# Alpaca customers



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Sorry I'm in the wrong forum but I just got a customer with 70 alpaca.
They have a farm in NJ with very little land for grazing. Their herd is fed primarily out of 5 or so feeders. 
They tell me they don't like grasses with seed heads, even Timothy or O grass. 
Said they like dark green, leafy hay hay. 
I think I have a potential customer who will need 1 4x5 RB per week. 
She tried 3 of my bales and said they "liked" them, but didnt "love" them. She said she likes it that way so they don't gorge themselves and get too fat.
If she likes the way it goes, next delivery would be 10-12 bales plus a decent delivery charge 

So what's the scoop with hay for alpaca?


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Sounds like a good client for Teff that is cut before heading out.....in the early stage. If you could locate her a bale or two to try then maybe contract with her to grow it if the alpaca like it. I do not know if teff would dry out that far North tho....any growers in your area?

Regards, Mike


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Mike,
None that I know of. Honestly, I never heard of It until I came to this forum 3 yrs ago. 
What I have they might like is reeds canary grass. Dark green and wide leaves.down side is the thick stems, but maybe ifi cut it early???? Sid they'd also like to see >15% protein.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Sounds like good sheep hay would work.

Most of the time the owners are pickier than the animals.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Alpaca owners are picky with good reason. Some animals are worth quite a bit for some reason. They don't do well with stems at all because it will get in their wool and their eyes. Plus they will play with it and waste alot. For hay tests they are concerned about potasium (sp) levels. If it's too high they can abort babies or so I've heard.


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Sounds like second or third cut orchard grass would be what they want as there will be minimal stems and mostly leaf.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

FarmerCline said:


> Sounds like second or third cut orchard grass would be what they want as there will be minimal stems and mostly leaf.


Agree and I suggested that to them, but since they were out of hay and all I had was first cut, its all I could sell them.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Sheep and alpacas like fine short stem grass. I have a sheep customer that needs fine hay. I cut some second cutting that didn't get heavy fertilizer. I cut it maybe a foot tall. It doesn't yield a lot, but it dries easily. If they want 15% protein you are going to have to cut it at that young active growth stage to get the protein that high.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

PaMike said:


> Sheep and alpacas like fine short stem grass. I have a sheep customer that needs fine hay. I cut some second cutting that didn't get heavy fertilizer. I cut it maybe a foot tall. It doesn't yield a lot, but it dries easily. If they want 15% protein you are going to have to cut it at that young active growth stage to get the protein that high.


Funny you mention that. While I was down there, they showed me a small barn with about 200 small squares in it. These bales were fine thin stranded hay. They said the alpaca hate it and they lost weight when eating it. Looked like lawn grass...


----------



## SwingOak (May 19, 2014)

Sounds like they are asking for fescue, or perhaps bluegrass. I have a spot with a turf type tall fescue that grows leafy, thick, and fast with thin stems. Seems like it grows about 6" per week. Of course, that spot is my septic mound... but it is nice looking dark leafy grass that will grow to about 2' before laying over. Very few seed heads too.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> Funny you mention that. While I was down there, they showed me a small barn with about 200 small squares in it. These bales were fine thin stranded hay. They said the alpaca hate it and they lost weight when eating it. Looked like lawn grass...


It probably had more to do with the type of grass than it did that it was short and fine....


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Alpacas like orchard and brome grass hay just fine. I've sold lots of it to alpaca owners over the last 15 years. But only 2nd and 3rd cuttings.


----------



## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

I sell 2nd cut alfalfa/meadow brome small squares to a customer several hundred miles from me. Comes back every year so he must be happy.


----------



## MFMan (Jul 2, 2013)

I can affirm the statements made by several above because I've been supplying hay to a dozen or so Alpaca owners too for several years.... They are able to feed some young Second, and especially Third cutting grasses to the Alpaca's. Out here we grow mostly Orchard, Timothy and Fescue.

It seems like a new Alpaca owner wanders into my barn every season who wants to buy the cheaper priced bales of First cutting and invariably on subsequent visits they roll over to the nicer softer greener leafier bales of Third cuttings when they discover that's what those animals will eat.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks for the help. I think what they want is 2nd or 3rd cuttings.


----------



## bunkhouse (Aug 10, 2013)

You are right about 2nd. and 3rd. cuttings of orchard grass. Alpacas prefer o-grass but will eat other grasses , alfalfa at around 10/13 percent protein. We are forced to feed 1st. cut Orchard till 2nd. cut is baled. You clean up stems and old pushed aside hay and lead on. We have a herd of 25 alpacas and growing. They are fed off of 6x6 round bales that we seperate and place in hay feeders. We just baled 1st. cut last week because storms were always in the forecast. No good windows for hay making till now.


----------



## bunkhouse (Aug 10, 2013)

mlappin said:


> Sounds like good sheep hay would work.
> 
> Most of the time the owners are pickier than the animals.


Sounds like you need to read alot about alpacas health requirements, before you say the owners are more picky than animals. Been in business for 7 years good and bad times. I know better. Signed BUNKHOUSE


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I just offered to cut some 2nd cutting for them on the early side. 
Or should I just get them a regular second cutting?


----------



## bunkhouse (Aug 10, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> I just offered to cut some 2nd cutting for them on the early side.
> Or should I just get them a regular second cutting?


Just get them your regular 2nd. cutting , that will be fine. The hay has to be dry not baled with to much moisture or mold will set in a matter of days. Mold will kill them. Thanks for helping them out. they will pay good for your 2nd. and 3rd. cuttings.

signed

BUNKHOUSE

BUNKHOUSE ALPACA RANCH

Shipman, IL.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

bunkhouse said:


> Sounds like you need to read alot about alpacas health requirements, before you say the owners are more picky than animals. Been in business for 7 years good and bad times. I know better. Signed BUNKHOUSE


I have a kin folk who works on a ranch in SW Wyoming. A reemmooote ranch. No electric. 45 minutes to Rock Springs. For whatever reason, they have/had a herd of Alpacas. I think they lived pretty much on their own in that high desert. Fed some hay during the winter. I do know when the the owner thought there were too many, out came the rifle.

That sheep herding is serious business out there. Have to tote the Peruvian sheep herders food and beer a couple times a week.


----------



## Fossil02818 (May 31, 2010)

Our customer base is mostly small dairy goat operations, sheep breeders and some alpaca and llama owners. All of them pay a premium for our 2nd and 3rd cut afalfa/orchardgrass mix. Those cuttings usually produce 15-18% protein and an RFV around 140-150. I get about $350/ton for the excess crop I do not feed to our own breeding sheep flock. I keep some of our first cut for our beef critters and the stud rams and sell the rest to horse owners at $4-$5/small square bale. Its taken us a few years to develop this customer base, but, their nutritional requirements are higher than the pleasure horse market and they are very loyal customer.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

bunkhouse said:


> Just get them your regular 2nd. cutting , that will be fine. The hay has to be dry not baled with to much moisture or mold will set in a matter of days. Mold will kill them. Thanks for helping them out. they will pay good for your 2nd. and 3rd. cuttings.
> 
> signed
> 
> ...


Every year I get calls from alpaca owners wanting to buy 1st cutting grass. I would think most alpaca owners would know better by now. But I have to warn them that most likely their alpacas will not do well on the 1st cutting grass as it always has some stems and seed heads. They are still welcome to buy all they want of 1st cutting, but they can't call me to complain if the alpacas waste a lot and have trouble with it because I warned them.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Teslan said:


> Every year I get calls from alpaca owners wanting to buy 1st cutting grass. I would think most alpaca owners would know better by now. But I have to warn them that most likely their alpacas will not do well on the 1st cutting grass as it always has some stems and seed heads. They are still welcome to buy all they want of 1st cutting, but they can't call me to complain if the alpacas waste a lot and have trouble with it because I warned them.


I think they were just plain out of hay and needed to get the herd some food


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> I think they were just plain out of hay and needed to get the herd some food


I am always amazed at the people that call you in a fit because they are out of hay. You didnt see this coming when you cracked open the last bale? Never saw it coming? Then,BAAM! They are out??

Probably the same people that run the car out of gas, and run the house out of heating oil...


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Probably the same people that can't afford to buy more then 5 bales at a time and run out the day they need to find new hay. The same people that only put $5 of gas in their gas tank and constantly run with the low gas warning light blinking at them.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

If I couldn't afford more than 5 bales at a time I would be butchering the horse and filling my freezer. Kill two birds with one stone.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

PaMike said:


> I am always amazed at the people that call you in a fit because they are out of hay. You didnt see this coming when you cracked open the last bale? Never saw it coming? Then,BAAM! They are out??
> Probably the same people that run the car out of gas, and run the house out of heating oil...


Isn't that the frickin truth. 
Quick related story. I get this woman who wants me to deliver her hay, not my hay, but Timothy mix hay from local big timer im friends with. When she calls, she wants it NOW and I find out she waits until she's completely out, then calls me. Then she makes it into MY EMERGENCY! 
I'm like....what? You want hay first thing in the morning? Ohhhh Kay. 
So anyway, I do this for her from March through last week. I didnt complain. I did it and charged her a decent profit. 
Then last week, she stopped calling me. Guess she found a new Lackie that was $2 bucks cheaper and now all my running around was for nothing.....

Anyway, I don't know and am beginning to fear the alpaca girls are much better.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Yeah, its just crazy the way these people think/act...Problem is with some of them no matter what you do to help them out they have a rather short memory....


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

PaMike said:


> Yeah, its just crazy the way these people think/act...Problem is with some of them no matter what you do to help them out they have a rather short memory....


100% agree. I helped this customer unload bags of feed, helped her fix her mower, cut all the fields around her property (yes I kept the hay, but its junk) and when I got her hay , I'd park the trailer in the barn and her stable boy would break open the big bales on the trailer before I would unload making it difficult to unload the bales. 
All that and I'm gone.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I picked up a bunch of customers back when hay was real scarce, maybe 2011 or 2010. I was one of the few that had any hay cause I was buying it in from Ohio. All but one of my new customers have wondered off to someone else...It was worth it though. The one I have left is good and will take up to 50 rounds a year.

Help out farmers, but with horse people make your money and don't do favors...


----------



## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

We have about 2 dozen Alpacas and 4 dozen Shetland sheep. The big issue with sead heads is that they get stuck in the fleece. And yes both animals would prefer to bed on stem than eat it. If you do feed first cut your pen pack will grow significantly in a short time frame. We have found OG with a bit of red clover or Alfafa makes them happy, and keeps the weight on. I have a few fields of OG mix that I try to get a very early first cut out of, before sead heads emerge. This makes for great Alpaca hay, then I can get an early second off the same field.

As far as what they "like". I found over the years that camelids (Alpacas and Llamas) are very sensitive to the slightest sent of dusty or moldy hay. To the point where they can smell a bale that came form the wood line verse center of the field. For a few years it was perplexing why they would not eat one bale yet eat another form the same field. I would have to take samples out side and smell them very very carefully.

As well as mentioned above by others, wide leafy grasses are a plus as apposed to spindly grasses. They love RC, but will pen pack the stems.


----------



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Dsl- how much fleece does an animal produce in a year and what is said fleece worth? There are a few little alpaca farms around. I curious about their profitability. Alpaca burger was OK. One.farm got it in a local restaurant for awhile.


----------



## whitmerlegacyfarm (Aug 26, 2011)

In my experience the last few years JD, Alpaca people are great to deal with. Pay a premium price when they find nice hay. I market all my 2nd and 3rd cutting to Alpaca and Llama farms. Now I'm small time but I avg. $300/ton or $6.00 a small bale on 2nd and 3rd cutting. I did sell some first cut Brome Grass with a little timothy to a guy that ran short to hold him over and they like it well do to the Brome Grass. That don't tend to shop around for price either once you got them, they usually keep on coming back unlike a lot of horse folks always shopping. Orchard grass is a pain for 1st cutting but I love it due to 2nd and 3rd cutting, keep fertility and feed it well and stands will last a long long time from what I have heard. Make nice green soft hay.


----------

