~Why We Chose Alpacas ~

    Tax breaks?  Huggable investment?  Fastest growing livestock industry? These are reasons you might
    choose to get into alpacas.  For us there were a number of other reasons of equal or greater importance:
  • We were looking for a farm animal that we could handle and is easily
        managed.  Alpacas are relatively small and docile for livestock, and
    the two of us working together can take care of all the routine care our
    animals require – nail trimming, shots and the like.  They don’t take
    down or leap over fences.  They create communal “poop piles” that
    make cleanup quick and easy.  They don’t smell, rarely spit or kick,
    and are not aggressive.  And birthing and breeding are generally
    uneventful (though it is essential to be prepared when it comes to
    birthing).  Most importantly, we harvest a wonderfully useful resource
    from our animals each spring without having to “harvest” the animal in
    the process.
  • We wanted an animal that would be easy on the land.  The East
    Mountain area of north-central New Mexico is predominantly a high
    desert grassland receiving less than 15 inches of precipitation per
    year.  Our property is located at 6,800’, and in the little over seven years
    we have been here, we have gone 12 months with less than an inch of total precipitation to receiving
    more than 4 inches of rain in less than 3 hours.  In other words, we can never be sure what the weather
    will do, so water and the grass it nourishes are precious.  Five of our 10 acres are good pasture, and the
    alpacas are easy on the land.  They have pads, not hooves, so they do not tear up or compact the soil
    like horses and cows.  They are easy on the grass – they do not snip it down to the roots or pull up the
    roots as they graze.  Still, we control the amount of time they spend on pasture to ensure that we do not
    overgraze.
  • What to do with the poop?  Relatively high in nitrogen but low in undigested vegetable matter,
    alpaca poop can be directly applied to most plants without burning.  We
    mulch all of our trees and shrubs with the poop and waste hay gathered
    during daily clean up.  Composted with grass clippings and leaves, the
    manure and hay quickly turn into a nutrient-rich, earthworm-abundant
    soil that we use to enrich the clay soil of our ranch.  Each fall, our
    vegetable garden is piled high with alpaca mulch, gradually restoring
    through the winter the nutrients that generate the abundant harvest of
    tomatoes, squash, green chiles and other vegetables the following
    summer.  The degraded pasture land we inherited when we bought our
    farm has been “terraced” with alpaca mulch to hold precipitation and
    restore nutrients to the soil.  With our herd of 12 alpacas and 2 llamas,
    all of our manure finds it way back to the land.
  • And, of course, there is the FLEECE!  First and foremost, the alpaca is a fiber animal.  Coming in 16
    different natural colors, and producing some of the softest and finest fleece available, the alpaca is an
    animal of opportunity for the fiber artist.  It is wonderful
        to behold a year’s worth of growth slowly falling away
        from the animal as it is sheared in the spring.  
        Unbelievably soft and practically ready for use just as
        it is right off the animal, the raw fleece and roving are
        sublime for felting, spinning and processing into all sorts
        of products.  Alpaca fiber can also be successfully mixed
        with other fibers, including sheep wool, mohair or silk.  
        We have our prime fleece processed into roving each
        year.  

    The roving provides many opportunities.  We both learned to spin from Beth Orell at Good Fibrations in
    Edgewood and now spend our abundant free time (!) spinning on our Ashford and Louet spinning
    wheels, producing a variety of two-ply and single-ply yarns in natural and dyed colors.  In 2008, Cynthia's
    yarn took Grand Champion and Jim's Reserve Grand Champion in the Novice division at the Taos Wool
    Festival.  Cynthia has also learned the art of felting, creating unique scarves, wall hangings and alpaca
    fleece dolls.  Weaving classes are in our future as we learn to do more with the wonderful resource our
    animals provide us.  As we continue to explore the abundant opportunities the alpaca provides, our goal
    is to create a herd of animals ranging from white to true black, with consistently finer fleece with each new
    crop of cria.  If you are a fiber artist and interested in raising your own fiber animals, consider the alpaca!