Mangowood Farm Alpacas
ALPACA INFORMATION
Alpacas originated from South America, with the largest herds located in the high altitude regions of Southern Peru, Bolivia and Chile known as the Altiplano, and are part of the Camelid family, related to Camels and Llama.
On 28 November 1858, Charles Ledger, with South American shepherds and 256 alpacas, llamas and vicunas, disembarked from the Salvadora in Sydney. Unfortunately the promising Alpaca Industry did not eventuate and the animals were dispersed. In the early 1900's there was no mention of any surviving alpacas.
In 1984, the United States and Canada imported their first alpacas, followed by Australia and New Zealand in 1989. The numbers of Alpacas in Australia have slowly increased to well over 100,000 animals, adapting well to our climatic conditions. With a life-span of 15 to 25 years, they are intelligent animals, and easily trained, show them the feed bucket and they come running.
Alpacas are the most environmentally friendly animals, with their soft padded feet they are gentle on the land and do not degrade the top soil encouraging weed growth, in comparison with larged hoofed animals like cattle.
Alpacas are pasture grazers with a very efficient conversion rate, they do well on a variety of high fibre grasses including native species. Usually native species do not need added fertilizers, but have your soil tested either with a home pH soil kit, or by soil testing organisations, know your soil and its requirments before you add fertiliser, in turn reducing soil acidification and contaminating the waterways.
Alpacas are free from flystrike, however they are susceptible to pests and diseases like other animals and proper control measures must be implemented to maintain the health of the herd.
Alpacas are easy on fencing, but we advise the use of dog proof fencing for your outer perimeter, the added cost will be recouped with the saving of your valuable animals from attack from wild dogs or your neighbours seemingly friendly dog.
ALPACA CLASSES
- The baby alpaca is a Cria, from birth to weaning,
- A Weaner ( approximately 4-6 months)to 12 months.
- Tuis from 12 to 24 months.
- Hembras are adult females.
- Machos are adult males.
The Hembra is pregnant for approximately eleven and half months (the gestation period). The cria when born weighs approximately 5 to 9 kgs. Within 1 to 3 hours the cria is up and feeding from its mother which gently hums to the cria.
ALPACA TYPES
There are two main types of alpacas bred in Australia, the Huacaya and the Suri.
- The Huacaya Alpaca which is the most common alpaca type, are fluffy with fleece like sheep, with a bonnet of wool on its head, the fleece grows straight out from the body, the staples are straight showing crimp.
- The Suri Alpaca are less common in Australia, the animal is covered in long pencil fine locks which hang down from the body. The fleece has lustre and feels silky and slippery to the touch.
Alpaca fibre comes in many beautiful natural colours of white, fawn, brown, grey and black with all the various shadings in between.
PURCHASING ALPACA
If you are interested in breeding Alpacas the advice we give, do your homework, check out all the relevant information available, and when purchasing alpacas, make sure they are registered with either the Australian Alpaca Association (AAA) or Australasian Alpaca Breeders Association (AABA) and they have registration papers.
Check if the Alpaca stud where you are purchasing animals from, are registered with Q-Alpaca or MAP, which are on-farm biosecurity programmes.
Check out the Links page there are many relevant articles on the websites.
