|
 What
Are Alpacas?
Alpacas are rare, exotic animals originally imported into the US
from South America. They are highly valued for the fantastic properties
of their fleece, which is shorn generally once per year and turned
into a variety of products from high-fashion garments to yarn, rovings
for hand-spinners, blankets, hats, gloves, scarves, fire-resistant
sleepwear and much more, even insulation!
Alpacas are related to their larger cousins, the llamas and their
smaller, cousins, vicunas-all members of the camelid family. Llamas,
being larger, can carry packs for trekking through the mountains,
and can also have very nice fleece, but often they have coarser
guard hair as well. Vicunas are much smaller and generally have
even softer fleece, but do not produce as much of it. Alpacas have
been bred for centuries to produce a lot of consistently soft, uniform
fleece that can be used nearly in its entirety without dehairing.
Alpaca Fleece to Products
Alpaca fleece has remarkably unique characteristics being extremely
soft and yet very strong and warm. It can be processed into a very
thin fabric that is still strong, soft and warm. It grows on the
animals in a range of colors classed into 22 color categories by
the Alpaca Registry Inc. (ARI) that range from white to black, with
all shades of beige, browns, and gray in-between. The natural colors
are beautiful and dye-free, and the white fleece can be easily dyed
into all manner of other colors as well.
Types of Alpacas
There are two types of alpacas, huacayas (wha-KI-yah) and suris
(SU-ree) that are distinguished by their different fleece characteristics.
Huacayas have crimpy fleece that grows straight out from their bodies
like a sheep or polar bear. Suris have long, lustrous, drapey locks
that hang down like hair and have architecture more similar to hair
than huacaya fleece as well. Huacayas are the more common of the
two types comprising about 80% of the US population of alpacas,
while suris comprise the other approximately 20% percent.
 
Huacaya alpaca & fleece (pictured left).
Suri alpaca and suri fleece pictured right.
Here at Cascade Shadow Alpacas we raise both huacaya and suri alpacas.
Caring for Alpacas
Alpacas eat grass, hay, and are generally supplemented for vitamins
and minerals with a feed in pellet form. They need a continuous
supply of clean, fresh water. Many farms use heated waterers for
this purpose. They need shelter from the weather, and this can vary
from a three-sided run-in to a heated barn and still be suitable
for their needs. Being rather smaller than cows and horses (they
generally weigh between 120 to 200 pounds full grown), they eat
much less and are much easier on the environment. You could easily
graze up to five alpacas per acre and much more if you feeding hay.
Some areas have livestock restrictions on the land that may affect
the number you can have in a given area.
Reading Recommendations
This just scratches the surface of a fascinating animal and industry.
For more information, you might consider some additional reading
or email us with your questions!
These can be found at Amazon.com for online ordering:
- Caring for Llamas and Alpacas: A Health & Management
Guide (Spiral-bound) by Claire Hoffman, Ingrid Asmus
- Llama and Alpaca Neonatal Care (Spiral-bound) by Bradford
B Smith
- The Alpaca Book (Hardcover)
|
