Legendary Alpacas of Texas

12/7/2020

We did our first Harvest Host Stay last night at Legendary Alpacas of Texas and I bet you’d never guess what they raise.

Anyway, Harvest Host in an organizations where business owners allow Harvest Host members to stay on their property overnight and give tours of their business operation. Business such as Wineries, brewers, distilleries, and museums along with farms are most common but there are a few other types of business all scattered around the US. The members are of course expected to reward the host with a purchase of some type. For an upgrade to your membership you can add several golf courses to your membership. All or most stays are off the grid with no electric or water available, just a place to spent the night and a tour of the business.

Depending on the time of year Legendary Alpacas have 40-50 Alpacas, some are bought and sold as the year goes, one to two males are transported around the US for breeding proposes.

Alpaca wool is soft and naturally dirt and oil free. They are sheared once a year and their wool is separated into 3 grades at the time they are sheared. The sides and underbelly goes into one lot being the finest and most desirable, the back, hip and shoulders are the next most desirable followed by the legs. The alpacas are sheared once a year. Here they keep the males and females separate to A.) control when the young will be born and B.) to know who the sire is. The goal of the breading program is to produce the finest wool possible. For reasons I didn’t fully understand there are no artificial breeding programs for alpacas, males are shipped around the US some for quite the stud fee.

They are semi easy to take care of but I would think that in order to be profitable it would take several since wool and breading are their only real monetary value.

At around 150 poured they are manageable even if they get a little rowdy although that apparently not to big of a problem as they tend to be docile. The ones on the farm were not fans of being petted and would stand just out of arms reach. They were very curious and would watch your every move with their large eyes..

The End