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Alpaca Breeder Farm

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Who we are…

Alpacas at Marquam Hill Ranch is an 18 acre ranch on Hwy 213 in Molalla, Oregon. We are located directly between Molalla and Silverton. We have over 75 huacaya alpacas; they resemble teddy bears! We breed our animals for the fineness of their fiber, with a soft handle and good density. Our goal is to create a long term fineness in all animals that mimics the feel of cashmere or better. Currently more than half of our herd is under 22 micron. We have both white as well as a variety of other colors of alpacas, and there are 22 colors of alpacas as defined by the Alpaca Registry. Bill is an AOBA Certified Fleece and Performance Judge; his education helps in the purchases and breeding of our alpacas. In the future we will be holding many classes from fleece evaluations, breeding selection, business plan write ups, to fiber arts. If there is a topic you’d like to learn about, we will find the instructor and create the class, or you can simply stop by. We would be happy to answer your questions. We have a large fleece room dedicated to presentations and a ranch store for a quick gifts for yourself or someone special.

Our herd consists of seven studs that we either fully own or own in partnership: Snowmass Trilogy, Crescent Moon’s Ezekial, Crescent Moon’s Elizario, Accoyo America Kodiak, Emerald Clouds Javelin, Nirvana of AMHR and Denver of AMHR.

We love to talk about these amazing animals. Whether it is a question on how to get started, breeding questions, animal husbandry, the investment aspects ( Bill is retired CPA) or anything else that you might be interested in, please feel free to stop by, give us a call or drop us an email. You can contact us at jennifer@mhralapcas.com or 503.407.3699.

We look forward to hearing from you.
It was just seven short years ago when I saw a huggable white baby alpaca in the Living Section of the local newspaper. There was an alpaca show at the expo center that weekend, and my husband and I attended. He really didn’t understand my growing interest in these animals, but he went with me. Once we got to the show, we learned that some people made a living breeding and selling these cute animals.
On our drive home, I expressed my interest in these critters as my husband just sat and listened. He told me to read more about them if I was really that interested. My reading turned into more discussions and my husband, Bill, started calculating the initial investment to the sale of the animals. Bill was a CPA by trade and has now retired to work on the ranch full time. Over the next year with our Internet research, reading books, going to classes, visiting many different farms and ranches, we decided to purchase a group of five girls. Since our family lived in a neighborhood, these animals needed to be agisted. Over the next three years, we agisted at two different locations. I spent many hours visiting the animals, taking part in Monday morning veterinary checks, and working day to day with them.
We finally found an 18 acre property with a mobile home and rows of cane berries in Molalla, Oregon. We have taken all but five long rows of berries out, built a large barn, turned cane rows into green pastures, and now have a totally of over 50 alpacas. My have we come a long way, and we have learned so much! Our family life has changed from city to country. Bill has resigned from the corporate world and is now an AOBA Judge for Alpaca Fleece and Preformance. As for me, I’m still just as excited about scooping poop and taking care of our herd! The four kids have confirmed their initial thoughts...we really are nuts! After all of this, if you asked us if we would do this again, we’d answer, “In a heartbeat!”