Alpacas of Kilblaan Farm

Liz and John MacEachran

402 Spring Hill Rd

Sharon, NH

603-924-6113

HOW WE GOT STARTED

In 1997 we bought 117 acres of forested land in southwestern New Hampshire. As our plans shaped up for building our new place, we thought about having a farm with animals. Sheep, I thought, I've always wanted sheep. But then, somewhere along the way, we were introduced to alpacas. It seemed like alpacas were easier to live with, and with a high individual value, you didn't have to have hundreds of them. And so the alpaca adventure began.

By March of '98 we were settled into our new house with 3 alpacas nestled in the barn, one expecting a cria. Since her due date was March 10, we weren't particularly worried about the deep snow and cold temperatures, but on March 3, we were startled to find Livy out in the snow with a baby half-delivered. We pretty much ran around like Laurel and Hardy and managed to get the cria well-chilled, but she survived and so did we. We named her Esperanza because we hoped she'd be the start of something wonderful.

OUR FIRST CRIA

Our little herd grew steadily, sometimes by purchase, sometimes by births. We bought 3 young males in partnership with our mentors, Wilpaca Farm, and our new friends, Acorn Alpaca Ranch. When Wilpaca took their herdsire out of their breeding program, we found ourselves doing all the breeding for 3 farms. We bred 36 females that summer, and boy did we learn a lot about not just breeding, but keeping ourselves organized.

We didn't think much about showing at first. There weren't many shows in those days. However one fall we got a notice about the Big E, and we started thinking. If we didn't go and market our alpacas there, all our friends certainly would. So off we went to our first show, with Margarita, Paloma, and Melissa.

We had never handled our alpacas very much. We just enjoyed seeing them in the field, interacting with each other.

On the morning of the show we decided we needed to knock some of the dirt off Margarita's legs. Twenty minutes later, we were all breathing heavily, Margarita was on the ground with a towel over her face, my shirt sleeve was ripped from top to bottom, and John and I were wearing a large amount of green. We decided then and there that our alpacas would be trained to be handled a little better in the future.

The show was great for us. Margarita and Melissa each won their classes and Paloma took third behind Margarita. This improved our attitude about showing quite a bit.

The next spring we decided to go to the MaPaca Show. We took Margarita and Paloma again plus a little grey girl named Evangeline. Evangeline was the cria of Esperanza, that first baby who had us running in circles. Margarita and Paloma did well again, but Evangeline not only won her grey class, but was chosen grey Color Champion! Just as exciting, we sold her the day before the show started. It wasn't for a lot of money, but it was our first sale of an alpaca we had bred, and it started us down the path to a very successful summer of sales.

A major part of our alpaca adventure has been the wonderful friendships we've developed with other breeders and our customers. We're a very interdependent group, calling each other for advice and help, hanging out together at shows and celebrating each others' successes.

The crias keep coming each one the culmination of careful breeding decisions and hopes for the future.

It's been a lot of fun to watch our customers excelling in the show ring with alpacas they have bought from us.

Having a farm has been a great lifestyle for us. We hope we can do it for a long time to come.

alpacas liz john

Kilblaan Farm

Liz and John MacEachran

402 Spring Hill Rd

Sharon, NH 03458

603-924-6113

email: kilblaan@aol.com

Last updated: 09/20/2007