Hello from the farm: A Little about Alpaca

Hello from Dragon Fleece Farm. We are a small fiber producing farm, specifically Huacaya (wuh-KAI-ya) alpaca fiber! We thought that we would use our first post to share a little information about alpaca. Alpaca are originally from South America and are members of the camelid family. Many folks mistake alpaca for llamas. There are lots of t-shirts out there that reference alpaca but incorrectly use a llama image!

This is a picture of B the alpaca. The photo was taken in April after shearing. You can see that B's facial features are quite different from Meghan the llama (pictured below). Alpacas (120 to 250 pounds) are smaller than llamas (250 to 450 pounds).

This is a picture of Meghan the Llama. She had not yet been sheared in this picture. See her "banana" ears? Alpaca ears are not as large and not curved like a banana.

So, then next time you see an alpaca or llama, take a look at their size and their ears!

This year B all by herself produced six pounds of fiber that we will process and use for various items (e.g., dryer balls, hats, scarves, pillow stuffing, and landscape cover). We are learning how to process all the fiber by hand. Stay tuned as we will be sharing our fiber processing journey!