Sprout The Right Brained Bean: An Alpaca Beginning

This weekend we visited our first alpaca farm! Bully Hollow Aplacas is a small farm nestled along the Allegheny River on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. I'm very familiar with this area as I grew up in the heart of this same forest and used to live on this same river. We had such a great time and learned all sorts of information about alpacas. I knew the moment we arrived and met Monica and Walt, Bully Hollow Alpaca owners, that I liked them. I could tell that they were passionate about their animals and and absolutely loved what they were doing. Let me tell ya...that kind of commitment is contagious! I couldn't wait to touch my first alpaca, and it wasn't long before we were headed out to the pastures. We were greeted by Samara, their 'guard' dog, who lives 24/7 with the alpacas. She was the sweetest thing.

There's so much more to alpaca 'farming' than I realized. My interest stemmed from from my obsession with spinning. If you've never felt alpaca fiber, you need to. It rivals cashmere for softness, honestly. It's amazing! Sure fiber is one of the benefits of raising your own alpacas. They get sheared once a year in the spring, giving you enough fiber for a few sweaters (or more). But it seems that most people own them for the love of the animal, for showing, breeding, and selling. I was amazed at how detailed of records are kept for each animal and their bloodlines.

Alpacas belong to the camelid family along with (you guessed it) camels, and also llamas, vicugnas, and guanaco. The are native to South America where they are found to graze along the Andes mountains. Unlike the llamas, who are used primarily as pack animals and for meat, alpacas are raised for their fiber (though I'm told they eat them in South America too). Females have one baby a year, called a cria, with their gestation lasting about 11.5 months.

There are two types of alpaca bred in the US (I can't yet speak for the rest of the world; more research is needed), the Huacaya and the Suri. Both have incredible fiber, but it is vastly different from each other. The Huacaya is thick and crimped, more like the appearance and texture of a sheep (though loads softer). The Suri's fiber lays flatter against its body and forms these tiny dread locks of sorts. I've spun both and both are super soft. I think I'm more of a fan of the Huacaya though. The Suri is much more slippery to spin. The picture above of the black beauty is one of Bully Hollow's Huacayas. Her puffy head is called a top knot and is a good quality to have in an alpaca. Below are a couple of the Suris. Can you see the difference in their fleece?

So as I said, we learned A LOT this past Saturday. We were even invited to stay for lunch and talked a lot about organizations that support the alpaca, ways to get involved, and what to look for when choosing a foundation herd. I'm so thankful for this couple's generosity and can't wait to get back up and help out. We're planning on helping with the shearing. I think that would be a great way to 'get our hands dirty', learn more, and interact with some wonderful alpaca people.