Females' barn in spring

The farm is geographically located in the northeast corner of the city of Auburn, Maine, near the beautiful and clear Lake Auburn, one of the cleanest lakes in Maine.

The surrounding forests abound with wildlife; white tail dear, wild turkeys, opossums, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, the occasional fisher cat, coyote and so forth.

To protect the alpaca, we have our pastures fenced with no climb, electrified fencing (4 acres), and the remaining seven acres with a seven strand, 6 feet high, tensile electric wire fence.

Barns
There are two regular sized barns with haylofts that house the females and the cria. A three-sided structure constructed on concrete slab of 12’ by 36’ houses the males in two separate areas, depending on dominancy or age. A 9”x9” barn is very useful for isolating animals or weaning babies.

We use rubber mats on the concrete floors for the alpacas’ comfort and we add a thick layer of straw if cold winter weather calls for it.

All the barns are open and airy. The open front is oriented towards the south to utilize the winter sun for natural heating. The west and east side walls have a row of windows that open fully during three seasons for coolness and ventilation.

The females' barn is ready for winter

We added heavy-duty plastic covering on the front of the barns for the very windy cold days in winter. These keep the barns significantly warmer and drier during storms and since they are easily rolled up, do not interfere on sunny winter days.

Pastures
The pastures are divided in nine areas for rotation purposes. They are fertilized once a year in the spring and lime is added as necessary. The animals prefer low grass. If the pastures are not fully utilized by the alpacas, they are kept low by mowing.

When the farm was started, we planted selective seeds for pasture, but through the years we have seen different grasses growing on the fields, some of them, like milkweed, have to be manually eradicated.

Alpacas love orchard grass; we also planted alfalfa, which did not thrive because the animals ate it before it fully developed. We avoided rye grass due to the risk of endophytes contamination and animal poisoning. For the same reasons, we did not use fescue grass. Timothy, brome grass and crested wheat grass were planted for drought resistance and soil erosion protection. Timothy is widely used in Maine because of its good adaptability, cold resistance and good palatability.

We kept only a few areas shaded with trees. The animals love to chew on the bark, so most of those trees are now gone or in bad shape if they were not protected.

Alpaca upkeep

There are automatic waterers in the females’ barn so the water is kept fresh in summer and free of ice in winter.

For the other barns we have 5 gallons water buckets, heated for winter, which we replenish twice a day during all seasons.

We give free- choice second cut hay through the year and we add enriched grain; 1 pound per head for the females and in smaller amounts for the males.

The babies are weaned at six months of age by separating them from the mothers. They are kept in a different barn and special attention is given to their nutritional needs. We keep them in groups for company. The female crias go back to the females’ barn after a period of about 2 months, at which time the dams do not allow them to nurse anymore.

After weaning, the young males go to the younglings pasture, separated from older males for protection.

Halter training is done between 3 and 6 months to be ready for the show season that starts in late March.

Nail trimming is done at least three times a year, and shearing is done once a year in late May or the beginning of April.

We keep the alpacas on a strict regimen of immunizations, as recommended by the veterinarians and a yearly rabies shot is necessary.

Meningeal worm disease prevention is required since we have a large deer population.

We do all the shots with the exception of rabies.