Alpaca halter training normally takes place over the Spring and Summer when junior alpacas are about 9/12 months old. Alpaca crias stay with their mum’s till they are weaned at 6 months old. To reduce stress the crias stay in their birthing group – we wean by removing the females. After a month or so to allow the crias to adjust to life on their own, we start their halter training.
That is in a normal year! 2020 will no doubt be remembered as the year of Coronavirus. On the farm we still need to feed all the alpacas and attend to their husbandry. In addition, there are the normal farm chores to attend to BUT we have had to cancel all walks. This gives us the time to really press on with the halter training of the 2019 crias. In 2019 we had 8 female crias and 15 male crias (including one llama – Father Ted).
We are known throughout the alpaca industry for our husbandry and beautifully trained alpacas. When we set up Spring Farm Alpacas we knew we didn’t want to compete with large herds on numbers. We did want to enjoy our alpaca ownership and set out to breed the best trained and most friendly alpacas we possibly could. To that end, Vicki has learned her handling techniques through learning from the best in the business and honed her skills still further with 20 years of alpaca (and llama) ownership. We think we have achieved our aims!