Some Considerations for Winter Feeding Alpacas

Camelids’ digestion is about 25% more efficient when fed poor quality diets that other ruminants such as sheep. This fact has formed the basis in the past of the false assumption that they therefore could exist on poor pastures and survive on hay through the winter whilst sheep would starve. Compounding this error is the fact that camelids consume some 20-40% less per unit body weight than sheep or goats. On a poor diet they may be adapted to make more use of it than a sheep or goat but poor nutrition remains poor nutrition and impacts negatively upon reproduction through lower fertility, higher mortality of crias and delayed growth of young. Alpacas need proper nutrition to all classes of stock if they are to perform well and produce more crias and a quality fleece.

This winter we have been feeding all our alpacas good quality haylage, freely available all day, which was made in early June when the digestibility of the grass was still reasonably high, i.e. before it became stemmy. Don’t leave them to clear out the hayracks as they are very selective and leave the poorest bits behind! Clean out the coarse stemmy remains from the racks regularly and try to put in front of them only a bit more than they will eat in a day. If your hay is not of high quality consider supplementing it with lucerne (alfalfa) chaff which is a good source of protein with an important fibre content which is both beneficial to the digestive process and the digestible fibre is a also a good source of energy.

Young stock that are still growing need supplementing with a source of protein and energy to enable them to build frame and lay down muscle. Lactating females with crias at foot and those females that are in the last three months of their pregnancy also need a supplement. We are currently using micronised peas as the protein source and whole oats for the energy source. Oats because we believe that oats have something special that other grains lack and may be less irritant to the gut reducing the risk of ulcers; whole because they are slower to ferment in the stomach and that reduces the risk with feeding grain to any ruminant of disturbing the balance of the bacterial soup in the rumen. Go easy on the grain feeding, it is beguilingly easy to feel that it will do them good to have a bit extra but it often doesn’t. An example of a balanced diet for lactating females would be made up from good hay and grazing possibly supplemented with lucerne hay (6 parts), whole oats (2 parts), and peas (2 parts) on a dry matter basis.

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