Reprinted from the GALA Newsletter

"IT" Happens

                                                               By Wes Laraway, Red Maple Farm, Middleburgh, NY

As llama enthusiasts, we are always looking for ways to justify owning just one more llama. If you have not been marketing your farm as an efficient business, you have probably not discovered this lucrative angle on the llama industry. This creative new market angle is natural and known by instinct to all llamas. No training is needed and every llama in the world can do it! Actually, llamas are very good at doing this. No, I'm not writing about packing, cart driving, showing, spinning or even sheep protection. It is very easy to get any llama to make manure!

Yeah, "It" happens and I thought that it was time to bring to your attention that a renewable natural resource was piling up right under your feet. Don't let it go to waste. I pay for most of my vet bills every year by selling my llama manure.

I stumbled upon this gold mine by accident. A neighbor up the road from my old farm opened my eyes to the profit to be made from manure. Our first conversation went something like this. ...He said "What do you do with all their crap?" I said "We put it on all of our plants, gardens, flowers, shrubs, trees and even our lawn. If done in moderation, plants thrive on llama manure fertilizer." My neighbor looked at me and seriously said, "Can I buy some?"

That was how it all started. Although I do not advertise manure on my business card, I do run ads in the Fall and Spring local classified ads. Word of mouth has been my best advertising. People love to show off their gardens to friends and talk about our "special" fertilizer. As my farm grows in number of animals, my dung piles seem to get smaller every year.

Sometimes I feel like Tom Sawyer, charging his friends to do his chores. But shoveling dung has never been on the top of my list of things I want to do. I don't feel guilty when I watch people clean my pasture dung piles. The joy of their children's faces when they have found another pile for their folks to shovel on the truck further down the pasture. It brings a smile to my face to see a family activity where people get time together, even it it's just shoveling fertilizer. (Yeah, I could load it on their trucks with the tractor bucket but that would be like going to cut your own Christmas tree with a chainsaw....some things are better done by hand).

We market our manure in two ways. The most important rule is *DO NOT GET GREEDY*! We have full service and self service fertilizer programs to meet everyone's individual needs. The first is full service...twice a day I clean our 8 ft by 8 ft litter box in our barn. The manure is taken outside and put into two piles. One pile is used to cover up our fall farm decorations. I bury our cornstalks, mums and pumpkins under one to two feet of manure and waste hay before the first frost. Every year our pumpkin patch gets bigger. The real good litter box pellets go into a premium pile. This is my pile that I use on my farm to fertilize our plants. Whatever is left, I deliver to people that do not have trucks for $20 a level truck load within 10 miles. This is easy money to get rid of an abundant substance.

Big dung piles in pastures look bad and draw flies, parasites and pests. I have around 30 Bantam (mini) chickens that run with my llamas. They scratch in the dung piles non-stop from morning until night. Chickens work good because they help dry the dung and I've never had a problem with flies. We always have the self service option at our farm. If people want to bring their own gloves, shovels, rakes and vehicles they can shovel up pastures for free. Many people bring garbage cans or pick-up trucks and look forward to shoveling my pastures clean while admiring my llamas and the scenery.

We have found llama fertilizer to be one of the best fertilizers for gardening. It has very little odor and does not grow many weeds like a lot of other types of manure. It does not need to be aged and does not burn plants like some manure. Llama manure needs to be dry since soaked manure will kill plants. I do this by raking the outer layer to use and I stop when I get in the pile far enough to hit moisture. The best pellets are sun dried and crumbly.

On perennial and annual flower beds and shrub beds, I fertilize every spring. I put llama pellets on one to two inches think. Be careful because more is not always better. Small thin layers of one pellet depth would be ideal (if done frequently) but I prefer to do it once a year. When I finish with the fertilizer, I cover it with fresh bark chips, shavings or stone and then my flowers and shrubs are done for summer. (Trim shrubs before doing and you won't need to worry about major clipping clean up, small pieces will get covered.)

I do our veggie garden in the spring and in the fall. I put pellets 2-4 inches deep and then mix them into the garden with a hoe or rototiller. I also fertilize my trees and flowering bushes. I do them one to two inches thick and then mulch with shavings or stone to make mowing around them easier.

We also dry pellets in the sun on newspaper and put a couple of pellets on every one of our house plants. Get ziploc veggie baggies (with the small holes so it can breathe) and make small bags of fertilizer for people who want to try it on their plants. Don't forget to tape on a business card.

I am not going to reveal all of my secrets....just give you something to think about! Marketing manure can put money in your pocket and a smile on your face. Your farms will also be more presentable to customers without huge dung piles around. Feel free to email me with creative things to do with your manure. (laraway@midtel.net) Does anyone make jewelry, Christmas ornaments or paper-weights yet? Good luck!