We have been working on our expanded vegetable garden.  One of the exciting things about it is that we get to use our very own BLACK GOLD from the alpacas. 

Chuck working hard spreading the composted alpaca poo for our new vegetable garden.

Alpaca manure is lower in organic matter content than manures of most other barnyard livestock, but it still has plenty to improve soil texture and water holding capacity.  Because an alpaca’s digestive system breaks down the food so efficiently, their ‘beans’ can be directly put on or in any garden area without the concern for plant burn.

We have composted our alpaca dung for the past three years.  I have talked before about watching the compost pile steam – very cool.  Anyway, the very first pile we started is now gone – we used it all over the last year and have sold some, too.  It is wonderful for vegetable gardens.

This is the ‘alien’ that we found in the compost pile. 

Same quarter – different grub.  The guy in the top picture is huge!

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.

I’ve had to revert to this to get my compost piles activated again.  We haven’t had any rain in such a long time and the compost piles have dried out. 

Chuck turned the piles today with the tractor – now I have to get busy watering them.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cold and I expect to see some  STEAMING!!

I’ll have to admit that I haven’t been all that thorough with our compost piles.  They have dried out a bit with the drought we have been having and when they are dry, there is no composting going on.

Last week I put the sprinkler on each pile for a couple of hours to get the process beginning again.  Chuck is going to get out there with the tractor and turn the piles some.  I will put the sprinkler on them some more and we’ll see if we can get them to ’steam’. 

This is a picture of a pile steaming from last year and this is what I want!

Open Ranch at Hill Country Alpacas

Celebrating National Alpaca Farm Days 

Please join us! 

Saturday, September 27, 2008

10am – 4pm

858 Moffett Road

Medina, TX

See the alpacas, watch spinning & fiber  

demonstrations, yarn and retail alpaca products 

 available  

830-589-7750

It’s just plain hot lately.  These are the dog days of summer……but chores are always there no matter the weather.

We just finished cleaning all of the pastures as we are awaiting a big rain this weekend!  The rain will be good for the pastures, and the compost piles will be helped by rain, too.  It has been so dry.

I just took a look at our new ‘weather station’ and the temperature has now dropped 10 degrees and there is a wind blowing in.  Come on let’s RAIN….

Our vegetable garden is looking fabulous!  We already have little tiny tomatoes growing…and lots of tomato buds!  The lettuce is beautiful, the little carrot tops are cute and the yellow squash plants are outstanding.

Our lovely rose bushes have been blooming for weeks now.  The hummingbirds even like them.  Chuck asked me the other day when we should cut them back (he thought we should do that to encourage new blooms), but, I think they will keep budding and blooming all summer.  Atleast that’s what I hope they do.

Yesterday we added alpaca poo compost to the vegetable garden and to the new planting area in our flower beds.  So awesome…….

Well, I thought today was going to be the day.  I can’t tell you how uncomfortable Justine was today.  She was up then down and then up and then down.  On one side, then sternal, tail swishing, back end bulging.  The cria was moving a lot today.  Later on in the day I could tell that her cervix was beginning to dilate. 

So maybe today still – but it is past 6:30pm.  Maybe tomorrow…..April 24th would be a good day to have a baby!

Check in tomorrow and we’ll see what happens. 

On another note, Chuck is at this very moment putting the sandy loam mixed with alpaca compost in the flower garden we are working on.  The other day I bought 36 beautiful plants to put in the garden.  Can’t wait to start digging. 

Just thought I’d share one of our favorite things about the Spring/Summer around the Hill Country – hummingbirds.  They drink two of these feeders every day and a half.  The most that we have counted at one time is 15 – but they are hard to count when they are in perpetual motion!!!

I am so excited!  I have been wanting a vegetable garden since we moved to this property three years ago…

Last year I wanted home grown tomatoes so badly that I just planted some in my flower garden and let them be.  We had so much rain that I never needed to water them and the tomatoes were fabulous.  I was ready to plant them in my flower garden again until Chuck said one day that he was going to go buy the supplies to make a vegetable garden.  Yea!!!

Just last week Chuck and I began work on our vegetable garden.  We got old railroad ties and made a rectanglar raised shape and filled it with soil and alpaca compost.  Just last Friday I made it to the store and bought some tomato plants and some green pepper plants.  I also bought some lettuce seeds, carrot seeds, and squash seeds.  A couple days later we got busy setting posts for a fence since we have white tail and axis deer that come around.  If we don’t protect this garden from the deer they are going to think that we planted a nice little salad bar for them.

A few days later….the garden is planted…

This is what we have.  I am so excited!

Today was a day of ranch work.  We spent time medicating our alpacas who are still getting over diarrhea from the TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular a couple weeks ago.  The diarrhea is working it’s way through our herd and now all but about three have had it.  Some had it worse than others and some only showed symptoms for a day or so. 

We also spent about one and a half hours watering the compost piles.  We haven’t had rain in such a long time that the piles have dried up.  When they dry too much, the natural composting doesn’t occur.  They are sufficiently wetted now and hopefully in the next couple of cool mornings we’ll be able to see them steaming!!!  We are hoping to use that compost this spring when we plant our vegetable garden.

We also set the sprinklers in the pastures again in hopes of getting the native grass to grow and preparing the pastures to be seeded once the threat of freeze is over, which is usually in mid March.  It’s amazing how one day of watering brings out those prized little sprigs of green grass.  

Happy Pastures – little grasses starting to grow~!