Events
Visit North River Alpacas at these upcoming events:
Bill Goodman's Gun and Knife Show, July 25-26, Sharonville Convention Center, Sharonville
Clifton Gorge Music and Arts Festival, Aug. 28-29
POSITIVE NEWS
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Though the alpaca is an animal that has existed in South American countries for thousands of years, it is relatively new to the United States, having initially been brought into this country as zoo animals in 1984 and eventually to farms.
Brenda Walter of Clifton is one of several hundred alpaca farmers in the state of Ohio. In fact, due to its climate, which is well suited for the animals, Ohio boasts more alpaca farms than any other state, according to the Ohio Alpaca Breeders Association.
“We started getting our animals in 2010,” Walter said. “I made friends with another Brenda (Hanes) in Xenia, and she has an alpaca farm. We hit it off, and six months later I was helping her at her farm.”
A few years before, Walter’s job in international sales was starting to wind down. “I was working with two European based companies,” she said. “I sold commercial carpet to airlines and worked with a leather manufacturer out of Scotland. I was on the go quite a bit.”
In fact, for 15 years, Walter said she was living out of suitcases, traveling nearly every week. “I would generally go out on Sunday or Monday and come home on Thursday or Friday,” she said. “Going from here to Dallas to Atlanta to Memphis and out to the West Coast. It was a high-stress job.”
As the years went by, however, Walter said the travel became more of a drudgery and began to take a toll on her health. “Dragging those heavy suitcases around filled with samples, my shoulders always hurt,” she said. “I realized in 2008 that I needed to have major surgery. My doctor told me I was injuring myself every time I went on a trip.”
After she had a total joint replacement, a change in the economy had most of Europe pulling back on its investments in the U.S., which caused her sales to dry up, and Walter knew it was time for a change.
Hanes asked Walter to help her at her Alpaca farm and before she knew it, Walter had fallen in love with the animals. “I went out to help her every morning,” Walter said. “I would clean up and feed them. I knew it would be physically demanding but I got a lot of satisfaction from it. I was there to see three babies (cria) being born and it was pretty amazing.”
With relatively little experience with farming or animals, Walter said she “had no clue,” when she started helping her friend with the alpacas. “But I soon saw that these animals have all kinds of personality. You can’t help but smile when you are with them,” she said. “I don’t care what kind of mood you are in. When you get around them, you feel better.”
Originally from Washington State, when Walter met her husband Michael, who was from New Carlisle, the couple decided to buy a house with some acreage outside of Yellow Springs after they were married.
By the end of the summer of 2010, Walter and her husband were working on a barn and fencing several acres of their property so they could bring home their own alpaca herd.”I bought nine males from Brenda,” Walter said. “The girls are a little bit more high maintenance so I knew I only wanted the boys.”
Walter said she loves being an alpaca farmer and has opened a small retail shop selling products made from their fleece. “You can easily put eight to ten animals on an acre, though I have my nine on three acres,” Walter said. “I think that has an appeal to people who have small farms like me. You won’t get rich quick, because your harvest is fleece and they are sheered only once a year.”
Walter sends her fleece to one of the few fiber mills that will process it into yarn. “It takes six months to get the yarn,” Walter said. “I also buy socks and apparel from an artisan group in Peru that manufactures especially for me.”
For Walter and her husband, the business, North River Alpacas is rewarding every day, not only because of the hypoallergenic fleece, which is the product of their farm, but because of the joy the animals bring.
“I really enjoy the animals,” Walter said. “You can have a bad day but you come out here and they do something goofy and you are laughing in the barn by yourself while you are cleaning up a mess. It give you a sense of satisfaction. I talk about my animals like I do my kids. They are farm animals, but they have silly personalities. It’s hard not to tell stories about them.”
For more information, go online to www.northriveralpacas.com.
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