Greenbriar Farm - MAM Consulting Associates Inc.

Good fence makes good neighbors. This defines fence that is best for alpacas considering that most livestock are injured by attacks from outside the fenced enclosure. Other than an amorous male, alpacas do not challenge the fence. These two facts best define how fence for alpacas should be chosen and designed.

Wire fence is preferred to wood, vinyl, or composite in our opinion. Wood fence provides containment for alpacas but fails to protect alpacas from animals outside the enclosure. Cr... read full article

Questioning ones membership in an organization is what provides challenge and quality to an organization but when that question draws the conclusion the organization no longer is beneficial to me and I no longer need to support it through membership is perhaps a very short sighted view.

Responsibility is the usual argument compelling people to remain in an organization after benefits are no longer perceived. Responsibility is not without merit however I have not convinced anyone to rejoin fr... read full article

We need to agree on what prepotency is before we can entertain it as the single best tool to select an alpaca. Prepotency is an alpacas’ ability to pass on heritable phenotypic traits that it possesses without regard to environment or selected mate.

There are four evaluation criteria used for selection; pedigree, show results, phenotype, and progeny. Taken together, they are an adequate method to make a selection and use in a controlled breeding program.

Pedigree is research of an alpaca... read full article

When we accept the premise that line breeding is defined as the mating of alpacas with common ancestry then we have also defined inbreeding. The difference appears to be in perception. Inbreeding, especially relating to human mating refers to single generation mating such as father daughter, brother sister, or mother son. In fact, law dictates that marriage between relations closer than third cousins is prohibited. This provides the negative stigmatism associated with inbreeding. Queen Vict... read full article

Prior to this discussion getting fully underway we need to realize that there are many types of mites, four of which are most prevalent and each carrying there own level of severity of condition and treatment. Please understand, I am not an Acarologist (one who studies ticks and mites) but an Alpaca rancher who has encountered mites and done the research to understand the condition.

The four types of mites are divided into two groups; burrowing and surface. Burrowing mites are Sarcoptic and... read full article

Peruvian, Chilean, and Bolivian is touted as a difference in quality and I find this hard to believe and offer my reasons why.

Peruvian, Chilean, and Bolivian refer to Port of Export. Port of Export is the exit point of an alpaca from South America. This does not even designate Country of Origin. On point, a story related to export was related to me by the exporter. He originally had exit visas for his alpacas from Peru when that exit visa was cancelled just prior to shipment. He there... read full article

We sheared our prize alpaca – prized because he received red and blue ribbons in every halter class he entered and because the judges all agreed, “you have a good one there.” The fleece, the reflection of this alpaca, was an extension of the halter show ring, so the preparation of the fleece, skirting, was no different than our preparation for the halter ring. Get the Beans out!

We rolled the fleece onto the skirting table when the debate between my wife and I began. How much, and what sho... read full article

The Wisconsin farm started seeing strange terms such as cria, hembra, macho when referring to livestock. Add in a few others like Huacaya and Suri and you start to wonder are you on a Wisconsin Farm or a South American Estancia.

The rural landscape in Wisconsin is evolving perhaps seeing the reduction in the family dairy farm slowly replaced with what are now called factory farms where dairy cows are milked 24/7. That trend does not sit well with adjacent neighbors but to attain economies o... read full article