Alpaca Tribe

Tania Marien very kindly agreed to my sharing this episode from her podcast Talaterra, where she interviewed me about what we are doing here in the valley. NOTES FROM EPISODE 37 OF THE TALATERRA PODCAST Steve Heatherington  is an alpaca shepherd and co-owner of Welsh Valley Alpacas in Wales. Steve manages a large herd of alpacas and offers support services to alpaca owners, as well as workshops fo...

The British Alpaca Society provides a wide range of support services for alpaca owners in the UK. Duncan Pullar is the CEO. This includes the breed registry, the national show (27-29 March 2020), quarterly magazine, welfare support and training. http://www.bas-uk.com/ http://basnationalshow.co.uk/ ceo@bas-uk.com   This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3...

You can listen to podcasts in so many places - where is your favourite place to listen to the Alpaca Tribe podcast? I recently had some feedback from Muninn from Oregon who wanted to know how many alpacas are needed to make a financially viable business. Good question but unfortunately there is not a simple out of the box answer suitable for everyone. Initial investment can be high if you aim for...

What motivates behaviour in your alpacas? Could Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs help us identify some of what is happening? Physiological needs are the basic motivators. This includes: breathing; eating; drinking; sex; sleep; relaxation; and movement. You can immediately see how this can be applied to alpacas. Grazing demonstrates how alpacas can be moivated to seek out certain types of grass and avoi...

There are different routes people take towards the point of keeping their own alpacas. Some have had experience with livestock, many haven't. Generally, thought and research goes into the preparation of embarking on the alpaca journey. However, not everyone is prepared for the impact actually meeting alpacas has on them. If you are thinking of keeping alpacas yourself, it is good to think it throu...

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people. And it is for alpaca people everywhere, so a shout out to our listeners in Australia - know that you are not forgotten. I simply can’t believe the immensity of the struggles so many Australians are facing with bushfires at the moment. On the news, they said that an area nearly twice the size of Wales had been burnt. I live in Wales and it feels big. Nearly...

The last episode of 2019 and the first of 2020 - this straddles the year and is a great opportunity to look both back and forward. Alpacas are amazing animals and I love introducing people to them for the first time. As herd numbers increase the roles get shared out. This year they seemed to be more laid back and happy to spread out rather than be tightly bunched. I am taking this as a good sign!...

Happy Christmas to one and all! Hopefully you will get to have something of a break at some point and hopefully that will include alpacas in some way. I reached out to some of our guests from the year and asked them what they would be doing over Christmas... https://k2alpacas.ie/ https://www.campoverdealpacas.com/ https://hiraethranch.com/ https://www.penrhalltalpacas.co.uk/ Have a good break and...

This is the second episode of my conversation with Rita Soares of Campo Verde Alpacas . She and her partner recently moved house and farms - there is enough to be done just thinking of moving house but with a collection of animals added into the mix it can get a bit challenging. Here, Rita continues her story and identifies some of the key things to bear in mind. The generosity of people in the al...

What do you do? Well, I call myself an alpaca shepherd but not everybody has heard of one, or has much idea what that means. I appeared briefly on the Wynne Evans show on BBC Radio Wales on his GuessWork spot (2hr:10s mark)- where he asks questions to try to guess what the person's job is. All he knew was, I was Steve from Swansea. Listen to the episode to see how he got on. Morning or evening? I...

You can't be sure what you will find the next time you go down to the alpaca corral. This week I found a young female with a limp - was it time to call the vet or could I deal with it - and what was I actually dealing with? Here is a simple approach I took to assess and do a differential diagnosis of her condition. Hopefully it might prove useful to you too should you discover something unexpected...

Alpacas like being in the middle of the activity. They respond to potential threats from other animals but when they are found to be safe after all, will grow to be acclimatised to them and quite tolerant of a range of animals. It is still going to be on their terms though. My own alpacas still react strongly to strange dogs but accept ours with only raised ears and general interest. Cats come in...

Catch up We first heard from Jeremiah Owen of Hiraeth Ranch, in Episode 12 of the podcast back in March 2019. Since then there have been some good learning opportunities and a few surprises along the way.  Shearing This has included his first time helping with shearing. It generated great excitement for all of the family and they took loads of photos – he said it was like being tourists in their o...

Take a consistent approach and you can begin to learn how to tell a good alpaca from an average one. Develop a flow of what you are looking at. Follow an order Legs Body Fleece Neck and head Eyes and ears How to buy alpacas You are not buying a box of a shelf, so take your time and remember you are 'buying' the breeder too for ongoing advice and support. Use a consistent approach for comparison. B...

When you hear stories of great success and large scale alpaca enterprises, it can feel a bit intimidating but it shouldn't. We can lear from people like Joe Phelan of K2 alpacas and be inspired. We can also take on board that inspiration and still be content to be who we are and do what we feel comfortable doing. If you are keeping alpacas as a hobby for personal fulfillment that is absolutely fin...

The clocks go back, the leaves fall, the nights draw in and there is mud everywhere. Looking at the alpacas you can tell it is autumn. What was it that caught your attention when you saw your first alpaca? the mutual watching always makes me smile - in fact, a lot of things alpacas do make me smile. We seem to have switched seasons here in the UK. What are some of the things we should be thinking...

Here is a home for alpaca people everywhere - a place to grow and connect, to become confident and fulfilled owners of happy and healthy alpacas. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was possible to combine keeping our alpacas and running a business, or even running a business keeping alpacas? The good news is that it can be done with thought, planning and application. In this episode, we hear more from Joe...

SHOW NOTES Joe Phelan of K2 Alpacas near Dublin has made great progress in growing his alpaca business - here he shares his journey and approach. He can identify something like 50 different income streams from alpacas. He spent two years researching before making the jump. Raised in a town he worked on a farm until his mid-teens during school holidays. The more research he did the more he couldn't...

Alpacas are easy to keep - relatively. If it feels like every day is a fight and a challenge - what if it was easy - or at least easier? Things can be different - different thinking, different doing and different being. You can have success as you build on your experience into the future. How do you measure success? We need to use the right measure and have the right expectations. We need to be mo...

It no longer surprises me but continues to amaze me, the way alpacas look at things. They really don’t miss much. They love seeing themselves in reflections. I so enjoy Julie Taylor-Brown’s story of the milking parlour from episode 15 – here it is again. As well as good daytime vision and noticing cows moving on the horizon, they have brilliant night time vision and a tendency to chase foxes. Some...

SHOW NOTES Alpacas are herd animals and herd animals thrive best in a herd. What makes a herd? Not one; and in my view not two either. A minimum viable herd would be three, though there are always exceptions. 1. How much can you afford? Work with a budget and remember it is more than just the alpacas. There are start-up costs to consider too. This will include providing shelter, water supply and f...

What is normal ? Everything has a cause When you first start with alpacas, it takes you a while to recognise what is normal. This is a learning opportunity - are youdoing the best for your alpacas in the best way? It is what we all aim for and learning what is normal, is a key part of achieving this. Everything your alpacas do has a reason behind it. In this episode, we consider this and particula...

SHOWNOTES Fibre is the prime product from alpacas. Beautiful in its native form as fleece it is truly beautiful when turned into fibre that is processed and used for alpaca products. Bridget Tibbs-Hamilton of Cotswold loves fibre and all things related to it. A spinner from days before alpacas, she discovered it and fell in love. She and her husband James now run Cotswold Alpacas and major on prod...

Brian Schieber began farming in 2001 and was involved with brokering, breeding, shearing and boarded animals, plus working with fleece. Realising some of the visitors to his farm were more interested as 'tourists' to visit the cute cuddly animals, rather than as potential owners, he began to find and stock appropriate merchandise that could be sold in his farm shop. Over time this developed into a...

The watchers become the watched. In this episode I share a few stories that illustrate how alpacas pay close attention to us and if we do the same we can let them teach us where we are going wrong and how we can improve as we interact with them. What is your greatest lesson an alpaca has taught you? Let me know through by sending me a voice message using the button on the website or here: Send me...