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Shuttering, Centrifuging et al
of Dorkness ....
Steve Hull, aka Dr Dork of Alpacasite fame, visited New Zealand in February 2006 to deliver his seminar "Alpacas - All Things Considered" during the course of which he issued a challenge to Mike Moller of Lallybroch Alpacas to build a DIY centrifuge for spinning down alpaca fecal samples in pursuit of the elusive eggs of the parasitic worm Haemoncus Contortus The learned paper that resulted from Steve's challenge can be downloaded here - download Dorkness Mk1 paper
Figure 1 - the Dorkness Mk1 DIY Centrigue
Shuttering
Emboldened by the response to the original challenge Steve issued a further challenge relating to the design of a 3-sided alpaca shelter to provide weatyher protection out in the paddocks. Mike has chosen to ignore the specifics of that one as the Alpacasite crowd in general responded with an array of solutions, both commercially sourced and home built. However a few bits and pieces follow covering a shuttering system that we use at Lallybroch to provide some weather protection for our animals. North American readers should note the following points of difference between the Lallybroch situation and what typically applies in the USA and Canada.
- Lallybroch is in the northern region of New Zealand at a lattitude of about 36 degrees South
- Although New Zealand has a north/south coastline nearly as long as the USA the two coasts are quite close to each other, and where Lallybroch is located one can drive from the East coast to the West coast in less than one hour, which is just a tad quicker than the equivalent USA situation
- as a result of the above points we have a pretty mild climate all year round but we do get a higher rainfall than would be typical in many parts of the USA
The shuttering described here is primarily to give our animals rain protection at times of sustained wind storms. Typically we deploy it if the alpacas have been out in solid rain all day, there is a strong wind blowing and those conditions are likely to persist overnight. In these situations the alpacas fleeces will be sodden to the skin and overnight exposure outside carries a serious wind chill risk. We bring them in overnight and put up the shutters on the upwind end of the yards. They all snuggle together overnight, their fleeces dry out and we send them back out into the paddocks the following morning pretty much regardless of whether the storm has abated or not. Then we clean out the poop! If the bad weather goes on for several days, quite often 3 or 4 days in a row in mid winter, then we keep them in each succeeding night until the weather clears.
| Yard pen viewed from western end before the shutters are installed. The solid wall behind and under the roof is on the South side with it back to the prevailing source of bad weather The gate and the stub wall rails will provide support for shuttering The shiny area on the rear wall is a mirror surface that was used in the early days to convince the then small herd of pacas that they were not alone | 
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| Same view as previously after the shutters have been installed The shutters are made of sheet aluminium that is typically used for the sides of refrigerated trucks. The sheets have longitudinal ribs spaced at 2 inch intervals the small rectangular appertures are for putting hands through when moving the larger shutter around | 
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| view from the inside looking out with the shutters deployed | 
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| Detail view of the fixings used on the shutters they're made by cutting a 6 inch strip off the aliminium sheet - that gives two ribs and three 2 inch wide flats - the strip is folded along the ribs to form a channel which is then cut to length and pop riveted into place The green guard strips are from pieces of discarded garden hose split lengthwise. These are wrapped around the exposed metal edges and pop rivetted in place | 
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If you refer to the shots of the yard complex that appear on other pages you will see that the yards at Lallybroch have identical gates at both western and eastern ends. The pictures above show shutters deployed on the western end to provide shelter from the westerly and south westerly winds.
Our worst storms, from the alpacas' point of view, come up the valley from the southeasterly aspect. Under those conditions we move the same set of shutters down to the eastern end.
et al ....
A view of the commercially made shelter, officially a goat shelter, that we use in an extension to the original yards complex. It's backed into the south easterlies to provide shelter from our worst storms and although it's a portable unit it has been permanently built in our application.
The slide along the bottom is a length of 8" x 2" timber (treated pine) with the rest of the framing and floor support being treated 4" x 2" timber. The panels are construction grade ply.
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