Alpacas are calmer fencers than goats, but their fencing has a different job to do. The herd rarely tests a fence for sport; the real risks are fleece catching on the wrong wire, a gate left unlatched, and predators reaching a field that looked secure from the house. Good alpaca fencing is therefore complete and continuous: sound mesh, no traps for fiber or legs, and gates that close properly every single time.
Woven Wire at a Steady Height
Woven wire suits alpacas well, often put up at around four to five feet high, with mesh running down to ground level so nothing squeezes under the bottom edge and no animal pushes a head through a low gap. The close mesh also blocks the horizontal ladder effect of widely spaced plain wires, which young animals can climb and adults can lean through. Posts and corners carry the strain of the run, so sink them properly and brace corners rather than trusting the wire to hold itself. Where the ground dips, follow the contour instead of bridging straight across: a bridged dip leaves exactly the ground-level opening that a curious youngster or a digging predator will find first. Walk the finished line slowly, looking for snags, sharp wire ends, and slack sections, and fix them before the herd moves in.
Why Barbed Wire Does Not Belong Near Fleece
Barbed wire is unsuitable for fleece animals: a strand that touches the coat winds into the fleece, and an alpaca pulling against it tears skin and ruins fiber at the same time. The risk runs all year, before and after shearing, because even a shorn animal carries enough growth within weeks to catch. Remove old barbed strands from any field fence being adapted for alpacas rather than leaving them above or below the new mesh, and check shared boundary fences where a neighbor's wire meets yours. Plain top wires and tightly strained woven mesh give the boundary its strength without a single barb near the herd.
Gates, Predator Pressure, and Weekly Checks
Catching and handling areas deserve a closer mesh than the field boundary. A small pen where alpacas are gathered for shearing, toenail care, and health checks should use woven wire with openings small enough that a pushing animal cannot trap a foot or force a head through, because a calm herd in an open field becomes a pressing crowd in a small pen. Young crias are the other test of a fence line: a cria lying against the boundary can roll under a bottom edge that stops its mother, so the mesh-to-ground standard matters especially in the fields where mothers and young crias graze. Check those fields after heavy rain as well, since a washed-out hollow under the wire shows up first exactly where water already runs.
Gates deserve the same attention as the fence line: secure gates with latches that fasten firmly, cannot be lifted off their hinges by a leaning animal, and get closed behind every person, every time. Judge the whole setup against predator pressure in the area. Where dogs roam or larger predators pass, a fence at the taller end of the usual range, mesh tight to the ground, and gates that meet their posts without gaps matter far more than in a quiet valley with no such history. Fencing stays sound only if somebody looks at it: walk the boundary weekly, checking strain, low spots, gate latches, and any place fleece on wire signals an animal has been pushing. Roster those jobs through KinsLe's Family Sharing so the weekly walk, gate repairs, and new-section build days have a named owner each time. When repair notes sit inside the Family Sharing plan on KinsLe, a second pair of hands can finish a loose section without waiting for instructions.