This weekend is National Alpaca Farm Day.  Alpaca Farms across the country will be participating in Open Houses, boasting about our alpacas and how much we love the lifestyle.  We'll be telling people about how we got into alpacas, all about raising them, what we use the fiber for, what they eat, the fleece and the many colors, the genetics, DNA testing, fiber analysis.  You name it.  We love to talk about alpacas.

Labels: Alpacas

We've ended 2008 with a beautiful female cria, complements of Miah.  This one was well worth the wait.  She was born on Saturday.  Light fawn with fading on head to beige.  There are now a total of six Mercurio offspring on our farm; 4 males and 2 females.  We're hoping for a Get out of this crew.  For some unknown reason, the names came easier this time.  So here they are...Chace (Willow), Vecurio (Velyssa), Bogart (Prism), Opal (Jewel), and Shiah (Miah).  Chace was named after our farm help, since this was her first unassisted delivery.  (Yeh Brechyn!!!).  Vecurio is a cross between Velyssa (the dam) and Mercurio (the sire).  Bogart is from, well, I'm not really sure.  Mike thought of it but it seems to suit him to a tee.  Opal came from Jewel and she really looks like an opal.  Shiah is a cross between the names Miah (the dam) and Shari, another one of our employees.  Hopefully the crias will hold still long enough for a group photo.

Labels: Crias X5

A very eventful ten days at Long Acres Alpaca Farm.  Four new crias from our young stud, Mercurio.  Mercurio is proudly co-owned with our good friends, Jim and Helen Humphreys at Silvercloud Farm. From a black with white feet we got a fawn with white in a tuxedo pattern.  From a silver grey tuxedo pattern we got a near twin of the first one.  Then came a fawn from fawn.  Today the latest was born. She is either beige or white.  In total we now have five crias from Mercurio on our farm.  He has at least four at other farms.  All appear to have exceptionally nice fleece.  The other exciting  aspect of his crias is COLOR.  Mercurio is beige.  All but the cria born today have darker colors including dark brown or bay black, and various shades of fawn.

Labels: new crias at Long Acres

We searched for sometime but found our full accoyo male earlier this summer. We are now proud co-owners with our good friends, Jim and Helen Humphreys of Silvercloud Farm, of Opus. Beautiful white yearling male with fantastic genetics. He's out of Principe Dorato and Pacific Crest Accoyo Tayberry. His fiber stats are great--AFD 16.5, SD 3.6, CV 21.8% and %>30 0.4%. Plus his fleece is very bright and dense. We'll be taking him to Empire Extravaganza and MABA this fall. He might be ready to breed next spring. Thanks Silvercloud!!

Labels: Silvercloud Farm's Opus

This was a super auction held in August 2, 2008 hosted by Cas-Cad-Nac Farm, LLC and Virginia Alpaca Farm & Breeding Co. Beautiful setting but the animals were outstanding. We recently visited with Tom and Jerri Booher, Timberland Alpacas in Oregon and saw their fantastic herd so when we saw one of theirs in the auction, we were very interested in bidding. We purchased Apocalypse's Hemiaccoyo Moxie, MB maiden female with high frequency crimp that is very fine and bright.

Labels: National Alpaca Elite Auction

We had a fantastic time at the Extreme Progeny Auction held at the Mountaineer Resort in WV last weekend. Great seminars by Cameron Holt going over a variety of topics but primarily talking about ways to improve your progeny, Dr. Norm Evans gave an insightful talk on managing the breeding process, and Brett Kaysen with an excellent overview of EPDs. The average price for combined huacayas and suris at the auction was just over 16,000. There were some beautiful animals and we were lucky to pick up two females, KY Criations Silver Genesis07 out of Legend's Challenger of KPR and a full accoyo beige female, JLFA Michelangelo's Accoyo Ramadi out of El Nino's Accoyo Michelangelo. Both are Champions and we're excited to show them this fall.

Labels: Extreme Progeny Alpaca

We hope you will join us for National Alpaca Farm Day Open House on September 28, 2008 from 9am to 5pm. We will be showcasing our huacaya alpacas which include Champion females and herdsires, foundation females and fiber animals. We have alpacas available in a wide variety of colors, from white to black and both silver and rose grey. Our alpacas are from several heritages; some full Peruvian, others from Bolivia and Chile as well as full Accoyo alpacas. Festivities include an Alpaca Clothing Fashion Show at 12:30. Admission is free and there will be alpaca clothing products, raw fiber, rovings and yarn for purchase. Come and enjoy these beautiful animals in an incredible mountain setting.

Labels: Open House

Welcome to our new forum. This is where we will be posting information about our alpacas and the industry in general. Stop back to see us soon.