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Maximize Your Fiber Income:
There is Strength in Numbers
T
he frozen snow crunched under
our feet as my wife and I walked
to the barn. “Good morning,” I called
out as I opened the door. All heads
looked intently at us. We guided the
alpacas out of the barn and closed the
bottom half of the stall doors.
As I put hay in the hay feeders,
my wife put feed in the feed troughs.
Vanna was unusually vocal. She
maneuvered her way to the front of the
crowd to peer over a closed stall door.
Vanna watched every scoop of feed
being put into the troughs.
My wife opened the stall doors. The
alpacas raced to the troughs. Vanna
lifted her head to chew a mouthful of
feed. Panda came near to Vanna for
feed, too. Vanna was again vocal. She
spit her mouthful of feed at Panda.
Feed hit Panda and the wall behind
while also spreading across the floor.
Panda spit back. A neck wrestle
ensued. Lilly quickly came over and
ate the feed left behind in the trough.
Soon, Vanna and Panda stood still in
stalemate. They looked silly with their
lower lips hanging down. Now, there
was no feed left for either of them.
It was curious to watch. My mind
became analytical.
When maneuvering to the front,
Vanna acted to feel good by being first.
When Panda came to share in the feed,
she saw Panda as taking from her and
became defensive.
Vanna seemed to go beyond defense
to actually make a dominance state-
ment so she could feel good by being
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Alpacas
Magazine
By Daryl W. Goodrich, JD
A brief history of cooperatives,
why they work, and why
you need to join AFCNA.