Never underestimate the reach of the internet.
Yesterday we had a farm visit from a local family interested in alpacas and this morning I was swapping e-mails with a family in France who are thinking of buying alpacas and wanted to know how they would cope with the heat and humidity of Southern France.

As you will know the accepted wisdom is to take the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and add it to the relative humidity index.

Anything over 120 and your alpacas may become heat stressed.

For example 80 degrees F and 30% humidity would give you a score of 110 which is acceptable for alpacas.

There are things you can do to mitigate the likely hood of heat stress.
Shear your alpacas before it gets very hot.
Provide shade for your alpacas.
Spray their chests with water on hot afternoons.
Install electric fans at floor level in the barn.

My French contact visited Beauvaitrait Alpacas (Andy and Nicki Spillane) yesterday morning. They have one of the three biggest alpaca herds in France (80 alpacas) so it is a very young industry there.
The French national herd is about 1000 alpacas.

There are few things more adorable than a newly born cria. Unless you want 16 newly born Panda babies that is.



Adrian Stewart