Do alpaca droppings make good fertilizer?

[teach1rusl]

We just bought a few more acres adjacent to our property, so we're adding a few alpacas (our first) next spring. I've been researching them and what it takes to care properly for them. I've visited one alpaca farm near our area - they were great about showing us around and answering our questions. They told us that the manure isn't really much use for fertilizer unless it's mixed with a lot of other things. But I was reading on one alpaca web site (an alpaca farm personal web site) that said they did use theirs for fertilizer. Not sure why I'm getting mixed signals...
So I'm wondering if any of you alpaca people have found it to be a good fertilizer??? And if not, then what do you do with their droppings??? Thanks!

 

[ksalvagno]

I'm not sure why someone would say that the manure wasn't good. We actually took our wheelbarrow full of manure every day and spread it directly onto the grass. We would section off an area that needed to be fertilized and then spread alpaca manure thickly over it until we were done with that section and then moved on to another section. We had such thick grass that it was hard to keep up with the mowing. We had continued to do that until the whole place had a good layer of alpaca poo. The nice thing about the alpaca manure is that you can put it down directly onto stuff unlike other manure like cow or horse manure.

We no longer have alpacas (2011 was our last year) but we are continuing to do that with our goat manure. We have an area that we need to build up and the alpaca/goat/chicken manure is doing a great job of it.

 

[Roll farms]

Depending on what the llamas (or alpacas...or goats....) eat, you can get a LOT of weed seed in their poop. We put some on our garden one year and had a bumper crop of clover and ryegrass.

I started making poop tea, where I'd put the poo in a bucket, fill it w/ water, let it 'steep' for a week (stir occasionally), then drain the water out and use it for liquid fertilizer w/out the seeds. Worked great! I do the same w/ goat poo.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I'm not sure why someone would say that the manure wasn't good. We actually took our wheelbarrow full of manure every day and spread it directly onto the grass. We would section off an area that needed to be fertilized and then spread alpaca manure thickly over it until we were done with that section and then moved on to another section. We had such thick grass that it was hard to keep up with the mowing. We had continued to do that until the whole place had a good layer of alpaca poo. The nice thing about the alpaca manure is that you can put it down directly onto stuff unlike other manure like cow or horse manure.

We no longer have alpacas (2011 was our last year) but we are continuing to do that with our goat manure. We have an area that we need to build up and the alpaca/goat/chicken manure is doing a great job of it.

How come you don't have alpacas anymore?

 

[ksalvagno]

I'd been in alpacas for 14 years including birthing alpacas for other breeders. I just got tired of doing it and extremely burned out. The birthing part took over my life and I wasn't doing anything else but that. Never could go anywhere, even for an afternoon. Plus I got goats and they are so much more friendly and actually want your attention.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Supposedly, alpaca poop is the best thing for grape vines, so that might be a market for you! I have more than I know what to do with, but we spread it everywhere and work it into the garden area and our asparagus took off like a rocket, so Yes, its good. Actually, I was always told its second best to rabbit. Wonder why they told you it wasn't??