Alpaca Wool

Mark Niemeyer, owns Gem State Alpacas and has a herd of 53 alpacas. He talks about some of the products and benefits associated with these animals that originated from South America. “Either selling it raw, then take it and process it on a more commercial level or have it spun into yarn and focus on the people in the cottage industry, the fiber arts that love using this will either blended or straight to produce product. There are certainly other benefits to the alpaca that most folks don’t think about. The manure is very pH neutral. We have folks to come out and pick up loads to use in their gardens. It doesn’t burn like you see in the higher nitrate manures. In the US, something that is not talked about a lot, but there is certainly a meat market for certain animals that are called from the herd based on their quality, or there are too many males that are just not breeding males. We are very select in who we determine is going to be a breeding male. You move those to 4-H kids so that they can get involved with alpacas. We do cull our herd just like any other livestock industry. What does the meat taste like? It is most like beef. Just like lamb, you use a lot of loins and chops but it taste mostly like beef.