Although many of our foundation herd of alpacas came to us from respected bloodlines and have show winner pedigree and we’ve had some gorgeous cria, we simply can’t compete with the elite breeders of today but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a valuable place in the marketplace.

Here at Hideaway Wood Farm we decided to long term wean our cria this year and have been sharing our journey over on our socials. I thought it would be a good idea to collate our experiences so far here on our farm blog as we often get asked about what we do about weaning and how the mums and babies are getting on.

Shearing 2024 was the first day of my alpaca apprenticeship, a baptism of fire, so I knew what to expect but having since trained in CameliDynamics I couldn’t help but wonder how we could incorporate a more gentle and respectful approach to the massive task of restraining and shearing thirty four animals in one day.