We have been enjoying life with our alpacas for over 15 years now. From the beginning, we have seen them as part of our farm family and their health and welfare has been our first aim. Along with the chickens and dogs, our vet once commented that it was animal paradise! Although not one of the big breeders, we have enjoyed participating in alpacas shows near us and had success! From the early days we have carefully selected outside studs to improve our herd, so our herd has the benefit of some of the best genetics. Over the last years we have bought in studs to join our herd, with all of them having champion fathers: Classical Ajax II (father CME Tulaco Centurion), Westways Testament (father Bozedown Comet II) and Classical Caspian (father Jaquinto of Alpaca Stud). We look forward each year to our latest cria to see how the breeding program has improved their fleeces, showing the qualities of fineness, character and staple length. We have been pleased with our placing at fleece shows and the fleece is used for our woven fibre projects.
We halter train all our alpacas from 6 months, which not only being enjoyable for us, makes all handling easier, prepares them for showing or for eventual walking ventures with a new owner. Protection from harsh weather, biosecurity and calm, easy alpaca handling was built into the farm design. Manure is removed from paddocks and composted; alpacas have all vaccinations and frequent observation and condition, mouth and nail checks. Our oldest retired female is now 20 and still heads in to get her fair share of the daily specialist camelid feed. Lastly, the names! Family geology books usefully list rocks from white to black and all the colours and variations in between. And you can usually make a short name from each rock name for every day use. So we have Watership Albite (Albie-a white rock) and Watership Magnetite (Maggie-a black rock). Well, it gives us an interesting pastime each spring!
If you are wondering if alpacas are right for you, please feel welcome to visit and we can share with you our over 15 years of experience. We provide free delivery for up to 100 miles. Vet certificates can be provided if required.