Anatomy of an Alpaca Ranch

Journal Entry 26, 07/14/2022

Though I've learned a boatload since last fall when I started volunteering at Alpacas at Windy Hill and with SoCalFibrshed.org, I learn more every week and have just begun to understand different types of alpaca ranches & what different ranches do with alpacas.  The ranches I've seen are a mix of one or more of the following.

• Breeding & Alpaca Sales Ranch

  • Alpacas at Windy Hill is primarily a breeding ranch with the goal of producing the finest fleece in the country. Cindy, owner of Alpacas at Windy Hill, focuses primarily on breeding Suri alpacas (the ones with the dreadlock-looking strands), while her partner Traci, owner of Faith & Fleece Alpacas, focuses on breeding Huacaya alpacas (the fluffy-looking ones).  Fleece qualities Cindy breeds for are:

    • density (produce 10 pounds or more per alpaca per year),

    • uniformity (which produces the smoothest yarn),

    • fineness (each hair fiber is between 18 to 22 micros thick),

    • length (the mills like it between three and five inches. Some of her Suris fibers grow up to seven inches a year.

Alpaca fleece comes in 22 official colors. The fleece shown above are from Suri alpacas. The scorecard was completed by an approved Alpaca Owners of America (AOA) judge. On right, Cindy examines a blanket from previous year’s shearing.

• The degree of emphasis on a formal breeding program & annual quantity of new alpaca births (crias) at Cindy's ranch is unusual for most alpaca ranches in California & perhaps in the entire country. Roughly 55 crias will be born this year on the ranch.

• Alpacas not kept in the breeding program are sold for a variety of reasons:  as pets, as research animals, to "petting zoo" organizations, & other reasons I am not yet aware.

• Alpacas are sheared annually. (See April, 2022 Journal Entry "How to Shear 210 Alpacas & 1 Great Pyrenees in 2 Days".) One of the biggest Fibershed challenges is lack of mills that can process the alpaca fiber with consistent quality & quick turnaround. 

• Agisting Ranch

  • Though nearly 200 alpacas reside on the Alpacas at Windy Hill ranch, not all belong to Cindy. For alpacas that aren't Cindy's, owners pay a monthly fee (called Agisting), which covers daily food, standard health treatments depending on the alpaca's age (e.g., crias, yearlings, juveniles get monthly A&D shots, & more), condition (e.g., special treatments if pregnant &/or lactating, those having eye or skin irritations, & more), & annual alpaca show status (see 5/12/2022 Journal Entry show competition criteria & Cindy's show winners).

Running an alpaca agisting operation requires a lot of hands-on care out in the field & in the barn on a daily basis. Clockwise from top left, just a few common treatments are: Cindy checks a cria’s umbilical hernia, giving A&D shot, bottle feeding a cria, getting ultrasound machine ready to confirm an alpaca’s pregnancy, treating an eye infection.

• Teaching Ranch

  • Cindy helped develop the local community college's Veterinary Tech program & offers her alpacas to help give students hands-on experience treating & assessing the health of the alpacas.  Students learn to draw blood, give shots, do exams, & other procedures related to the curriculum.

  • As her planned improvements related to regenerative land management practices, fleece management, fleece processing programs, & more, she intends to expand training opportunities to local women & veterans’ organizations.

  • Cindy welcomes volunteers from the local 4H club, who learn to do all kinds of chores on the ranch, from helping with the annual fleece shearing days to helping halter train the alpaca crias (babies) sometime during their first year.

  • Though I'm sure they must exist, I haven't yet learned of other alpaca ranches that have positioned themselves as a teaching ranch. I'm keeping my eyes open to learn of others as time goes on.

• Agri-Tourism Ranch

  • Agri-tourism creates opportunities for the public to come onto an alpaca ranch (for an entrance fee) to see & sometimes interact with alpacas firsthand. Most of the alpaca ranches I am aware of engage in some degree of agri-tourism.  Agri-tourism ranches usually have gift shops where alpaca products can be purchased. The products I've seen so far are a mix of local alpaca roving & yarns (usually hand dyed), hand-knitted items & blankets along with a variety of Peruvian alpaca products. These visits are also a way for potential alpaca owners to get an orientation about ownership options & the different business model commitments.

The alpaca felt hat on left is from Peru. The blankets on right were made from alpacas raised at Cindy’s ranch.

But mostly, I think Cindy just loves alpacas. And loves teaching others.

Cindy with some of the girls.

July Eye Candy

From left: Zurich, boy Zip-a-dee-doodah (b.7/5); Tory, boy Tobias (b.7/6); Quizzical, boy Quest (b.7/7); Lilac, boy Kingston/Kiss of the King (b.7/10); Windchime, boy Worthy Journey (b.7/14). This boy was born in an adjacent field without anyone noticing for several hours! Gia had girl Grazie (b.7/8), but I don’t yet have a pic of this divine little one.

I watched mom Lilac & baby Kingston spend several minutes “kissing” each other. I asked Cindy what this was about. She said this is common & was actually transferring ruminants from mom to baby