No One Can Have Just One Fiber Animal

Fiber farming is sort of like eating a bag of Oreo cookies…it is hard to stop at one. The first cookie fills your senses with all of its goodness, the sweet scent of chocolate and the perfectly round dab of white cream filling between two crisp wafer cookies. I never even go down the cookie isle in the food store, never even bring a bag home, because then, I would have to control my desire to eat the entire contents of the bag in one sitting.

That same desire to have it all at once, has been my weakness in fiber farming. Once I entered the threshold of owning sheep, it was like this inescapable slippery slope which landed at the doorstep of more fiber animals. I blame my obsession on the enthusiasm of other fiber folks-those who lured me into their booths and pens at the fiber festivals-those who put their amazing animals in my hands and pressed their wool and fiber into my hands. Over the past eleven years, we have owned sheep, llamas, angora rabbits, and angora goats, and have helped countless other people feed their fetish for everything fiber. I am happy to say, that I have overcome those temptations to have it all. With children leaving home and facing the reality that for the foreseeable future, I will be the main caretaker of the animals on our farm, I have settled on owning only one species of fiber animal at a time…..I think.

In general, raising alpacas with sheep or goats should not present a problem, as long as you factor in some of the differing needs of each species.  The most important thing to consider is their nutritional  needs. All small ruminants eat mostly grass and hay,  but each species may be fed supplemental pellets and minerals according to their specific needs. It is critical that these supplements are safe for all species that have access to them. For example, supplements formulated especially for alpacas might contain too much copper for sheep. Sheep are very susceptible to copper toxicity. 

One way to get around this is simply to separate different species when its time to feed the supplements. Another option is to raise each species in separate, but adjacent areas. With careful planning, it is not a difficult issue to manage.

Another problem may be the farm infrastructure, when set up for one species, it might not work efficiently for others.  For instance, many sheep farms have fencing that is much too low for alpacas. Alpacas can jump over a fairly high fence. In full fleece, they can walk right under one wire of electric fence and never feel it. People often try to make do with an infrastructure that simply does not meet the needs of both animals when introducing new species onto the farm, and that can lead to problems. Careful planning BEFORE you bring in another species is key.