A Brief History of Our Farm....
In the year 2000, we met our first alpaca at an art festival in West Virginia. We have been enamored with the animals ever since. Over the course of the next five years, alpacas continued to pop into our lives in one form or another. In 2005 we decided to research the industry extensively and finally made our first purchase in 2006. Currently in the herd building stage, we have genetically sound females, breeding to top hersires. Our goal is to produce show quality alpacas that will be desirable and competitive in the alpaca market.
Settling Into Our New Farm
After two years and what seemed like an endless search, we found our perfect alpaca farm in 2008. Sitting high on a hill we are enjoying the view and beauty of the land. We moved our alpacas to their new home the week after Christmas, and lets just say Mother Nature did not give us a warm welcome. It is a good thing alpacas bring their own coats!
We had our first open barn/farm tour in October 2009 and it was a great success. A great big thank you to everyone who attended and a special thanks to those intrepid volunteers who helped us make it happen. We had over 140 visitors that beautiful fall day.
We are planning many projects to continue to grow and expand our farm. A new barn roof last fall and designing new pastures for the spring are just a few things that are keeping us busy.
Meet the Alpaca Owners
While involved with the alpaca industry, Randy and Jane both continue to persue their outside professions. Jane oversees the business operations of Cotacachi Alpacas while Randy is the barn CEO. Shannon, the official alpaca namer, also loves telling her class all about alpacas. We share our home with Sutter our faithful cainine companion of many years and cats Spenser and Lulu who both use us for food and a warm bed. We enjoy the alpaca industry immensly and hope we can share our alpaca enthusiasm with both those new to the business and the seasoned entrepreneur.
Affiliations
Cotacachi Alpacas are members of the following orgainzations:
AOBA - Alpaca Owner and Breeders Association: www.alpacainfo.com
PAOBA - Pennsylvania Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association: www.paoba.org
ARI - Alpaca Registery, Inc: www.alpacaregistry.com