David’s big confession: why beef cattle are easier than alpaca

MY RATIONALE is that beef cattle, once past weaning age, are easier to care for than alpaca.

I could do a similar analysis for sheep and goats too. I put sheep last because they are so silly and there’s twice yearly shearing (depending on breed). Goats require housing or shelter, which sheep don’t, and goats have a tendency to escape poorly-fenced paddocks, but they are good-natured animals and much more predictable than sheep.

Both suffer from footrot, although sheep are prone to flystrike. Alpaca don’t seem to be, unless they are wounded and then they are fair game, just like any animal.

There isn’t a lot in it. Personally, I like alpaca because you can build up a relationship with them due to their intelligence, but cattle have lower inputs of time.