The other day I had a really enjoyable farm visit from a breeder currently agisting animals and starting to explore the possibilities of having their very own alpaca ranch.

We spent a really interesting couple of hours talking about every single aspect of farm design and construction. Barns, barn floors, barn lighting, gates and gate latches, watering troughs and feeding troughs, predator fencing and trailer layout, installing weighing scales and giving injections, feed rations, seed types, irrigation and neonatal care......there was very little we didn't discuss.

You might imagine that once you have been farming/breeding alpacas for a while you would get tired of talking to people who are about to embark on the great alpaca adventure (as I call it).

But that's never the case, I really enjoy sharing all we have learnt and talking through alternatives. Because so often there are no right answers to many of the choices we make in this business.

There are simply alternatives and at any point in time we make the very best decision we can with the information we have at that time.

I guess I am in the business of helping new alpaca breeders make well informed decisions for themselves.

I like the sound of that.

Adrian Stewart