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“It’s a llama,” said 5-year-old Emily.
That’s a common misconception Kinney Valley Alpacas herd manager Justin Radloff said he hopes to help dispel.
The sixth annual Discover Alpacas event Saturday at Kinney Valley Alpacas in Ontario aimed to increase awareness about alpacas, showcase those for sale and convince more people to get involved in the alpaca industry, Radloff said. His parents, Joyce and Lloyd, own the 175-acre farm.
The general public is vastly unfamiliar with this docile cousin to camels, Radloff said.
“I get asked all the time what we do with their feathers,” he said. “There is not a lot of public education on alpacas out there.”
The unfamiliarity is rooted in the country’s small alpaca population, Radloff said. There are 113,236 registered alpacas in the U.S., up from 53,175 in 2002, with 3,584 living on 300 Wisconsin farms, according to the Alpaca Registry Inc.
Radloff said the host farm’s herd has grown from 11 to 160 in the past decade.
Make that 161 as of 10:45 a.m. Saturday. Seven-year-old Ceja delivered a healthy male, an unexpected highlight for the curious crowd that gathered to watch the birth. The newborn alpaca stretched and rolled in the hay underneath nurturing nudges from mom and fought gravity to stand awkwardly on his own for the first time.
“Within half an hour he’ll be walking around and we won’t be able to catch him,” Lloyd said.
Like the new addition to the herd, the alpaca business is in its infancy locally and nationally and remains a breeding-based industry, Radloff said.
“It’s addictive,” said alpaca breeder and La Crosse County Board Chairman Steve Doyle, whose stock has increased to 10 on his 26-acre farm in the town of Onalaska.
Selling breeding stock is more lucrative than the textile alpacas produce, Radloff said. Female alpacas can bring from $10,000 to $100,000 and males from $500 to $300,000, depending on the quality of the animal.
Owners sell sheered alpaca fleece, but the current population isn’t large enough to sustain a high-end commercial fiber market, Radloff said.
“Right now in the industry we are trying to improve genetics on every baby born in hopes that farms develop high-end genetics,” he said. “Today’s progressive breeders are breeding for tomorrow’s commercial industry.”
A fiber-based industry is expected to develop in the next decade as demand for the alpaca fleece — one that is softer than cashmere, hypo-allergenic and lighter and warmer than sheep wool — increases, said Ian Watt, owner of Alpaca Consulting Services USA in Morro Bay, Calif., and featured speaker at the event.
“It’s where the future is,” he said.
“I’m hoping to obsolete sheep,” Radloff joked.
When the industry develops, Watt said, the value of the animal will depend on the quality of its fleece.
Bruster, a 1-year-old male alpaca, lost five pounds of fleece during a sheering Saturday. The removal of his 5-inch-thick amber coat drastically altered his previously fluffy appearance.
“I have to put neck chains on them afterward because I don’t recognize them,” Joyce said.
Alpaca Fast Facts
Source: www.alpaca.com
Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com.
Kristy Brown, The Brownderosa Llamas, Sparta, WI wrote on May 9, 2007 9:37 AM: