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Alpaca Cost and Understanding the True Expense of Care
Summary of Alpaca Acquisition Cost Everyone who asks us about alpaca farming wants to know about the investment costs and the revenue opportunities. The revenue opportunities vary greatly from farm to...
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Welcoming the Ladies of Broken Arrow Ventures
My husband Jason watches closely for alpaca retirement sales. He knows they are a good source of quality alpacas and you help another farmer move on with the next phase of their life. Overall it is...
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Alpaca Birthday Parties are the Best Birthday Parties
What do you do when I cute little girl requests an alpaca birthday party on your farm? You give her and her ten friends the best one you can offer. And you push ahead even if the late September weather...
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How to Understand Alpaca Behavior and Positively Influence It
I’ve long been a people watcher who will sit back and observe a room and the body language and facial responses of an individual. Without realizing it, this has quickly been transferred to alpacas....
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44 Tips and Resources for Creating a Successful Business Plan and Starting an...
It’s springtime in Michigan and everyone is eager to emerge from winter and start something new. Barns are being cleaned out, 4-H animals are being sourced, and crops are being planted. This love for...
View Article2020 Cria Calendar
It’s spring and that means the crias are coming! I absolutely love having births on the farm and I cannot wait for our crias to arrive. Alpaca pregnancies take forever to complete. A female alpaca will...
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What to Know About Alpaca Shearing
Wondering how alpaca shearing is done and what you should expect during your first shearing day? Let me walk through our 2020 shearing so you can get a good feel for the process, planning, and...
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Do Male or Female Alpacas Make Better Pets and Fiber Animals?
This summer we’ve had a lot of farm visitors and we’ve sold quite a few alpaca. One of the questions we receive with each visit is which gender is better for pets and fiber animals – male vs. female?...
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Alpaca Histograms vs. EPDs
When we first started visiting alpaca farms and shows, I kept hearing references to EPDs and histograms. I was pretty darn confused about these terms, because they were generally used individually and...
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Can I Raise Alpacas With Other Animals?
Since we’ve been raising alpacas, I’ve been asked the same questions time and time again. Can I raise alpacas with my llama, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats? The...
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Improving Breeding Outcomes Through Alpaca Color Genotyping
In our first year of breeding alpacas, we were at our farm with friends Dave and Kari. They are fellow alpaca breeders and they had brought over their herdsire Eddie to mate our female alpaca...
View ArticleA Year of Growth and Blessings
When Jason and I discussed starting Cotton Creek Farms five years ago, we truly did not know what was in store for us. Hunter was quick to opt in, and I definitely know, he had no idea what was coming....
View ArticleWhy Alpaca Products Are a Great Purchase
When selecting high quality fiber should you select alpaca, merino wool, or cashmere? Which fiber is best for quality and value? And are these luxury wools worth the extra money? If you’ve bought...
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Spring Happenings at the Farm
We’d like to provide some farm updates for everyone as our busy season of summer is kicking off. It’s Time to Announce Our Giveaway Winner Our winner of the alpaca goodie basket was Cassie Barrett of...
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Beware of Alpaca Sales Scams!
Over the last week, I’ve discovered three different instances of alpaca sales scams using our photos and pretending to be our farm. One scam I found, one scam my husband found, and one scam a lovely...
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Understanding Color Variations in Alpaca Yarn and Products
We recently had someone purchase black yarn, only to be disappointed it wasn’t the traditional dark black that they were expecting. While the product photo didn’t represent a consistent true black...
View ArticleHow to Clean Your Alpaca Products
Some of the magic of alpaca is the fact that it naturally repels water, dirt, and odors, so cleaning takes place a lot less than you’d expect. A lot of times you can air out alpaca products or shake...
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Understanding The Black Base Coat Color Genotype of Alpacas
This article is co-authored by Lynn Edens of Snowmass Alpacas and Jason Gill of Cotton Creek Farms. It was originally printed in Issue 7 of The America Alpaca Journal. You can find the entire June...
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Color Genotyping of Alpacas: What We Are Learning
In early 2021, Lynn Edens of Snowmass Alpacas and Jason Gill of Cotton Creek Farms began using an alpaca coat color genotyping test to better understand the base colors of our alpaca herds. They hoped...
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Breeding Alpacas: What New Farms Need to Know
When we decided to breed alpacas, I was excited. I mean more excited than I have been for virtually anything else in my life. When I first met alpacas, I fell hopelessly in love with them, and I knew I...
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