Alpacas. Why?

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Alpacas. Why?
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Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 11:59 am Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

Perhaps, with your legal experience, you'll be able to wangle a job on the prison farm

How did my dear husband's rant on Alpacas descend into this...?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45704
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 12:00 pm Post subject:
Dunno but he's definitely legged it

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 12:25 pm Post subject:
and on that note you need this... https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 1:02 pm Post subject:
I thought there was a lama wool co-op that buys to wool? I think the celebs should get 'em. I can just see Tara Parlmer Lama Farma Drama.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 3:35 pm Post subject:
I had an idea that alison used hers for chicken guards - they gang up and chase mr fox. At the moment I'm knitting with alpaca wool - it's so soft, if there isn't a market for it there should be. I think there's a british alpaca board too - where's alison, I'm sure she knows.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 3:53 pm Post subject:

The Scottish Agricultural College offers this pretty comprehensive page:
https://www1.sac.ac.uk/management/External/diversification/Novstock/camelids.asp
which includes a link to UK Alpaca, the coop.

It suggests an alpaca might produce 5kg of fibre/year. Made into yarn that should sell for �150. Doesn't sound like a great *financial* return. But I'm not sure that cost/benefit analyses always tell the whole story!
But llama trekking at say �40/afternoon, half a dozen llamas, two days a week, would be two grand a month...

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 3:55 pm Post subject:
I must admit llama trekking has always made me laugh. I can see why places offer it, and I'd quite like to go for a trot with a llama just as much as I like to go for a walk with a dog...but paying for exercising someone else's animals???

joker

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 188
Location: hiding

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 3:58 pm Post subject:
Ah but they do carry the very heavy packed lunches

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 4:02 pm Post subject:

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 6:42 pm Post subject:
Don't you ride on them then? and can you ride an alpaca?

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 7:49 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Don't you ride on them then? and can you ride an alpaca?

No. And no.
And I think we've established that eating them would be foolish (and probably BTW tough...)

"Trekking": see for example
https://www.hulvertree.fsbusiness.co.uk/price.htm
looks like a nice little business...

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 8:15 pm Post subject:
Oh, I'll stick to me dogs then (at least you can take them in the pub!)

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 9:18 pm Post subject:
I've never seen a pub with a No Alpacas/Llamas sign, and I believe that British law is based on the idea that things are permitted unless specified as illegal, so it might be worth a try.....

Gertie

Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 9:21 pm Post subject:
B*gger, I don't know any llamas or alpacas - otherwise I would take one in our local for a pint - wouldn't mind seeing what my local landlord would say about taking one in his pub.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 05 10:59 pm Post subject:

There's a pull out special in this months country smallholding about alpacas - lots of ads and a few articles on what to do with them. It seems most of the market is in breeding to sell to bolster the 'british herd', but thats not sustainable and will top out at some point, so fleece is the main product.

I've no idea what the overheads are, but I paid 4.25 per 50g for my alpaca wool - so it retails around 85 pounds per kilo! At the average yield of 3.5 kilos per head, that's nearly 300 quid a year. I have absolutely no experience of keeping livestock at all, and obviously there would be costs involved, but I can buy an organic butchered lamb for �150. Stocking densities and the like are said to be similar to keeping sheep.

Maybe it's not so daft, after all!

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