Alpaca advocates YEC members enjoy raising gentle creatures

Dan Lawing wanted to return to his roots.

After a long career as an engi­neer in the tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ing world and cur­rent full-time posi­tion as direc­tor of facil­i­ties for York Place chil­dren’s home, Law­ing want­ed to spend his free time get­ting back to his child­hood activ­i­ties grow­ing up on a farm near Mar­i­on, N.C. Togeth­er with his wife, Lin­da Smith, they began look­ing for ani­mals to raise three years ago.

They did­n’t have to look long or far. After Lin­da saw a news­pa­per arti­cle about alpacas—a South Amer­i­can camelid that resem­bles a small lla­ma— the two vis­it­ed a farm, Awe­some Alpacas in Mon­roe, N.C., plan­ning to spend an hour look­ing around. Some six hours lat­er, the hook was set.

“We both just fell in love with them,” says Lin­da, who has been a York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­ber for more than 40 years. “They were just dar­ling, just won­der­ful. We got home and that’s all we talked about for a week. We kept mak­ing the sounds they make— they hum, you know, when they’re hap­py and stomp their feet when they’re aggra­vat­ed.” She notes that alpacas have no upper teeth, hooves or horns.

Dan called back the farmer, Joe Porter, came to terms for the sev­en remain­ing bred females for sale, and he and Lin­da have been in love ever since. Nowa­days the cou­ple raise 19 hua­caya (pro­nounced “wah-kay-ya”) alpacas on their Clover farm, breed­ing the females and sell­ing the fiber prized for its soft­ness and strength to a near­by proces­sor, Echo View, in Weaverville, N.C. They thor­ough­ly enjoy every aspect of the process, from the breed­ing to shear­ing to the dai­ly chores that revolve around the lives of the gen­tle and enter­tain­ing crea­tures.

“Each one is like the best fam­i­ly pet you could have,” Dan says. “They’re pret­ty low-main­te­nance ani­mals; you have to trim their toe­nails every so often, but real­ly, they’re light eaters for their size and their vet costs are pret­ty low. I even use their waste for fer­til­iz­er for my gar­den, and it’s remark­ably effec­tive. We jok­ing­ly call it ‘alpaca black gold.’ ”

For Dan, the deci­sion to raise alpacas is one he has­n’t once regret­ted.

“We just love watch­ing the fun things they do,” he says. “They’re like chil­dren. It’s a reward­ing expe­ri­ence every day we get up to be with them.”

 

By Wal­ter All­read
Field Edi­tor
South Car­oli­na Liv­ing