All about alpacas
With their gentle disposition and adorable features, there may be no animal as fashionably cute for an acreage as an alpaca.
Native to the Andes Mountains in South America, alpacas were domesticated 6,000 years ago. Their soft fleece was valued so highly by the Incans that only royalty was allowed to wear it, and large herds of alpacas became the status symbol of the culture. Today, alpacas have become a status symbol for some rural property owners in the U.S. First imported to the U.S. in 1984, there are more than 65,000 alpacas registered in North America today.
There are two types of alpacas: the Huacaya (pronounced wa ka' ya) and the Suri. Huacayas have a denser fleece and a fluffy appearance. The most common type of alpaca, Huacayas look like a child's stuffed animal on a large scale. Suris have fleece that grows in long, silky dreadlocks.
Shorn like sheep, they produce from 3 to 10 pounds of fleece each year, enough to make several sweaters when the fleece is spun into fiber. That fiber is softer than cashmere, lighter and warmer than wool, and comes in 22 natural colors. So why don't we see more garments made of it? Today, alpaca owners have limited opportunities to process fleece into fiber for end products. Owners hope that will change as the alpaca population increases and demand for alpaca garments grows.
They are not mini llamas
These appealing animals look like small llamas. However, unlike llamas, their diminutive size makes them unsuitable for carrying loads, so they've always been raised strictly for their fiber. They're about 3 feet high at the shoulder and weigh just 100 to 200 pounds.
Alpacas live 15 to 20 years and have a reproductive life of about 12 years. Females can breed at 15 to 18 months of age, and males settle a female at about 3 years. The gestation period is 11 to 12 months and produces one baby, known as a cria.
By nature gentle and placid, alpacas are easy to handle, and they're also easy on the land. Their soft pads don't tear up the ground, and they graze without pulling up plant roots. Like the camel from which they're descended, alpacas consume only small amounts of water.
They're hardy enough that they don't usually need to be housed in enclosed barns; open-side shelters are adequate unless the weather is severe. Alpacas are easy keepers. They graze on grasses and are fed free-choice hay.
These animals are also very clean. If you are used to mucking out horse stalls, you will like that alpacas concentrate their droppings in one place in the paddock.
Learn more
www.alpacainfo.com
www.alpaca.com
www.nansalpacaranch.com
www.griffonwoodalpacas.com
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