Alpacas of Marin

Nicasio, CA

  • Farm |
  • Alpacas |
  • Boarding |
  • Raw fleece/fiber |
  • Yarn |
  • Breeding Specialist |

Website  www.alpacasofmarin.com
Email  info@alpacasofmarin.com
Facebook  Alpacas of Marin/SoCal Suri Alpacas

Article on the Blog  The Hum of the Alpaca

Alpacas of Marin is Marin County’s first commercial alpaca farm, with 80 alpacas—both Suri and Huacaya– on a beautiful 12 ½ acres overlooking the Nicasio Reservoir. We are a full-service alpaca farm, offering award-winning, nationally acclaimed alpacas as breeding stock for sale, as well as top quality “fiber” and “pet” alpaca mini-herds. We feature a robust “stud row” of herdsires happy to accommodate outside breedings, as well as alpaca boarding and mentoring for new alpaca owners. We sell raw fleece—both Suri and Huacaya, and we also have yarns and some fiber end-products for sale.

Alpaca fleece has no lanolin, and thus is hypo-allergenic. Additionally, the microscopic structure of alpaca fibers eliminates the “itch factor” seen in some sheep’s wool. For these reasons, alpaca fleece is a luxury fiber that can be used to make a wide variety of beautiful and practical products. It also blends very well with high-quality sheep’s wool to make soft, durable, itch-free garments. Alpaca fiber diameters range from 15 to low 30s in micron, and we target our breeding program to produce fleeces with uniform fiber diameters which results in a luscious “handle” or feel to both Suri and Huacaya fleeces. There are 26 natural colors of alpaca fiber, but alpaca yarns also take well to natural and commercial dyes. Our Huacaya fleeces have excellent “crimp” formation and our Suris are recognized for their luster and lock formation—some of our Suris have locks that are twisting into yarn on the alpaca!

Alpaca compost is in demand for private and commercial growers. It has no odor, and it is low in nitrogen, so it does not “burn” plants when fresh manure is applied to the garden or house plants. We work with several companies and organizations that use our manure in their top-end farming, and we hope to collaborate with the Marin Carbon Project to evaluate the carbon fixation properties of alpaca manure when applied to fields as a compost.

 

Photo Credit: Alpacas of Marin