Barn Tips

Llama Beans

Health Links

The Llama Directory has provided you with links to a variety of web pages that have health information about llamas. Go there now.

Fences

To keep your llamas from rubbing on your fences, put a street sweeper brush standing upright in your pasture. You will need to dig a 3' hole and put in a post and then drop the brush over the post. The bottom of the brush is a few inches off the ground and the llamas will brush up against this instead of your fences. Check with your city for old sweeper brushes.

Pastures

Get rid of moles in your pasture. Combine 6 Tbs. Castor Oil, 3 Tbs. dishwashing liquid and mix in your blender. Ad 6 Tbs water. Combine 2 oz of this mixture with 2 gallons of water and spray mole tunnels or entire yard. Can be repeated every two weeks.

Barn

Barn odors: In hot, humid weather, sometimes unpleasant odors can accumulate. There are various products that can help this. (1) Sprinkle the area with Stall Dry; it contains a deodorizer. (2) Sprinkle the area with a baking soda product called Bufferight. (3) Clean the area with ammonia. (4) or clean the area with liquid bleach. (5) Use absorbent bedding material.

Grooming

Use 1 part water to 2 parts Show Sheen in a spray bottle (mister). Using your blower, blow the dirt from your llama's wool and then spray-mist the wool. Let the wool dry for 15 minutes and repeat. Spray the mixture heavier on the back of the llamas neck where there may be more mats in the wool. The dirt works its way out easier and makes grooming less complicated.

Pour 8 to 12 ounces of Mane & Tail Conditioner in a 5 gallon bucket of warm water. Mix well and pour over the llamas wool, soaking it to the skin. Do it early in the morning so they can air dry. It doesn't matter if they roll. After about 3 days, everything just falls out and their wool looks and feels great! It's best to condition wool twice a year.

Feeders

Building a "creep feeder" is a great way to keep the older llamas out of a designated area and allows youngsters to get to their food. You may have to work with the crias to get them to accept it.

Hayracks result in being too short (only 1 or 2 adult llamas can eat comfortably from one); there is spillage of hay and the crias find it difficult to get to. Try this: Use plywood and 2"x4' studs to construct the feeder. The tops of the feeders are 33" off the ground and the bottoms are 12" off the ground. The cutouts for the crias are 14" wide and 10" deep. The distance from front to back is 20" at the top and 12" at the bottom. The tops of the feeders and the cria cutouts are all framed with 2"x4"s. The length is constrained only by the space you have available. The llamas enjoy digging down into the hay. It reduces hay spillage.

Heat Stress

Provide shade for your llamas; cool, clean water in the shade; wet down areas with the hose (the llamas will lay there and keep cooler); work only in cool mornings; hose down your llamas legs, belly, head, rectal area. Don't hose down the top part of their body. Use fans in your barn. Signs of heat stress: flared nostrils, rapid breathing, a sawhorse stance, staggering, walking stiff legged, refusal to stand or walk. If your animal has these signs, get your llama into shade, offer the llama a drink from a bucket, give the llama an enema with cool water. Notify your vet.

Shearing-
How to get started

The red scissors are regular sheep shears available through most feed or farm stores. The grey scissors are made by Fiskars and are available through most fabric stores, WalMart or llama supply catalogs. Never pull the llama wool up and away from the body while cutting, as this may result in cutting the llama's skin. Confine the llama according to its cooperation with the shearing process. Ideally, you've worked with it enough that it will stand quietly in a small pen, perhaps distracted by a flake of hay. If it won't settle down, put it in a chute -- don't take chances hurting it or yourself. When the llama has had enough, stop and give it a break. There's no rule that shearing must be completed in one session. A llama that becomes restless may need to use the manure pile.

Start your cut at the topline of the llama near the base of the tail and cut toward the back of the neck. Move down a few inches and repeat. Follow the curvature of your llama. Keep the cut fleece away from the llamas legs as you are cutting - they don't like things wrapping around their legs. When shearing the neck, work from back to front in horizontal rows. You can do this and it isn't that difficult - just take your time.

Shearing

Shearing Styles:

		The "Barrel Cut". The wool is removed only from the mid-section behind the shoulders to the hip and around the belly. It enables minimal cooling.
		This style is often referred to as the "Show Cut". Fiber is removed from the point of the shoulder (wither) down to the arm pit, the top of the tail down to the point where the belly meets the hind leg and around the belly allowing for moderate ventilation.
		Another version of the "Show Cut" drops the back cut from the tail and goes straight across the hip. This opens up the tail ventilation area which is extremely important on males.
	Shorn with hand scissors Shorn with electric shears	The "Lion Cut". This style is used on heavy-wool llamas. Everything is removed except on the neck, lower leg, and tail. As you can see, this cut allows for maximum ventilation and you really see what your llama's conformation is.
		Let's not forget the "Nudie". This cut is used every few years to remove all the "matted" fiber on the neck and elsewhere allowing the wool to grow back for easier grooming.

Where shearing is concerned, there is probably only ONE thing that llama owners will agree upon and that is that, it most parts of the U.S., it should be done . . . for the llama�s personal comfort, health, and general well-being. Many people may go to one or the other extreme � they leave too much wool on or they shear right to the skin. Both can be dangerous. After shearing, three or four or more inches left around the barrel of a llama can hold in as much heat as the previous five to ten inches that was cut off. Or, sunburn, insect bites, and hyperthermia (if the temperatures drop) can be dangerous for an animal that is shorn to the skin but is used to having a year round protective coating of some sort.

If you have access to Circuiteer Blower (double motor), blowing the llama well before shearing removes a lot of dust, sand, and tiny debris that can dull your blades quickly, hand or electric shears. When you're blowing the llama, start at the top of the back and blow the dirt down along the belly. This forces the dirt down and out.

If you decided to just blow your llama out, and it had a lot of knotted and long wool, you may need to clip off some of this wool with some large shears made for this type of work. Then you can begin shearing. Your shearing can be accomplished by using scissors, or commercial clippers. The clippers come in various weights and sizes. They can be electric or battery powered. The wonderful thing about the blades is that they can be sharpened and reused.

After you have prepared your llama. Begin you shearing on the back starting at the top. Have a plan or a pattern design before you start to shear. You can set your design by parting the wool with a comb. Cut inside your design, make the pattern smaller than you intend so you don�t over cut. It seems to be easier if you begin cutting at the top of the back nearer the head and neck. Think out your design and remember that you can return and finalize the cut by making a V by the neck or a rounded edge there. This doesn�t need to be done at the beginning of your shearing. Use long sweeping motions to shear. Don�t cut with short chopping motions. This seems be the most difficult part to learn when you begin to use the electric shears.

If you are shearing with scissors always point the scissors down. As you shear, especially the first few times, cut higher off the skin and gradually you will learn by practice how to lay the shears or clippers on the animal to get the cut you desire. Then you can go back and adjust the desired height of wool you wish to leave on the llama. Wool length that you leave will vary with each person. We like to leave some wool on the animal because of sun burn and insects which bite them.

Shear your llamas to insure that they will be comfortable before the weather gets hot. Get some Fiskar sheers with the sharpener and go for it. Shear in the cool morning or evening, not when it's hot outside. Try to keep the shorn wool from draping down and wrapping around their legs (they don't usually like that)Be sure to shear around their armpits, rear flanks and around their tails. What do you do with all that wool? Members -- sell your raw fiber.

The Llama Directory holds no liability on the information above, submitted by breeders.