Acres Wild Alpacas

NO MORE HAY WASTE....

2009-07-05T17:54:00.001-07:00

....And cleaner animals. Cleaner animals means cleaner fleece...cleaner fleece means more money back from your fleece harvest each year.

We noticed with open top hay feeders there is an EXTREME amount of waste. Waste on the ground and on the alpaca. Most alpacas won't eat the hay that has dropped on the ground. The waste on the animal is just that much more vegetable matter (VM ) that you have to clean from the fleece once you have sheared. And you all know what a chore that is!

Our hay feeder box cuts down on waste by 75%. The top is specially designed not to rub the fleece off their noses like the metal grate feeders do. The spacing between the slats is large enougth for the young'uns and the adults. The slat also prevent them from burying their heads deep in the hay and pulling large amounts out dropping it on the ground or others eating nearby.

A standard sized bale of hay fits in the box, mearly place the lid on top of the hay and let your alpacas eat. As they eat the hay the lid will follow the hay to the bottom. The lid is lightweight and so simple to use!

Order your detailed plans for this low waste hay feeder now! The price for the plans is $25.00 and can be ordered at acreswildalpacas@hotmail.com

Does this look familiar in your pasture! Hay everywhere!

Stop the mess! Have cleaner animals and less work on harvest day.

A NEW BOY ON THE BLOCK

2009-06-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to introduce this amazing new boy to our herd, Donatello! He comes from a farm in Virginia and will be ready to rock and roll next breeding season. We have extremely high hopes for this boy.

Donatello is the medium fawn son of the Herdsire Hall of Fame male, Snowmass Invincible. Invincible was purchased for $580,000 making him the second highest selling alpaca in history. Snowmass Invincible fits his name, as he beat out the entire US in a growing competitive group of ultimate white alpaca males to take 1st Place in his class at the 2003 All American Futurity of Sires. As if that weren’t enough, he also won overall White Male Champion! Invincible's world class genetics make him top-of-the-line. His sire, Snowmass Legacy Gold, is an undefeated medium fawn male who has also double championed at the same challenging All American Futurity two years in a row.

Donatello like his father is phenotypically perfect. He boasts a fine, dense fiber with a lovely soft hand and beautiful crimp throughout. We look forward to getting started with him in our breeding program in 2010 and expect to see his famous lineage show up in his offspring!

AwardsAwards Received 2009 2nd Place Halter - Sunshine State Alpaca Expo

3rd Place Bred & Owned - Sunshine State Alpaca Expo

4th Place Halter - Carolina Alpaca Celebration

5th Place Halter - MAPACA Jubilee

4th Place Halter - Maryland Alpaca Show & Sale

2008

3rd Place Halter - MABA Celebration

5th Place Halter - VAOBA Expo

6th Place Halter - Empire Extravaganza

Business Card Design

2009-05-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

Kelly has designed our business card and it's awesome. He has become such a creative designer. Heck, that's what he does for a living! Your business card is your first impression and that first impression represents your business. If you have a so so card people will assume you have a so so business. BUT, if you have a beautiful, professional business card, people will assume you have a very professional business. Make your first impression last!

Oh yea, I almost forgot! Kel made this awesome hay box with a grate on the top that prevents hay waste. You know what I'm talking about! Man, those alpacas can be quite messy. We sent one of the boxes over to one of the farms we agist at to get the true test. The grate is awesome...it is built such that it does not rub the fleece off the alpacas face as they eat through the grate. I will get some pictures up soon. We will be selling either the plans for the boxes and grates or will make custom grates to fit exhisting boxes. We will make the boxes and grates for local folks. They would cost a ton to ship. More to come later.....

Gandalf is ours!

2009-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

This fun image was created by a friend of ours. This is Supernova as a little boy.

Gandalf, my little lover boy, is ours. He is growing up with fleece like you wouldn't believe! Look at the picture on our business card. He's nearly fleece blind, and yes, he has eyes. We are so excited to see him grow into a great herdsire.

We had a litter of puppies at Christmas and took the house off the market and we are now ready to put it back on. Here's to hoping it sells quickly so we can move forward with a farm of our own.

We are headed to a very large farm in Oregon to pick out a stud for Vision, she's Xtreme Phlash's daughter. We won an auction at the Great Western Alpaca show and have the pick of any of their big herdsires. It should make for an amazing cria next year.

2009-05-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the Great Western Alapca Show in Denver Colorado. Wow, did we learn a lot! We also learned that many of our little ones would do well in a show. So we will be gearing up for the next show that comes near Salt Lake.
We won an auction for a breeding at a wonderful farm in Oregon. We will be shipping one of our top girls out there for a breeding with one of their outstanding males. We can't wait to see that cria!
Tax day has come and we can't believe how lucrative having alpacas has been! We don't even have our farm yet! Once we have our farm we will get many more deductions. It's better than having kids to deduct!! Actually it's like having 16 kids!
AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association) has started a wonderful website called Alpaca Academy. Lot's of great information regarding raising alpacas, marketing, buying, selling and so much more that will get the new owners off on the right foot. It even has great information for exhisiting farms. There is always something to learn that will help move our/your business to the next level.

Alpaca Academy

New family members

2009-04-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

JUMPIN' JACK PHLASH

PHLASH'S LITTLE BOY

VISION

PHLASH'S DAUGHTER

LIBERTY'S FREEDOM
3/4 PERUVIAN

CALYPSO

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL WITH THE SHINIEST FLEECE

XTREME PHLASH

NEED WE SAY MORE!

We have some new, amazing alpacas from a farm in Arizona. They are fleecy, beautiful and we can't wait to see the cria from them this spring. We also are pleased to announce that our new herdsire, XTREME PHLASH. He is a full peruvian, 1/2 accoyo son of Accoyo Pluro's Ross and Grandson of PPeruvian Pluro. You can not go wrong with these amazing genetics! Plash's dam was a direct full peruvian import. We are breeding him at an introductory offer of $800.00. Bump your herd up to the next notch of strong genetics with this handsome boy!

We have been helping a friend get up their fencing and we have the sore backs to prove it. We have learned a ton and appreciate their faith in us to help them on their farm. See some pictures of our new family members.

We are headed to Denver, Colorado at the end of the month for the Wild West Alpaca show.

Alpacs making big news!

2008-10-05T11:29:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2008.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 3, 2008
"Peggy Parks, a 49-year-old auditor in Johnstown, Pa., turned to an unusual farm animal. "I've lost a fortune in stocks, and my 401(k) is falling through the floor. I feel comfortable in alpacas," she says. She invested $56,000 in a small herd that she believes has a better outlook than most mutual funds because of the animals' breeding potential.The national Alpaca Registry Inc., in Lincoln, Neb., says registrations are on pace to rise 7% this year and currently stand at 140,297. Ms. Parks says a female of "medium quality" can fetch $10,000 and that prices have been rising, supporting her hopes that she'll see a profit on her alpaca portfolio in five years."

Beans roll downhill

2008-09-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

My Lover Boy, Gandalf

It'a been a while since I've blogged. So much has happened. We have since bought 4 more alpacas from Arizona, one who is ready to birth anyday. 3 open females (that means not pregnant), but only one that is ready to breed. The other 2 are just a little too young. We are breeding the one to Xtreme Phlash, who is a big, handsome, fleecy medium fawn male. We can't wait to see that cria!

We have been "babysitting" a herd of 50 alpacas for some friends of ours. It's been a blast....it's really giving us a taste of the rancher life and we love it!! Everyday we are greeted by 50 alpacas and each day they get to know us better and they become more friendly. There is one little cria in particular, Gandalf, who is absolutely a lover! He let's us touch him and he hums with delight! I have again fell in love with an alpaca. (See the sweet little face above).

Kelly and I have become masters in the art of cleaning up poop piles. Together we can clean up a hefty pile in 30 seconds flat as I rake and he shovels...what a team! The land is very hilly and dry at the farm we are tending and about 5 feet down hill from the poop piles are loose beans. I would look at this and wonder to myself "I thought alpacas pooped in a pile....why are they pooping all the way down the hill?". Come to find out, as I began to rake, the smaller, dried out beans roll downhill. Moral of the story is to rake uphill.

Another interesting thing I have discovered is the "shapes" the alpacas poop comes in. It could be loose beans, big blobs or what I like to call "poop cones". This is a formation of individual beans shaped like a pinecone....quite interesting. Kelly likes to call them "Poop Grenades"

We went out to Duchesne to visit our other alpaca babies and they are getting big and really fluffy! Camaje is almost 50 pounds! Sure to be a winner! Emmet is fleecy and soft and Seircia is such a pretty, crimpy little girl!

Look how big Camaje has gotten! And so proud!

Emmet so big and fluffy!

And Seircia is also getting big and such a pretty girl!

Presenting the new babies!

2008-08-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Duchesne, UT, yesterday where our alpacas are being boarded to see two of our new babies that had been born a few days ago. We had another due in a few days, but commented how fun it would be if she had it while we were there. Well, when we headed into the pasture we saw Josephine with a little light brown cria following her around and wondered where that little baby came from. It was Josephine's! She had it just a few hours before we got there...and get this, her sister had a baby that morning too! We found the evidence of two placentas on the ground.

When the babies are born the mother has a waxy buildup on her nipples that sometimes need to be removed before the milk can come in. So Kelly held the mother and I got the milk to come in. Right after I did that little Seircia started to nurse. How cute is that!

So, for your cria fix here are the new babies.

SUPER NOVA

Born 8/1/08

3 hours old

CAMAJE

BORN 7/29/08

4 days old

SIERCIA

BORN 8/2/08

5 hours old

BROWN EMMIT M

BORN 7/21/08

11 days old

IT'S A GIRL, IT'S A BOY, IT'S A GIRL!

2008-08-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a busy week for birthing babies! We had a beautiful, snow white girl from Keisha, a black girl with white boots. The new baby's daddy is Chico, a wonderfully proud, big, white male, who's sire was Elitus who is a full Alianza. You just can't get any more macho than him. We named our new white wonder Camaje...the first 2 letters of my three daughters names. She is going to be a winner in every way!

The next was a boy from Ivona, who is full peruvian and her father was Apollo. Her grandfather is an accoyo Royal Fawn. Ivona was bred with Papa, who is a Hemingway son. By the way, Hemingway was one of the first Peruvian imports into american. He still lives proudly at Northwest Alpacas in Oregon. He's quite the sight to behold. Ivona also had a pure white little boy. We have yet to name him, but I think it should be something studly since he will be a proud stud someday...with parents like that he is destined to be a champion!

Our final baby was born today from Josephine, a wonderful black beauty, who was bred to White Pepper who a full peruvian and has won a blue ribbon for his outstanding fleece. This wonderful little girl is a light fawn who already has lots of crimp, crimp, crimp! She is going to be a stunning, little lass. Yet to be named.

With all this baby naming...when we visited Alpacas of America they had 1600 alpacas and they all had names. I wondered if they will ever run out of names as they have over 600 new babies a year...600 more names to pick. That reminds me of a friend of mine who was a cow farmer...he had hundreds. I asked them if he named them all. He stated "Yup...all there names are son's of bitches!"

IT'S A BOY!

2008-07-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

One of our females, Petal, had a little baby boy. Petal is a really pretty light fawn with a white belly and had a beautiful dark brown boy with a white chin and black ears. We have another due any day now and two due in August...our family is growing fast! We need to find some land soon so we can bring them home.

Go west young man and learn about alpacas

2008-07-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

July 2008, we headed to Washington to see one of the largest farms in the country...Alpacas of America. They have a whopping 1600 alpacas on 1700 acres. They had over 600 crias this year! We were met by Eric and Denae Snow who spent over 4 hours with us, on a Sunday no less, to answer all the questions we had about alpacas. If you ever have the chance you just have to visit this wonderful farm!

They took us out to a pasture where they had unsheared young maidens...females about 1 year old. They greated us with complete curiosity and literally surrounded us gently checking us out. A hucaya alpaca in particular who would touch our noses with her nose to great us, nuzzle her nose in our necks and cush at our feet. That day I fell in love with an alpaca.

On to Northwest Alpacas in Oregon for our 3 day course. Michael Safely led the course...he was instrumental in importing alpacas from the Accoyo farm into America. They even have on of the very first imported alpacas on their farm...Hemingway.

We learned too much!! Some of the things we learned that may help you start your own alpaca herd with your best foot forward is alpaca terminology so you can talk the "pacalingo". Check out this website.... http://www.alpacasofavalon.com/alpaca_terms.html

We also learned that you can take a mediocre female and "breed her up" by breeding her to a superior male. Then you take that offspring and breed her to another superior male and so it goes. That way you are breeding that original, average female and making her cria's exceptional. It's really not about the female, but the male blood. So with that said we bought our first 4 pregnant females and 1 male who "throws" rose gray.

They are being agisted, or boarded, until we can sell our home and find land for our new family members.

Alpacas? What the heck are alpacas?

2008-07-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

One lazy, boring Saturday on May 23rd, 2008 I saw in the paper there was an alpaca show at the Expo Center. The animal lover that I am and always up for a good petting "zoo" took my husband to check out the alpacas. When I lived in Ohio there was a newspaper article claiming that you could make lot's of money raising alpacas. I thought how in the world could you make money on an animal that you shaved the fur off one time a year? Is their fur that pricy? (I've come to learn that it's shear, not shave and fleece, not fur)
So off we go to the alpaca show, camera in hand and anxious to pet farm animals. There were hundreds of fluffy, teddy bear looking, absolutely huggable and adorable animals in small pens. There were even ones with dread locks. Some had for sale signs on their pens...."for sale $100,000"...what? Hmm....we need to look into this a little closer.
We were so perplexed how these folks made money doing this so we asked lot's of questions and talked to lot's of nice people. Most of the alpaca owners quit their jobs after 5 years of bredding alpacas. Now your singin' my song!
So here's the dealio...You buy a pregnant female (by the way the females are pregnant most of their lives...more on that later), they have a baby (called a cria) and you have instantly doubled your investment! Sounds like pure compound interest to me. Didn't take a rocket scientist to see that our original investment had just doubled. Perhaps even surpassed the original investment given who the female was bred with.
So, we went home and did tons of reasearch and thought "we can do this". We flipped 3 homes a couple of years ago, before the market softened in Utah, and thought this has got to be easier than going to work all day and busting out walls, painting and tearing out tile floors all night for 3 months.
So we headed to Oregon and Washington to two of the biggest farms in the country to learn more about these cash "cows", uh, er alpacas. We took a three day intensive course on how to raise alpacas. And the pure beauty of this business venture is that you can write off most things for your business and you can also insure your animals for their full price. You can't get much better than that for business security.