AlpacaKeepSoftware built in the barn, not the boardroom.
Built because the only camelid software we could find was an ageing Windows-only tool. One brother farms alpacas in Val Gardena, one writes the code.
Why we built our own.
Alpaca Val Gardena has been a working herd for years - 70+ animals, the usual breeding-farm rhythm of births, vaccinations, fibre samples, registrations, sales. The records all lived in a Windows-only desktop tool that has been the only real option for camelid breeders for as long as anyone can remember. It did the job. It also tied every record to one PC in the office, was a chore to use, and was completely useless when you were standing in the lower paddock with a question on your phone.
We tried a few newer web-based alternatives. None of them treated camelids as anything more than a footnote in a generic livestock app. Fibre data was a notes field. Gestation windows were set for cattle. The pedigree screens didn't even know what a Suri was.
Building our own started as a side project - an IT guy with a brother who breeds alpacas, what could go wrong. It became Alpacakeep when we realised other breeders were stuck with the same software we were.
How we work.
One brother builds the tool. The other uses it in the barn every day and tells us what's broken.
70+ alpacas, every day, all year, at Alpaca Val Gardena. He notices when a screen doesn't work with cold fingers, when a feature should exist but doesn't, when something reads wrong in Italian. Most of what's right about Alpacakeep started as "this is broken" over the phone.
Builds the app. Likes things fast, simple, and actually working on a phone. Not a livestock expert - relies on the other brother for that - but writes software the other brother shouldn't have to fight with at 6am during feeding.
The Barn Test.
Every feature in Alpacakeep ships through what we call the Barn Test: it runs on our farm before it runs on yours.
We tap the buttons with cold fingers. We watch what happens when the cell signal drops mid-submit in the lower paddock - submit buttons grey out, what you typed survives, you finish the entry when you're back in range. We make sure medication withdrawals flash bright red so a treated animal never accidentally goes to the shearer.
We built Alpacakeep to fix our own software. Now we're opening it up.
Ready to ditch the spreadsheets - or that ageing desktop tool you've been stuck with?
Drop your email. We'll let you know when we open beyond our family farm.
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