Day in the life on an alpaca farm

Many farms know the work it takes to care for the animals. We are no exception, we just have alpaca's.

Each day starts pretty much the same, up at 5:30am, get the beet pulp soaking in water, a good sources of protein and they love it! It is rather funny because they know the routine and if I don't have the beet pulp in their barn by 7:30am I am greeted by the stares of each one patiently waiting!

We check the water make sure buckets are clean and full of fresh water. We sweep up the barn, clean up any poop they leave behind. Next we drain the beet pulp and then head out to the pasture to do a little daily housekeeping.

See alpacas are awesome because the create common bathrooms, not like a dog that poops everywhere. This makes scooping poop easy, a rake, shovel and wagon. Rake it up, scoop it up and it's done. When the poop wagons are full, they get dumped in a common pile to sit and dry out. We use their poop as a soil conditioner for our alfalfa and orchard grass fields. We will often times sell the poop as a soil amendment to visitors, which is another way to support what we do and give people beautiful garens and plants. No waste!

Time to feed the beet pulp which by this point they are impatient, we have our sweet Kaycea who greets me with a spit since I hold the food and I am not dishing it out fast enough. Hands up and I say "Not today Kay" which she responds with a wiggle of the mouth and a gurgling sound of irritation.

We have three baby bottle alpacas so there is warming the bottles and then feeding triplets. The older one follows me to the younger one and with both bottles in hand and lap away they go.

Summer time our alpacas are a bit spoiled, they have air conditioning in their primary barn, which means they don't even like to go outside in the heat of the day so poop piles occur in the barn. Mrs. YaYa has this routine of washing the floor 2-3 times a day to keep it clean for all our guests and for the health of our paca's.

Alpaca's drink a lot of water in the summer, and to help them we add gatorade to their water. Some think that blue gatorade is slime but no it is just gatorade. Alpaca 15 gallon tubs x4 on the girls side get filled 4-6 times aa day. That is a lot of water. Speaking of water, alpacas love playing in water on those hot days. We put down small baby pools they can play in for short periods of time. Our K'Lari is hilarious, picture a big alpaca trying to lay down in a baby pool. K'Lari does it and as she cushes the water comes pouring out. If we don't have the pools we get the hose out and spray their necks, bellies and butt's/ they dance, prance and fight for first row access to the hose. We have some who enjoy the drink from the water hose, we have some who stand on their back legs to get the entire belly exposed for spraying, while others just lay down in the water as it falls off of the others around. Either way you are guaranteed to get wet.

The cleaning doesn't stop there, the water needs refills, the poop piles need cleaned up throughout the day. The hay needs to be cleaned up so it is not wasted. Hay needs to be passed out every day before bed.

Bedtime around here happens sometimes at 10pm and many days it is closer to midnight. With all of this occurring we still have our farm tours, cleaning the store, and all that goes with what we do to ensure our guests have a joyful time.

There are herd health checks, vacinations, cria care, and other care as needed by the alpaca. We have fences to mend, equipment to maintain, and mowing. We spend days processing fiber, making things we sell in our store too. It is hard work and rewarding all wrapped into one package. 

Bottom line we love what we do, we love sharing our kids (alpacas) with everyone. We pray that when you leave you found joy, made memories, learned something new about the alpacas.

We know our kids (alpacas) leave you with a gift, you may receive it while you are here, or hours/days later. It may be on a sad or stressful day you can think back to the alpacas and that memory makes your day a little brighter.

Many Blessing to all of you!

Mr. and Mrs. YaYa