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Alpaca Breeder Farm

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Years ago, while still living in the city, Carolyn saw an article about an alpaca being used for pet therapy, and thought what an incredible animal! After leaving the city life to operate a cottage resort in the country with her husband Doug, the farm beside our resort came up for sale, we bought it immediately to be included as part of the resort. Well, if you have a barn you have to have something in it, something not too big and hard to manage, something easy to care for, and cute to boot. What else could it be but an alpaca!

We purchased our first two male alpacas at that time. We halter trained the boys and would walk them through the resort so the guests could pet and feed them; they were a big hit. After a few months we bought four more male alpacas to join them. Before long we realized that we were enjoying the alpacas more than the resort. We put the resort up for sale and decided to jump right into the alpaca business. We bought another farm and in one weekend in November 2009 we went from having 6 gelded alpacas to 16 alpacas. We purchased 2 herdsires, and 6 females- 3 were pregnant and 2 had crias at side. We consider November 2009 when we really became alpaca farmers.

We wanted to keep our males and females apart; our bank barn wasn’t big enough to do that, so we converted the drive-shed into a temporary barn. After almost 2 years the resort was sold and the new barn started going up in August of 2011. By this time, our herd had grown to 31 alpacas. Before building we went to visit many other alpaca farms in Ontario. We picked up some great ideas and have included them in the design of our new barn. We think our new barn will work out very well both for the alpacas and us. With our new barn we now have space to agist your alpacas for you.

When we decided to start our alpaca farm we chose to breed for grey Huacaya alpacas.

We believe we can breed greys with lingering fineness, density, crimp and correct conformation. Our goal is that each generation will be better than the previous and in time to have a herd of elite grey alpacas.

We have taken advantage of every chance available to us to learn about alpacas. We have attended three Education Weekends sponsored by Alpaca Ontario, two shearing courses, several fibre courses, Camelidynamics Handling course, and now Carolyn is attending the OHS (Ontario Handweavers & Spinners) Spinning Course so we can showcase our fibre.

In 2010, we participated for the first time at the Alpaca Ontario Show. We entered 6 alpacas in various classes and returned with 5 ribbons, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 2 4th place ribbons.

In 2011, we entered our first fleece competitions. At the Fibre Week A.L.P.A.C.A. Fleece Show, Olds College, Alberta - Shadow’s fleece took first place scoring 64.5/100 points; at the Alpaca Ontario 2011 Fleece Show, Shadow’s fleece took second place scoring 59/100.

We are a very hands-on farm; we feed and check the alpacas twice a day. At feeding time, all the alpacas are brought into the barns so we can look them over for any physical and behavioral changes. We clean the pastures and barns twice daily. We follow a routine herd health program. All of our alpacas are halter trained and will walk without difficulty, some of our male alpacas actually enjoy going out for long walks.

We pride ourselves on Customer Service. Each client is dealt with personally; we want to sell you what is right for you. We will provide support before and after your purchase. You will be provided with complete records on your new alpaca. Our commitment to you doesn’t end with the sale - it is just the beginning.

Most of our alpacas are both Canadian (CLAA) and American (ARI) registered.

We invite you to contact us for a farm visit, come see what all the excitement with alpacas is about.

We are planning on becoming more involved in community events to promote alpacas and alpaca products.

We are currently members of Alpaca Ontario Association and Alpaca Canada