Thoughts Upon the Completion of the First Year with Llamas

Our first two llamas, Casey and Maracaibo, arrived at our farm on April 15, 1997. A year later we have nine llamas and the herd is growing.

This article is a collection of miscellaneous thoughts and experiences not covered in prior articles. We have targeted this article for new and prospective new llama owners.

A common theme in our articles is what a good resource other llama owners are. Much of what we have learned over this past year has been from other llama owners. Other good resources are llama organizations and their newsletters.

The criteria we established for selecting a trailer included:

·        it must be able to hold at least 4 llamas

·        it must provide a means for segregating male and female llamas (or male and male)

·        it must be easy to handle (it is our first trailer)

·        the cost must be reasonable when viewed in the context of its likely usage, trips to shows, deliveries and acquisitions.

While we found the aluminum trailers to be attractive from the viewpoint of ease of handling, they were ruled out because their cost could not be justified by our potential usage.

We attended our first show, MARICO, with llamas one-year, almost to the day, after acquiring our first two llamas. It will be another year, at the earliest, before we will have any llamas for sale, but we felt it was time to experience a show and to begin to develop a market. The experience and camaraderie were invaluable. It helped us focus on defining our market. We also had a great time talking about llamas with the public and other llama owners.

Preparing for one’s first show is more time consuming than we had imagined. We created a logo (which we put on our sweatshirts, T-shirts, turtlenecks and hats), a brochure and a farm newsletter. We worked up a banner but need to develop a larger one.

We were particularly concerned that we would not bring all the gear that we would need. Dick LeDuc, Pondview Llamas, faxed us a copy of his ‘trailer list’, which we modified to reflect differences between his farm and ours. The list was most helpful. Click here to see our most recent version.

We recommend acting immediately as soon as you receive notice of a show you wish to attend. For a variety of reasons, good and bad, we were slow in getting a start on preparing for the show. We missed out on reserved lodging and had to find lodging elsewhere. If the show is out of state, you will need a medical certificate. The timing of various tests and vaccinations can be critical. For example, if a rabies certification is required, the shot must be given at least 30 days before you arrive at the show. On the other hand some tests, e.g., blue tongue and brucellosis must be performed within 30 days of your arrival.

Other things to consider are insurance and identification, both of which are likely to be required. You should check with your insurance agent to determine if you have appropriate coverage. With respect to permanent identification, we opted for microchips. The alternatives are tattooing and ear tags. The former can be messy and the latter can be unsightly and may chew up the ear. Microchips also have disadvantages, they are expensive and they can migrate. If a chip migrates you may find yourself at a show without the required identification.

Update on June 28, 1999. If you use microchips for identification we strongly recommend the following:

I now carry both my farm and my professional business cards with me. I also try to have a few farm brochures and newsletters packed in my briefcase. I take advantage of the fact that meetings rarely start on time because one or more parties are late. When I pass out my professional business cards, I will frequently mention the farm and then pass out the farm business cards. More often than not, I will end up passing out my farm brochures to interested parties. By the time the meetings start the ice been broken and more people know about our farm. Just this past week I have learned that our farm brochure and newsletter were passed along to the CEO of one of my professional clients. He wishes to meet me the next time I am there for a meeting.

Before moving to Maine, we lived on Cape Cod. While there, on occasion, I would go out digging for quahogs at the crack of dawn. The combination of the sun rising over the water, the shore birds skimming the waves and sea life scampering over my feet was far more important to me than the number of quahogs I was able to harvest. It soothed my soul.

This has been replaced by going out to the pastures with a rake and a scoop to ‘harvest’ the llama dung. The shore birds have been replaced by a variety of land based birds (hawks, woodpeckers, grosbeaks, …). The sea life has been replaced by our inquisitive llamas who come over to see what this character is doing. The effect is the same. It encourages me to ponder the existence of life and my role on earth.

One of the beneficial side affects of having llamas is the bountiful manure they provide. I am an organic gardener and rejoice at having access to this fertilizer. I am in the process of converting some rather depleted soil to gardens and am rehabilitating a small apple orchard. Once these projects are accomplished, I will start the process of creating a future pasture.

I am also rehabilitating (slowly) my wood lots. If  I ever have a surplus of dung, I would like to spread it in my rehabilitated lots.