Alpaca Vista Suris: Articles

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The More We Learn, The More We Know

The alpaca industry is a young one and, as such, we are continuing to learn and share our knowledge and expertise. Over the years we have tried to learn from our mistakes and document our successes with an eye on helping others more quickly trod down the path that we have enjoyed so much. Below are some of the articles that we have written and we trust that you will enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed writing them.

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When we first started our farm in the East, we bought an older horse farm that had seen better days. The pastures were run down and overgrown with weeds. As with many new alpaca owners, the first step is to create a pasture that can support your alpacas. This article describes the steps that we took to make our pastures a better place for our alpacas. We were lucky in the fact that this article was picked up by American Livestock Magazine in the Spring of 2006.

Has Your Pasture Got The Right Stuff?

Alpacas love to eat! The problem comes in when the dominant ones push or spit out the others. In addition, what is a good way to slow down the critters from gobbling their food and possibly choking? This article describes a method that our West Coast farm had been using for awhile and seems to fit the bill. This article was picked up by the New Zealand Lifestyle Farmer Magazine in 2006 and was published by American Livestock Magazine in the Spring 2007 edition.

Alpaca Feeding is in the Gutter

When you start to consider being an alpaca owner, there are many questions to answer (especially if you are not an experienced rancher). This article highlights a couple of interesting facts to consider as you explore alpacas farm ownership.

A Quick Primer For The Beginner

Once of the toughest challenges that people face is how to market the alpacas that they have come to love and adore. After all, being an alpaca farmer is a business that we all hope will turn out to be profitable. Here is a series of three articles that we wrote to show some of the activities that we have successfully used in the past to market our farms. The first in this series talks about how to set your farm identity by establishing the right customer facing marketing messages. This article was published in MAPACA Newsletter in 2006.

Marketing For Alpaca Farms, Part I

Part II of Alpaca Marketing Article - The second article in the series on marketing your alpacas focuses on ways to get your messages out through a variety of media to include the internet, mailing and personal contact. This article was published in MAPACA Newsletter in 2006.

Marketing For Alpaca Farms, Part II

Part III of Alpaca Marketing Article - The third and final article in the series on marketing your alpacas focuses on the people aspect of marketing. Even if you are not a marketing professional there are certain techniques that you can use to make a better and longer lasting impression.

Marketing For Alpaca Farms, Part III

Before the alpacas arrive on the farm there are a number of important activities that need to occur to ensure that the alpacas can be taken care of. As we prepared to receive our first alpacas on our farm in the East, we discovered that it wasn't as easy as just buying alpaca food and having a shelter for them. This article highlights the activities that we went through in order to prepare for our alpacas. This article was published in the Summer 2006 edition of American Livestock Magazine.

Getting Ready For Your Alpacas

One of the principle dangers that many alpacas face in the Summer is exposure to excess heat and humidity. This article describes how to detect the early signs of heat stress in alpacas and some preventative measures that can be taken to minimize the risk that your alpacas will be exposed to heat stress. This article was published in Small Farm Today Magazine in a series of two articles in 2006 and was published in the 2007 Herdsire Edition of the Alpacas Magazine.

Heat Stress In Alpacas

One of the scariest events in an alpaca owners daily life is when an alpaca goes down and needs immediate medical attention. This article describes what should be in place before this happens so that it will minimize your stress and increase the likelihood that your alpaca will get the medical attention it needs as quickly as possible. This article was published in American Livestock Magazine in the Fall 2006 edition.

Alpaca Down

Should you plan on paying stud fees to breed your female alpacas or should you invest in a stud? This is a question we have been asked a number of times by small-farm owners. This article discusses a quick cost benefit approach to determine which may be the correct solution for you. This article was published in the 2005 Spring issue of Alpacas Magazine, the Cascade Alpaca Breeders December 2006 newsletter and is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

Buying A Herd Sire Or Paying Stud Fees

Buying a Herdsire is expensive. Buying a really good Herdsire is really expensive. This option may be out of reach for a new farm owner. However, the next best alternative may be to share ownership with another farm. This article looks at considerations that should be brought up while researching this alternative. This article was published by the Alpacas Magazine in the 2006 Herdsire Issue and is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

The Joys of Co-Owning a Herdsire

You think you have some quality alpacas? One way to find out is to show them. This article takes the mystery out of the steps to take as well as questions to ask yourself on which alpacas to show. This article was published by the Alpacas Magazine in the 2005 Autumn Issue and is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

Intro To Showing Your Alpacas

Our East Coast farm received their first alpacas in November 2005. At that time it was easy to put out a bucket of water to feed the thirsty alpacas. However, as Winter approached and the temperatures dropped below freezing, a new method had to be found to convert the blocks of ice into drinking water. This article was featured in the December 2005 MAPACA Newsletter and also as a project of the month in The Progressive Farmer in 2006 and was published in American Livestock Magazine in the Spring 2007 edition.

My Kingdom For Some Water

This article explores the advantages of becoming an alpaca owner. The articles focuses on the financial and lifestyle benefits of being an alpaca farm owner. This article was published in American Livestock Magazine in the Fall 2006 edition.

So You Want to be an Alpaca Farmer?

Eighty percent or more of alpaca breeders own 20 alpacas or fewer. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that you will need to find stud services. What should you consider when picking a stud? ON the other hand, if you own a stud, how should you price your services? This article explores these two points and was published in the 2005 issue of the Alpacas Magazine and is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

Introduction to Stud Services

In traditional breeding, the dam owner brings the dam to the stud's ranch and the stud owner manages the breeding and also agists the visiting dam and possibly her cria until a pregnancy is confirmed. In mobile breeding the stud travels to the dam's farm. The pluses and minuses are discussed in this article which was published in the Alpaca Magazine Summer 2005 issue and is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

The Joys of Mobile Breeding

A business plan is a roadmap for how your farm will be developed. Therefore, the first step in evaluating whether you should get into the alpaca business is in developing a business plan. This article steps you through the questions that we had to ask (and answer) ourselves in order to develop a realistic plan.

Alpaca Business Plan: It's All in the Planning!

This is a non-technical article that explains how genetics play into breeding alpacas. For Suri breeders, it shows why there is always a chance that you may produce a Huacaya. This article points out the importance of researching your alpacas and potential sires to ensure a strong and reliable Suri bloodline. This article is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

Some Suris Produce Huacayas

Now that you have your herd of alpacas firmly in place, the dams are all pregnant and you are looking at a bumper crop of crias, you start to think seriously about selling some of them. How should you set your prices? This article highlights a way to set realistic and objective pricing. This article is currently featured on the Cascade Alpaca Breeders website.

Selling Your Alpacas

There are many more people that we interact with than we ever thought about as we started our alpaca farm. But all of these people are important to us in running our farm. Without them all, we would be missing important information or assistance that helps us provide care and assistance to our alpacas. Also, the longer we stay on the farm, them more people we realize it takes to make a successful farm. This article highlights who these people are and why they are important. This article was published in American Livestock Magazine in the Spring 2007 edition.

It takes a Village to Raise Alpacas

It seems like yesterday that we were leading the alpacas off of the transport to their new home on our farm. We thought that we had everything that we needed or that we would ever need. This article explores many of the projects that have made life on the farm easier and fun This article was published in the American Livestock Magazine in the Winter 2006 edition.

Has It Been a Year Already?

It is all about the fiber. How can you distinguish Suri from Huacaya? How can you tell quality fiber? This quick primer will allow you to begin to understand the intricacies of alpaca fiber.

Some Fiber Facts

This is an informative Question and Answer article by Dr. Ahmed Tibary of Washington State University updated 2/28/2007. It addresses the most frequently asked questions that he answers about alpaca breeding.

Q&A by Dr. Ahmed Tibary