Monday, May 14, 2007

This is the beginning of our Alpaca journal. In the coming weeks and months we’ll hopefully be able to provide readers with some insight to the daily routine of a working alpaca ranch. By understanding what we do here and how we do it, we hope to provide other alpaca breeders with useful information on what works for us, and just as importantly, what doesn’t work.

Spring is definitely in full swing. The temperature is hovering steadily in the mid 70’s with the humidity at around 10%. It’s perfect weather in our neck of the woods right now. This is the beginning of cria(baby alpaca) season for us here in Northern Nevada. In this high desert valley just east of the majestic Sierra Nevada mountain range we experience a fairly mild climate overall, with some extremes in both cold and heat rearing their ugly head intermittently. It’s been known to get down to as low as -10f degrees in the December/January months and 95F-100F in August. Luckily we have very little humidity any time of year so the heat is not magnified by unbearable humidity. Because of the possibility of extreme cold, having cria in the winter months is not advisable, nor is the peak of the summer such a good idea. A cria that is just born and not sheltered from these extremes is at great risk of either hypo or hyperthermia.

Three of our mom’s are actually overdue at this point. We figure on a 343 day gestation period, but it seems that the spring cria are always a week or two later than that.

That’s ok though, there’s still plenty to do. It’s time to plant the garden and get ready for shearing.

More on shearing in our next installment.

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