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; 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.

L to R: Three best friends, Balthazar (fawn), Lughaidh (brown nose) Laurie G (white) Laurie G - also nicknamed Elvis for his quiff!

They are vulnerable to infection, especially from the umbilical cord, so we spray it with iodine two or three times in the first 24 hours. They may have trouble regulating their body temperature and blood sugar levels so we keep them and their mums in our barn overnight for the first week or so and this allows us to weigh them every morning to ensure they are thriving. The births tend to be straightforward and we have rarely had to interfere. If the cria hasn’t been born before three in the afternoon, it won’t put in an appearance that day because in South America the cria needs be up and walking before nightfall. For the same reason the mums hold off until a fine day. The births are very exciting. Within half an hour the baby is sitting in the cush position next to its proud mummy and within an hour up and looking to feed. The pregnancies last eleven and a half months, give or take up to a month (Portia kept us waiting a very long time for little Pluto).

So we breed alpacas for sale and for our own herd. We shear them ourselves and then the best fleeces are processed into beautiful wool from named alpacas. We sell hats, scarves and gloves we knit ourselves, and the wool, with our patterns if they are wanted. The lesser fleece is still beautifully soft so we use it for birdnesters and needlefelting kits, which we also make ourselves.

We also offer Alpaca Experiences on our farm, where guests hand-feed the mums and babies. (One of the nicest things about alpacas is that the babies stay really cute until you get your next set of cria). Our visitors then do clickertraining with our pet boys and we give a brief demonstration of our training method, - “like magic” -, which works with the alpacas’ psychology as both prey and herd animals. Our guests then lead an alpaca around our obstacle course, and out into the paddocks with more obstacles, for our longer Experience. We finish with some craftwork and our visitors go away with their own wee alpaca (and usually some alpaca purchases from our pop-up shop). We have worked hard to make the Experiences really enjoyable and we get great feedback and reviews.

We offer private visits and work with all sorts of group, including those with special needs.

We also offer husbandry course for people thinking of joining the alpaca world, covering all the things we wished we had known before we embarked on our alpaca venture.

In these days of agri-tourism the addition of a group of alpacas to your farming enterprise can be a great asset – but be warned, alpaca farming can be addictive!

For information: https://www. bowbridgealpacas.com

Curious Balthazar and Laurie G with Denzel in the background