Barn Flooring For Alpacas

In peru alpacas live in the wild without shelter however heat in the south dictates that you have shelter to provide shade in the summer.

Barn flooring for alpacas. The barn also has a tack room for storage of alpaca feed and equipment. Then there is the disposal problem with straw. There is a dutch door between the tack room and the alpacas which is open all summer to provide continuous human alpaca interaction left. Interior pens feed stor age equipment storage fleece shear ing handling climate controlled stall and a chute.

The article alpaca barns pens and pastures in the autumn 2006 issue of alpacas magazinediscussed general considerations for developing an alpaca ranch or expanding an existing facility. Because we have relatively mild winters in the south an enclosed barn isn t necessary. From functional to decorative we ve got a vast array of styles to choose from including rubber mat stable flooring continuous roll flooring livestock bio security mats feed saver mats multi purpose utility mats stall mats double creep mats and premium paver blocks as well as kick. This article will discuss the specifics of designing alpaca barn interiors and relating those designs to a general layout.

Barn interior features the floor plan for the barn interior should include consideration for the following areas. If the living space floor is concrete you should layer a half a foot of dirt onto the concrete floor or use rubber mats if necessary which are safer than concrete but will require quite a bit of daily cleanup. Mats flooring complete the look of your building barn or stable with flooring in your choice of styles. If you want to practice compost bedding adding bedding to the top periodically to create a clean surface and allowing the bottom to compost and produce heat all winter then it is probably the best choice.

A big con is that you have a big cleanout ahead of you in the spring and you will have to dig out and replace some of the dirt after the cleanout. Barn floors can present problems for cleanup particularly if the alpacas remain in the barn overnight as they do at our farm. Urine does not soak into bare dirt easily and straw placed on the floor can harbor parasites from manure particularly if not removed frequently. It is important to have the capability to hold alpacas in separate groups inside the barn.

Many alpaca farms provide three sided pole barn type shelters or even just a covered shelter with no siding. To do this interior. Dirt covered flooring or another slip resistant material is important for alpaca living spaces since slips and falls could lead to torn ligaments and joint damage. The main barn entrance opens into the tack room.