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Hi all
Living in France Two odd adults, three kids, half acre veg plot, 6 llamas three on the way, three donkeys, four cats, 1 dog, some chickens, lots of woodland.....In the middle of hay making and waiting for llama babies.........oh and I just burnt the rice messing about here
Thanks for the warm welcome............
Hay we make twice a year if it rains enough to get a second cut.......this year there's not much rain less than last year and we didn't second cut then so I'm not hopeful...if we don't get a second cut hay is dear......it's a pain.
Woodland we only own about an acre but have use of over two hectares and are in a national park of about 100 hectares (I'm making that up I don't know how big the park is but it is very big). From my house I can walk through woodland and not reach a sizeable community (as in having a shop or some such) for a day or two. France is big
Garlic wrote:Hay we make twice a year if it rains enough to get a second cut.......
Hi Garlic, and welcome to the forum!
Ha, we also make hay twice a year... but we have to say, if the sun shines enough! Rain isn't usually the problem - not yet up here in Scotland, at least.
In fact, not a lot of hay is made around here any more, it's mostly silage, due to the lack of enough sunny days in a row to get the stuff dry.
Do you keep the llamas solely for breeding, as pets - or do you use them for anything else?
Ina
I'm a size 10, really; I wear a 20 for comfort. (Gina Yashere)
Hi ina
I'd love to know more about silage it's not made here so we just do hay. before we came here we were city folk so don't know about anything they don't do here........educate me
We keep our llamas for breeding, we're expecting three babies soon also for fertiliser and for wool. We shear every year and are just starting to market our wool (technically fibre). We also have trained some of our llamas as trek llamas which means they can carry packs of around 40k we take them walking in the mountains and have just started an 'alternative walking holiday'with llamas carrying supplies and we take folk up into the mountains for a few days feed them good food that we've grown and try to introduce then to a slower pace of life
Thanks - I've read your other thread on the Links forum by now, too...
Do you just sell the fibre as it is, or do you process it somehow? I've got a couple of cashmere goats, and so far I've done nothing with their fibre - need to do a second combing on one of them still - but I'd like to eventually process it myself, but nobody seems to know for sure how to do it! Oh well, I'll find out before I have enough for a jumper...
Silage: Basically it's fermented grass... You cut the grass, if possible leave it for a day or so (particularly if it's very wet), stick it on a heap (often in a three-sided clamp for stability), try to get as much of the air out as possible (by driving backwards and forwards over it with a heavy tractor), then cover it airtight (that's all the black plastic you see floating about the countryside!), and weigh down the plastic with old tires (traditional), or sandbags. Some make bales of silage nowadays, too. And silage is made of maize, too (and possible other plants in other parts of the world?!)
Good silage smells a bit like Sauerkraut, slightly sour, but not "off". Bad silage (too much air or contamination with muck/dirt) can go off and be quite horrible - mouldy, rotten. In any case, hay is better for some animals, particularly young ones.
Ina
I'm a size 10, really; I wear a 20 for comfort. (Gina Yashere)
Hi all
ina: at the moment I just card my fibre.....I bought a pair of hand carders last year and it's easy but a bit arm achey. Ideally I'd like a spinning wheel and then I'd spin it before I sold it but I just can't afford one at the moment. I've done a bit of felting with it and that's straightforward and effective. I'm quite lucky because we have an annual wool fair here and I can take llamas and fibre along and there are plenty of home spinners looking for something a bit different to spin with...I dn't know anything about cashmere goats but they are on my list of 'I'd like a couple of those'...Hardworkinghippy who posts on ACL is your woman there she's the queen master of goat wool and many other things.
Wombat: wow a real life Australian, I feel all internationally connected now...is there much smallholding in Sydney?
Milly: I know you! gosh isn't the world a small place! Thanks for the kind comments about my bloggy thing.........I keep meaning to do a new bit but haven't had the time yet........I will get round to it I will I will..........
Ok breakfast over time to hit them there hills...............
