Well, my plan worked – thankfully.  It was cold this morning – about 30 degrees F and the bigger of the two piles was steaming away.  It’s so nice when your plans work.  Actually I would have like to see more steam, but atleast I know what I am doing to keep the composting going is working.

I think the smaller pile has probably composted all it’s going to.  It is about a year old, so it should be ready to spread in pastures and gardens in the spring!  Whoopee…

There are some who have done research on alpaca poop compost and here are some of the results they have gotten.  For a cute and helpful book on alpaca beans look here.

Alpaca beans have all three primary nutrients, but in smaller percentages than most commercial fertilizers.  Those nutrients are N-Nitrogen, P-Phosphorus and K-Potassium or potash.  Sometimes fertilizers have a high level of N and that can cause chemical burns to young plants.  With alpaca beans or compost that N percentage is low and there is virtually no chance of burning or damaging plants. 

Here are the percentages that one fellow alpaca rancher found in his beans:

Nitrogen – 1.5%
Phosphorus – .7%
Potassium – 1.0%

These are fairly low numbers compared to commercial fertilizers, but higher than some other manures.

The average alpaca produces about 2 to 4 pounds of beans per day which can add up pretty fast.  Let’s calculate it at 3 pounds a day, times 7 = 21 pounds a week, times 4 =84 pounds in one month for just one animal.  My gosh, right now we have about 55 animals on our ranch.  That’s 4620 pounds of poop we are shoveling per month.  No wonder my neck and back are sore!!  Another reference for the benefits of alpaca poop here.

We have used this compost in our flower gardens and in our vegetable garden and have really appreciated the results.  You, too, might want to try alpaca compost for your gardens.