Alpaca Introduction Video

It's been a while, but I promised myself I would look at our marketing plan.

I thought a good place to start would be to create an introduction video. With that in mind, please check out my initial attempt & let me know your thoughts!



We should have some exciting news in our next blog update regarding a new purchase...

Communicating with alpacas

Should I admit that I try to 'humm' to my alpacas in order to communicate?

Alpaca shearing videos

These movies were made last month when we were shearing. The people sheearing the alpacas come from Australia & are absolute masters at their craft. They do such an amazing job.

Alpacas on TV

Did anyone catch the following on TV? It caught me by surprise, but it's always great to see alpacas on TV!

What were we doing?

What a day we had yesterday. We had gone out to do a favour for some friends.

The day started so well, what with the glorious sunshine and great company. Then the mood changed amongst our friends. We were subjected to the following:

• Being screamed at.
• Being spat at.
• We were kicked.
• We were urinated on.
• We were defecated on.

Things had changed from hanging out as friends to becoming public enemy number 1. I was having to restrain them on floor, I was having to put in my finest wrestling moves. I can hardly move today! And all this as a thanks for helping them!

So what provoked this reaction? Well i'll give you a clue: I bet Vidal Sassoon was never treated this way....

 Answers on a postcard.....

Alpaca calendar

Here at Ivywell Alpacas we thought it was time we did something for those less fortunate than ourselves, so we had decided to produce an alpaca calendar.

To make things a bit more fun we need fellow breeders to submit their best alpaca photos. The photos will be judged by a professional photographer with the winning entries being used in the final calendar.


We have created a website purely for the alpaca calendar: www.alpacacalendar.co.uk.

So please visit the website & support this cause by entering your best photos!

Fleece photos

We haven't taken any photos of our girl's fleeces for a while & as they will be getting sheared soon, I thought it was about time. I have to admit i'm pretty impressed with them, especially Marlposa, who is now 8 years old & still only 18 micron!

Alpacas vs Humans - who is smarter

I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent, well above a four legged animal at least. Yet again this weekend it was proved that is not the case!

It was time to do some more halter training & our oldest female, Marlposa, a peruvian import knows exactly what to do to make my life as difficult as possible. As soon as you want her to do anything, she drops straight to the floor & refuses to move for anyone. At about 65kg she knows that's too heavy to be dragged like a sleigh (although it doesn't stop me trying!).

So round 1 goes to the alpaca - but I will be back......

Anyway here's a couple of photo's of our efforts.

PS how does my wife manage to look so glamourous whilst working on a farm? Answers on a postcard please!

Mating season

Well we're almost into April & we've just had our first BBQ of the year. That can only mean one thing - time to get started with alpaca matings! We've been carefully assessing our herd over the last 12 months, matching stud qualities to those aspects our females are lacking. Then its a case of waiting for 11 and a half months hoping we've made the right decisions and that our herd moves forward a level. Lets keep everything crossed!

You have to start somewhere

After years of reading 'stalking' the blogs of others I decided it was about time we started our very own blog. So watch this space, where we will be able to update you on our various adventures into the world of an alpaca breeder.....