Grassland management

I don’t claim to be an expert in grass management, but this article outlines some of the lessons we have learnt on our alpaca journey, writes Alison Johnson, Bowbridge Alpacas, Scotland.

Management of grass is very important for the health of your alpacas, and affects your feed costs, your ability to breed successfully, the growth of your cria, the worm burden of your herd and their general well-being. If you manage your grassland well you will also not need to plough up and reseed it – a costly and long-term process.

If you can imagine a derelict field, that was our land when we bought it. It had clay soil, was south-facing (with beautiful views) and had lain unplanted and unloved for several years. Taking advice from local farmers we had the field ploughed and then laid field drainage. We have just over 17 acres and 20 channels were dug out by a digger.

We lined them with gravel and drainage pipes were laid and then more gravel was filled round and on top of them – hard work as we did it all ourselves.

Field-drainage is very important, so you don’t get areas of standing water, especially if you live in an area prone to liver fluke, a particularly devastating worm for alpaca health and which has an amazing life cycle involving water-living tiny snails. We then had the field harrowed and sown with specialist alpaca grass - 17 different types of seed, with a lot of clover.

I have read that alpacas are light on grassland, and they are to an extent, but areas around their feed troughs can become very muddy during wet winter weather. We laid loose hard core around these areas, which makes life easier and the alpacas less prone to foot-rot, but poo-picking is more challenging on hard core, so nothing is straightforward.

Poo-picking is very important for alpaca health, to help control worm burdens.

The advice is to poo-pick daily or every other day. This is possible if you have a very small herd and can do it by hand with a bucket and scooper, but with a larger herd the weather can have a huge effect on your ability to poo-pick.

Alpacas are supposed to all poo in the same place. This is true up to a point, and you can spot their favourite spots by the luxurious grass growth in these areas, but although there may be large spaces without much poo, these piles do seem to be spread all over the fields. If you have large paddocks and need to use a poo vacuum and/or sweeper (we have both), and if the ground is wet, the wheels of your buggy or tractor (and we have both) can churn up the ground and churn in the poo.

The message is poo-pick whenever you can when the ground is dry, and hopefully the poo will never build up too much, but in wet periods this can be very difficult.

Resting paddocks

When we started (with seven alpacas) we fenced five small paddocks. At this moment we have 57 alpacas and over the years we have fenced more land and we now also have two very large paddocks. Our next plan is to divide them into smaller paddocks, as this allows us to manage the grass better.

What we do is move the alpacas from one of the paddocks and thoroughly poo-pick it. We then top the grass and let it “rest” for as long as possible, and for at least six to eight weeks. This breaks the worm life-cycle and allows the grass to recover, consolidate its root system and grow. We would top it again as soon as the grass in that paddock in general reaches the height of the lush poo-pile grass. This process also depends on the alpacas having access to shelter in all the paddocks, so there can be a difference between the ideal and the real world.

Alpacas prefer fairly short grass, around two to four inches (five to ten centimetres). We have around 45 to 55 alpacas on our land, depending on the time of year, and they are unable to keep up with the spring and summer grass, so we top it regularly.

Topping is cutting the grass before weeds and grass have seeded. It is a very good way of controlling weeds (except for the poisonous yellow ragwort which needs to be dug out before topping; growing the ragwort is very bitter, so is left alone, but dry it is just as poisonous and may be eaten).

Topping improves the quality of the grass and reduces weeds. If you have a smaller amount of land, but need to cut the grass, if you cut some lines like a St Andrew’s cross, for example, in the paddock, the alpacas will be able to eat around that and will be able to move on from it. You may also wish to make hay from your fields; the size of your fields may make this economically worthwhile if you can do it yourself, or, more likely, find a farmer who is willing to do it for you. However, when we got hay made from our paddocks, the farmer, understandably, chose to come to us, a small customer, at a less than ideal time weather-wise and the resulting hay wasn’t of the best quality. We have decided, therefore, to just top the grass and buy in good-quality hay. If we don’t count the time my husband spends on his tractor topping (and he loves it), it proved more economical to buy hay in anyway. Topping should ideally be done once a month in the growing season.

You can also get your soil assessed for chemical make-up and advice on what to do/add to improve it; our local seed merchants helped us with this and some agricultural colleges or agents may also be able to offer advice. You need to decide if you are happy to use artificial chemicals on your land to improve it. There is no point adding fertiliser unless the grass is actively growing as it will not be taken up, and will be washed away into the watercourse with the next heavy rain. You can store and dry your alpaca poo and apply it, dried and ground up, after around three years.

Lots of more detailed advice is available in specialised literature and online, but this article will give you a starting point on what to think about in managing your pasture. Writing this has helped clarify my thinking and understanding of grassland management and I hope it will be useful for you too.