Stargazer Ranch Alpacas
Stargazer Ranch began with Cindy’s preference to be a cowgirl and hang out and ride her appaloosas instead traveling around the country for her consulting and training business. We soon evolved into Stargazer Ranch Alpacas with the purchase of our first female alpaca in 1998. We had no idea at the time as to how much the alpacas were going to change our lives. Today we run a herd of about 100 alpacas consisting of both owned and boarded animals. Although we have raised both suri and huacaya alpacas in the past, we have become much more interested in our huacayas. We have steadily become much more focused on our whites and the production of Royal grade alpaca fiber (less than 18 micron).
Soon after we purchased our first alpacas we felt responsible to provide the best future for our alpacas as we could. If alpacas were going to become a relevant livestock in today’s world, they needed to be more that just pasture poodles. Alpacas needed to provide the marketplace with something special. We then learned that alpacas in South America once had fiber qualities similar to vicuña. The path that would best serve the future of alpaca became very clear. We made the decision our that breeding program would focus on developing the genetics we felt would help return alpaca fiber to “Pre-Conquest”, Vicuña type qualities. We started collecting data. We resisted fads and utilized whatever tools were available to help us make our breeding and purchasing decisions. We had no idea that we would have made so much progress in such a short period of time. Today over a third of our huacaya alpaca herd is 18 micron or less and the next third less than 21 micron. Most of our white alpaca breeding herd is in the top 1% to 10% of all alpacas that will reduce AFD, SD, Spin Fineness, %>30 and still increase fleece weight and density.
It may appear we are only concerned with top breeding stock. We also realize that a healthy livestock industry also needs to support all interests such as 4-H, hobby farms and a competitive show system. We believe alpaca popularity will continue to grow outside of strict breeding programs as the public’s familiarity and comfort level with alpacas increases.
Thanks for taking the time visit our website. Whether you are just starting to think about raising alpacas or wondering how to prepare your herd for the future, we are interested in talking with you. If you are in the area, plan to stop by for a visit. Please call first or check out when our next Open House is scheduled on our events page.
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