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Bowbridge Alpaca Farm By Alison Johnson In 2012 I hadn’t even heard of alpacas; I am now, along with my husband, the proud owner of 51, with new babies (cria) due this spring and summer. We run Bowbridge Alpacas, an alpaca farm near Peat Inn in Fife, about a quarter of an hour each from St Andrews, Cupar and Elie. My husband had always wanted some land of his own and when he found 17 acres on a beautiful south-facing position with distant view to the Forth, he was keen for us to put in an offer. We couldn’t afford to just sit on the land and I had read, and kept, because I had been intrigued, an article about alpacas. I showed it to Paul and before I knew what had happened he had booked himself onto an alpaca husbandry course. We bought our land in 2013. If you can imagine a derelict field, that is what it was. We put in field
drainage and had it harrowed and sewn with specialized alpaca (17 different types of ) seed. We erected a large barn and had small paddocks fenced off – and we were ready to welcome our starter herd. We had chosen three pregnant girls with babies at foot and a gelded boy. Girls and boys (as they are known in the alpaca world) have to be kept separately. Since then we have bought alpacas in, sold pet boys and starter herds and bred our own cria. Alpacas are fairly easy to care for. They need unlimited access to hay all the year round;
L to R: Three best friends, Balthazar (fawn), Lughaidh (brown nose) Laurie G (white)
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supplementary feeding to add the nutrients they would obtain on rocky ground in South America, but not on our lush pasture; an annual injection against the local clostidrial diseases; and top-ups of Vitamins A, D and E in the winter months. Alpacas have been bred for their beautiful, warm, soft fleece for 4,000 years. Native to, but not wild in, South America they are preyed on by, amongst other animals, kayotes, mountain lions and bears. Because of this they keep their babies high up in very strong, muscular stomachs, making it difficult to tell whether they are pregnant or not. The matings last around half an hour
and the boy sings – orgles - to the girl all the way through. The orgling, a most unearthly sound – induces the release of the egg,. Two weeks after the mating we bring the girl into a pen and introduce a stud to her. If she spits at him she’s pregnant; if she sits she wants to be mated again. We wear old clothes for the spitoffs for obvious reasons! Alpacas make good mums. There is typically just one cria; twin pregnancies tend to fail at around the seventh month and, fortunately are quite rare. In South America only around 30% of the babies survive; here things are much better, because of the care we give to newborns.
Laurie G - also nicknamed Elvis for his quiff!
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