I am considering getting a llama or an alpacka instead of milk goats.. My wife spins wool and our homestead small, so an animal must be multi functional. Has anyone ever tried llama or alpacka milk? Is it good- what would it compare to? Also, do llamas eat like goats (foragers) or sheep (grasers) as our pasture is mostly open field.

-- kevin black (vantravlrs@aol.com), April 03, 2001

Answers

Go to www.google.com and do a search on "llama milk". There are answers there. One at least says there isn't enough to be worth it. Since people drink camel's milk, I imagine in theory it would be usable, but you could say the same about rabbits or mice.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 03, 2001.

One thing to consider. If your getting a llama you need to get a couple llamas. A single llama is not a happy llama. If you have goats and sheep that will help but a same sex llama mate is best.

While you can drink Llama milk, it general is not done. Llamas have very little excess milk after the Cria (baby llama) is done feeding. The Udders are small and nipples are very small. These dont lend themself to human milking very well.

Llamas are grazers like sheep. There digestive system is pretty effecient and most of what goes in is used for fuel. If your field says grassy most of the year then you would need no suplemental hay. If your have no grass in the winter, A single bale of hay will last a llama a week.

Wool from llama is great, No lanolin to deal with like you have with sheep. A typical llama will give you about 4lbs of wool a year. An alpaca about 2lbs.

Dont know where you are but quick llama FAQ can be found at http://personal.smartt.com/~brianp/

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), April 03, 2001.

Kevin any mammal can be milked. Recently saw a program on the horses in Tibet, some of these mares fed their foals and milked more than a first fresh goat would. You would want to choose a llama for your little project that was used to being handled, one who was just weaning her baby so you could continue milking. Choosing the llama with the largest "udder" would also be nice. I have milked out horse teats, and they are just barely smaller than some LaMancha teats. A better option would probably be to get angora's crossing them with dairy goats who already carry some cashmere, keeping the best milkers, breeding for teat size, and also fleece. In the long run you would simply get more milk from a diary goat, and more fleece from angora's or llamas, which all three get along just fine, dehorning the goats. Having had boarded an angora for a short time this winter, they are beautiful animals! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 03, 2001.

Kevin,Take it from somebody that owns llamas.It won't work!For all the reasons listed.The only people I have seen able to milk a camel have been Beduins.It is a question of reletive meaness in that case.remember that llamas are very head strong critters.

-- greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), April 03, 2001.

Alpacas are beautiful, gentle, easy to handle, small and PRICEY. They have excellent wool, without the thicker guard hairs you will find in llama fleeces. I worked on a farm with around 1200 alpacas for about two weeks, and saw a lot of newly fresh females (forgot the word, if I ever knew it). I never saw anything remotely resembling an udder that I would want to deal with, and with first-freshener Nigerians, I have dealt with some VERY small udders and teats (and production).

Also, remember, camelids are grazers, goats are browsers. If you feed hay, your goats won't touch the grass on a small place, so the alpaca (or sheep) can have it all without overstocking the area, depending on just how much land you have. Having a tiny place myself, I can tell you all about the woes of overstocking, and that with just one sheep! By the way, there are some small sheep out there with delightful, versatile fleeces, too. Jacobs come to mind, but there are lots of different choices for color and texture. Before deciding on a fleece animal, I would ask your wife to buy some of the raw fleece from another farmer and try spinning it. She may not enjoy spinning just alpaca, or just angora (rabbit), or just cashmere, or just mohair (goat). Some people will keep a fine-fleeced sheep and a couple of angora rabbits or an angora goat (mohair) for blending the fibers. For me, wool turns out to be a very nice base, and I can just buy a few ounces of some other exotic fiber if I need a change of pace or a special effect.

Something else to consider is a mid-size dairy goat. A lot of people are now crossing Nigerian Dwarfs with full-size dairy goats. Smaller is good, so you can keep two to alternate breeding times and keep yourself in milk year-round. If the breeding is good, these can be very nice, productive animals. Pygmy crosses tend to have more of a meat build than dairy, so they eat more and I don't think milk production is generally as good. For milk, I would stick with Nigerian crosses. Good luck!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), April 06, 2001.