth is always a blessing, however, it can drastically increase survivability for internal and external parasites in paddocks. That means greater monitoring to ensure the health of our alpacas.
Conditions from tics due to the remaining warmth keeps them active in the ground, roaming snakes seeking shelter and food, ryegrass seed complications, weed poisoning and conditions such as rickets, barbers pole and staggers, just to name a few.
We recommend you visit the Australia Alpaca Association for a list of known weeds, plants and tree’s that are toxic to alpacas.
Wet weather also brings us an ample growth of wild mushrooms so please remove them safety with gloves and dispose of carefully.
If we do have a wet winter, parasite control is another thing to consider, as the seasonal conditions have meant there are much higher risks of worms and flystrike in some areas. So please ask your vet to conduct a worm count before drenching and remember - paddock rotation is the best natural method you can do.
If you have coloured alpacas we recommend ADE for this time of the year - vitamin boost for colours but also recommend for all.
Feel free to talk to us about which appropriate worming/drenching method to use.
Here’s a photo of me with one of my breeding girls, Neve.
Daniela
If you are looking at starting your own herd of alpacas keep an eye on our website on alpaca sales or join our mailing list for the next herd dispersal sale.
The alpaca is a ruminent with three stomachs. It converts grass and hay to energy very quickly, eating far less (as a percentage of its body weight) than other farm animals. Alpaca manure is lower in organic matter content than the manure from most other barnyard livestock (cows, horses, goats and sheep) but still has enough to improve soil texture and water-holding capacity. This lower organic content allows alpaca manure to be spread directly onto plants without burning them. It is the decomposition of organic matter content of the manure that indicates their efficient digestion system.
The nitrogen and potassium content of alpaca dung is comparatively high, an indication of good fertilizer value. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the major plant nutrients. Phosphorus is relatively low as in most livestock manure. The calcium and magnesium content is about average. South American Indians use the alpaca waste for fuel, and local gardeners find the alpaca's rich fertilizer perfect for growing fruits and vegetables. A herd of alpacas consolidates its waste in one or two spots in the paddocks, thereby controlling the spread of parasites and making it easier to collect and use on our garden beds.
Photo credit to Richard of Incamon Alpaca Stud.
Join us for our exclusive annual Spring open day at Little Valley Farm. Its your chance to visit this unique alpaca farm in the Hunter Valley. Usually closed to the public the farm opens up on November 23rd and you can purchase tickets now. Enjoy a day with the alpacas and learn more about these amazing animals.
Buy your tickets as limited numbers are available. Click here.
Autumn is here and so its finally time to join our stud alpaca with our girls. We have changed our mating dates in the last couple of years due to the scorching heatwaves and to make it a more pleasant experience for our alpaca mum’s and cria’s.
We now prefer our births from March to June as the weather is cooler and we have plenty of enclosures to keep the cria and mum warm and out of the rain for the first couple of weeks. Rain, wind and the cold can kill a cria so make sure you have fully-enclosed shelters/pens that will accommodate mum, cria and a companion alpaca in the shed when the weather is not so nice.
What we do:
Summer in the Hunter Valley can reach over 43+ degrees with several days in a row at this unpleasant temperature. So please ensure you have adequate shelter (deep shade) in each paddock. If its hot for you its hot for the alpacas.
Make sure all your alpacas are shorn every year. We shear every October when the sun is not burning hot as we have witnessed sunburn on alpacas shorn December and January when the sun is at it hottest.
Ensure your alpacas have deep shade as well as a large shed as a backup. They do prefer to sit under tree’s but will definitely use the shed when hail or heavy rain appears.
Make sure all your water troughs are placed in a shaded area and not sitting out under the sun. Change the water daily to keep it fresh and cool and use an auto-filler trough. Some days we place ice cubes / bags / bottles inside the trough to keep it chilled.
Shower the alpacas under their bellies on hot days and wet their legs where their sweat glands are. Give them the dam but please ensure they do not get their long skinny legs stuck in the mud and drown.
Summer time is tick time and your young alpacas are more susceptible to ticks. We have found the older alpacas seem to fight it off. So make sure you shear October when the ticks are out and check them all the way until Autumn. Its easier to find a tick on an alpaca once they have been shorn. We have guinea fowl that roam the paddocks looking for ticks also.
For cria’s born in the wind and rain make sure you have a alpaca jacket (dog jacket) for them to wear. Keep the jacket dry at all times and depending on the weather place the jacket on late afternoon and then secure in a fully enclosed pen with mum. Remove jacket early morning.
Make sure your trim your alpaca’s nails every three months. Don't let them get to long and out of shape as they will never be comfortable, look good or be easy to trim again. So trim regularly and it will make the whole process a whole lot easier for you. Hint also trim after the rain as the nails are lovely and soft to cut.
Lucern hay for mum and cria in the pens and some hay for cria to sit on and keep itself warm.
We are all feeling the mercury rise, and this week extreme heat is emerging as an issue around the country.
Managing animals in high temperatures requires good forward planning. Keeping an eye on the weather forecasts, and developing a plan for days of high to extreme temperature is essential in ensuring that your animals will have sufficient shade and water on those very hot days.
Extreme heat causes significant stress for alpacas. There are a few simple guidelines you can follow to reduce the impacts of high temperatures on animals.
The provision of a plentiful supply of clean, cool water and shade is essential.
Water troughs or containers should be large enough and designed in such a way that all animals have easy access. The number of watering points and/or water flow should be increased if a large number of animals are kept together. Troughs or containers should be firmly fixed so they cannot overturn. They should be kept clean and should be designed and maintained to prevent injuries.
Animals need to be provided with shelter during extended periods of extreme temperatures. Shelter is especially important for very young or old animals or animals that are in poor condition or birthing.
It is recommended not to handle animals in extreme heat unless absolutely necessary. If necessary, make sure it is done as early or late in the day as possible when temperatures are lower.
Animals at high risk of heat stress include young animals and dark coloured animals These animals should be watched more closely for signs of heat stress during days of high temperature. Remember that alpacas are more prone to heat stress than sheep and goats. There are many signs of heat stress that you can look for in your animals. Some general signs of heat stress include:
panting
increased respiration rate
increased water intake
loss of appetite
listless/lethargy
increased salivation
in severe cases may become unconscious.
Remember: The most important things you can do for your animals in hot weather is to provide them with rest and shade in the hottest parts of the day, and plenty of clean cool water.
You have a responsibility to ensure the well-being of animals under your care. Animal Welfare - it's your duty to care.
This information taken from the Australian Alpaca Association. Visit their website for more information on caring and health of Alpacas. https://www.alpaca.asn.au
Little Valley Farm is a member of the Australian Alpaca Association. That mean’s we have a registry of our alpaca’s and their birth lines. It also means for new alpaca owners, when you purchase an alpaca from us, you know what you will get - a happy, healthy, friendly alpaca.
Little Valley Farm also runs alpaca working shops and training days. Follow our facebook page for our 2019 event listings.
Alpaca fleece buyers day happens Nov - Dec - Jan every year where you get to purchase our beautiful fleece in white, fawn and chocolate brown.
Alpaca shearing season has started so make sure you have your vaccinations, worming, vitamins ready. If you are low on supplies we have supplies available to purchase. Simply email us what you need and we can arrange pick up at Laguna. Please note, we don’t post as most of the supplies requires proper refrigeration.
Ivomec Injectable
Cydectin Injectable
UltraVac 5:1 Injectable
Propaca vitamins (powder)
ADE supplement Injectable
You can ask your your local vet to run a fecal worm count before worming so you don’t run the risk of over or under worming. We can supply the supplements in 1, 2 or 5 ml syringes so you don’t need to buy in bulk if you only have a couple of alpacas.
The day after shearing. We are exhausted. Now it can rain! The alpacas are a little naked but happy. We are now ready for the hot summer days.
A very big thank you to our shearing team. The Cole family, Kierran, Socie, Frank, Frances and Drew Shearman Our favourite shearer who is gentle and kind with our alpacas. It’s a long exhausting day in the shed with a touch of spit-dodging.
The fleece is drying and our ‘fleece buyers day’ will be happening some time in November.
#littlevalleyfarm #alpacafarm #alpacabreeder #shearing #alpacagleece#alpacas #lagunaNSW #wollombi #visitwollombi#touristdrive33 Daniela Riccio Drew Shearman Thank you!
I will do nothing today! Thank you, Daniela
Our dear sweet Lilly.
Most farms would have enjoyed an extended period, where drenching has been unnecessary, due to dry conditions.
It would be advisable to faecal test, following rain or for those that primarily drench when they consider it necessary, to consider drenching now that the ground is moist.
Most areas have enjoyed some rain lately, drenching for Barbers Pole after a few wet days following an extended dry period may save a stressful and urgent situation, that comes with Barbers Pole burden.
Fluke is hard to diagnose and requires a specific drench, if animals are in very wet paddocks or paddocks that may be affected by swollen creeks or flowing water, then you need to keep this parasite on the radar.
Tape worm can also be an issue following extended dry conditions, in drought there is an increase in wildlife sharing our paddocks looking for food and water, they are renown for bring tape worm with them, please keep this in mind. Keeping a check on dung piles, for tape segments, is the undisputed evidence of tape presence, please check drenches are adequate to treat the parasite you are targeting..
Thank you to Deb Trostian, Animal Health and Welfare. AAA NSW Region of the Australian Alpaca Association. Click here to find out more about the AAA.
Photo courtesy by Cheryl Warning. Autumn 2017 at Little Valley Farm
Last year we applied for the Small Business Rebate for our alpaca farm. It helped us set up some safety guide lines and have on-stock some PPE (Protective personal equipment), which we should have had from day one.
Anyways, the rebate had us thinking about the alpaca pens set-up especially at shearing time when there are over 20+ alpacas lined up to be sheared, can be slightly chaotic especially for the couple of alpacas that are slightly nervous and flighty and the 5-6 people that are on-deck helping us out.
We created five pens to sort and shuffle the alpacas in and out of the shearing bay. The rebate, had us thinking about the safety elements including gates and pens.
I know its only a $500 rebate but it certainly helped out in the cost of the pens and gates.
If you have an ABN you can apply for the $500 rebate back to small business owners who buy and install eligible safety items to address a safety problem in their workplace.
You can find out more on how to what to do to apply for Safe work NSW. Click here.
