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The “Barn Book”

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alpaca cria at Snowshoe Farm, Peacham, VermontYou hear a lot about the  equipment and supplies you need to have in order to properly care for your livestock.  But it seems it’s often the little things – the simple things – that turn out to be the most-used and most-valued tools.

From day one of alpaca ownership, we have kept a 3-ring binder of blank paper in our barn. EVERYTHING – and I mean EVERYTHING – that happens relating to our alpacas is written in that book. Not the routine everyday chores, but every herd health task, every observation of an alpaca that seems “off”, every move to another pen, every animal coming or going, every cria birth, etc is recorded.

We do maintain written health records for each alpaca in the office, so once in a while we take in the barn book  and update weights, dates for shots, etc. I was doing just that the other day and, while going back through and rereading that last few months of activity on the farm, I realized once again what a valuable tool this barn book has turned out to be. Sometimes it’s the simple things…