September 23rd, 2009
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
They’re soft and cute with big round eyes, lamb-like faces, long necks and semi-fixed smiles. Bigger than a dog, smaller than a horse, an alpaca has all that, plus it may be the most environmentally correct animal on the planet.
How so?
1. They have padded feet, not hooves. That means they don’t damage a delicate landscape. (Lots of heavy hooves clomping around can lead to soil erosion and weeds.)
2. They don’t have upper teeth. Thus, they gently trim tender grass with their bottom teeth and upper palate, rather than pulling it up by its roots. (Can you say cow?) Their gentle nibbling keeps grass growing. But they’re not too picky: alpacas don’t mind eating some leaves and brush.
3. A group of alpacas prefer to leave their droppings in a single communal area. And if that’s not handy enough, their pellet-sized droppings make a great natural, slow-release fertilizer, according to the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association.
4. They don’t need chemicals or insecticides or herbicides or fertilizer: Alpacas are all natural.
5. They don’t eat a lot and they like hanging out with each other, so you can fit 5 to 10 of them on an acre (a nice acre, mind you).
6. The best part: Shorn about once a year, usually in the spring, an alpaca will provide 5 to 10 pounds of some of the finest fiber in the world (in 22 natural 
colors).
Itching to see one? Check out the National Alpaca Farm Days website. This weekend (Sept. 26 and 27), alpaca farmers nationwide will open their gates for you to visit their flocks and perhaps show you the luxe end-product: alpaca wool, in the raw or woven.
A quick tour of the list of farms across the country shows that alpacas are in almost every state, not too far from New York City, Los Angeles and other urban areas.
The animals are native to the mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Chile. They have been domesticated for more than 5,000 years, but they only arrived in the U.S. about 25 years ago. Their ranks have steadily grown to more than 150,000, said Cindy Berman, a representative of the Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association. Even though they came from cool mountainous climates, they can be comfortable in most any part of the country (with some climate-correct adjustments).
“Ohio has the largest number of alpacas,” Berman said. “The second state is Washington.”
After 9/11, many stressed urban residents decided to move their families to calmer, quieter digs, and the alpacas fit in nicely. “It’s a good way to get into 
farming,” she said.
Softer, smaller cousins of the llama, alpacas in the U.S. come in two varieties: The Huacaya is more common and has a short, wooly coat, and the Suri has silky fibers that look a bit like delicate dreadlocks.
Many alpaca farmers work with the nation’s Alpaca Fiber Cooperative to process and sell their fiber. Some, however, do their own spinning and weaving and sell alpaca items in their farm stores. According to AlpacaInfo.com, raw alpaca fiber can cost from $2 to $5 per ounce, but in a finished garment it can cost $10 per ounce. Knit it by hand and a garment can cost up to $1,000.
Other alpaca facts: They cost anywhere from several hundred to many thousands of dollars. Adults are about 3 feet tall at the withers (where the neck meets the back). They weigh between 150 to 200 pounds and are communal (so you can’t have just one). They give birth once a year, and their offspring are called “crias.” Alpacas live to be 15 to 20 years old.
Farmers say they are smart and curious. They are ruminants, eating grass and hay, chewing cud.
They’re not perfect pet material, although young ones learn to hang around people and put up with petting and walking with a harness. Perhaps their only flaw is that they will spit when upset – but mostly at each other.
Best of all, you’ll hear no mooing or whinnying or baying or grunting or squawking. The alpaca only emits a gentle hum. Many alpacas, many hums. How peaceful is that?
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media
