Fencing Part 3

Well the fence is now up. 2800 feet of 7 ft chain link buried 1 foot deep. The fence is buried so that coyotes and other dogs will not dig under the fence to get to the cria. Our location is quite remote and there is a good size pack of coyotes that pass near us on a regular basis. But now the fence is up and we can move the girls to their side of the barn and pasture which is larger.

Next on the list is some good weather (the long weekend had 2 days of rain) so that we can do a final clean up.

Next on our list of things to get done include:

• build covered entry ways into the barn so the winter snow cannot get in easily since the barn will always be open to the alpacas.
• shear the alpacas as soon as possible as mothers will be giving birth in june/july and August
• fertilize the pasture this week (weather permitting). Thankfully our local farmer has the equipment to do this quickly.
• purchase a scale to weigh animals, off ground hay feeders, neo natal kit
• buy or build small trough to ease competion on mineral/grain mix

We did get some good knews in that we qualified for some provincial and federal government funding for some of our capital purchases. We will get part of the cost of the fencing back under the protection of livestock from wildlife program, part of the costs to bring water from an existing well to the barn, and part of the costs to get a website developed. A link to the program is below.

http://www.gov.ns.ca/agri/prm/programs/fifguide.shtml

Government funding is always good news. Now that we have had our Enviromental Farm Plan developed we will also look at getting funding for a Nutrient Management program for our fields and manure storage capacity. Probably next year though.