Alpaca provide many different benefits. From being able to have so many of them on a small amount of land to using their fur to create beautiful and quality pieces of clothing. It seems that the benefit of alpaca farming is endless. Did you know that their manure is actually just as much of a benefit too?

Alpaca manure is considered to be a rich soil conditioner. Alpaca manure is also really great at retaining water making it excellent for plants. Alpaca manure is also known as one of the best manures because it has the greatest nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ratio.

Here at Four Acres Living we wanted an eco-friendly way to make use of alpaca manure while keeping the property clean and odor free. With 16 alpacas on less than four acres, Elizabeth F began brainstorming and researching. Her research led her to O2Compost and she now has a nice rotating compost system set up with her Micro-Bins. Since the alpacas do not require bedding, scrap hay or horse bedding pellets is added to the bins as they fill up to ensure an optimal carbon to nitrogen mixture.

The finished compost is used by a local organic farmer whose certification company approved the O2Compost alpaca compost for use on his crops. The farmer even conducted a side-by-side test by growing a batch of tomatoes in potting soil and a second batch in the alpaca compost. The farmer reported that the plants grown in the alpaca compost were "hands down healthier and grew faster!”