I'm Elaine Moggridge and I started Garsons Field Alpacas in 2006 when I took early retirement from a long career as a primary school teacher but wasn't ready to give up nurturing!
My husband Garry and I had the opportunity to buy Garsons Field, the land adjacent to our house in 1994. After letting it to local farmers for cattle and sheep grazing we became more and more drawn to the idea of keeping our own animals one day.
Since our children were small, we have always had dogs, rabbits, chickens (and occasionally ducks) and although wanting to keep livestock, we didn?t want anything we?d have to take to market. Alpacas seemed the obvious choice!
After my final day at school we visited various alpaca breeders, who were always very enthusiastic and encouraging.
We started with two pregnant females, one potential stud male and two wethers, chosen purely by their looks (not a wise move).
We now have a herd of sixteen very healthy and happy alpacas, six of our eight females are due to birth in the summer. They are all pets and hand fed twice everyday. Luckily, we have enough space to be able to rotate the paddocks and produce our own hay.