Red the LlamaAugust
Wow! It has been a busy summer. We Shear Alpacas through out MI in the spring and are usually done by the end of June. Although most of the shearing was done in May and we were almost finished in June, we have had a lot of last minute calls and are still shearing a few Alpacas & Llama's into August.
The Alpaca fiber is sheared off into 3 bags. 1st is the prime, 2nd is still good but not as soft and sometimes not as long. Then there is the garbage fiber. That is fiber that is to short to do anything with. Well this year we were able to take the garbage fiber from our Alpacas along with the fiber from all the farms we sheared at and send it to the gulf for oil cleanup. The garbage fiber is put into old nylons and easily soaks up oil. It's a great thing. We gathered over 200 lbs of the fiber in total and brought it to the nationals in Indiana where we met another farm that delivered it from there.
Field Trips: we have had several field trips at our farm this year and we have also taken a few of our Alpacas around the area for kids programs when they did not have the funding to come to our place. We teach the kids about the different types of fiber, what the animals are used for and much more depending on age. Of course they all get to pet the Alpacas and at our farm they can also take them for a walk. Everyone from age 2 to 80? gets a big kick out of that.
August is a hot month and we are just laying low with the Alpacas right now. Trying to keep them cool in this 80 & 90 degree weather. They have kid pools and love to be hosed down. Our barn is in the shade and they hang out in there keeping cool on the really hot days.
In September we have a few cria's ( baby Alpacas) due. We will also be quite busy with farm markets, field trips and the Mi. International Alpaca Fest. Dates and times for these events will be listed on our news & events page
Wow! It has been a busy summer. We Shear Alpacas through out MI in the spring and are usually done by the end of June. Although most of the shearing was done in May and we were almost finished in June, we have had a lot of last minute calls and are still shearing a few Alpacas & Llama's into August.
The Alpaca fiber is sheared off into 3 bags. 1st is the prime, 2nd is still good but not as soft and sometimes not as long. Then there is the garbage fiber. That is fiber that is to short to do anything with. Well this year we were able to take the garbage fiber from our Alpacas along with the fiber from all the farms we sheared at and send it to the gulf for oil cleanup. The garbage fiber is put into old nylons and easily soaks up oil. It's a great thing. We gathered over 200 lbs of the fiber in total and brought it to the nationals in Indiana where we met another farm that delivered it from there.
Field Trips: we have had several field trips at our farm this year and we have also taken a few of our Alpacas around the area for kids programs when they did not have the funding to come to our place. We teach the kids about the different types of fiber, what the animals are used for and much more depending on age. Of course they all get to pet the Alpacas and at our farm they can also take them for a walk. Everyone from age 2 to 80? gets a big kick out of that.
August is a hot month and we are just laying low with the Alpacas right now. Trying to keep them cool in this 80 & 90 degree weather. They have kid pools and love to be hosed down. Our barn is in the shade and they hang out in there keeping cool on the really hot days.
In September we have a few cria's ( baby Alpacas) due. We will also be quite busy with farm markets, field trips and the Mi. International Alpaca Fest. Dates and times for these events will be listed on our news & events page
Paul & Gina Webster 
231...
3597 S. Pine Newaygo, MI 49337 231-652-4647
231... 3597 S. Pine Newaygo, MI 49337 231-652-4647
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Hi, Thanks for checking out our website. My name is Gina. My husband Paul and I are the owners and proprietors of White Cloud Alpaca Farm
Our farm is located about one hour NW of Grand Rapids.
We are a smaller hands on farm, with an average of 10 to 20 Alpacas depending on births and sales each year.
Our Story: As our 2 children were growing older, graduating from High School, moving on to College and starting their own life's, we decided it was time to think about our dream of living in the country.
We already had some land in Newaygo County. We absolutely love the area and weekend getaways just didn't seem long enough. Our place is located just a few miles away from the Muskegon River and Hardy Pond. It may take 10 minutes to get to a grocery store but it only take's us 2 minutes to get to our playground on the water!
Paul & I both being self employed, he doing building and remodeling and I as a massage therapist thought, well we are to young to retire but not to old to restart our businesses in a different area. While stewing over the pro's & con's of moving to the Country we discovered ALPACAS!!! The first time I saw something on the Animal Planet about them I knew that some day I would have Alpacas. Did I mention that I am a huge animal lover. Well about 9 months later, after a lot of research and Alpaca Farm visits,(good thing Paul is such a good sport) we plunged into the wonderful world of Alpacas. That was the summer of 2002. We agisted our original purchase of 3 Alpacas. A maiden female, and a pregnant girl with her male cria at side, for the first year.
What to expect when coming to our farm: Well expect to be greeted by our to overly friendly Newfoundland dogs! We also have a few barn cats and chickens running around. They keep the Alpacas amused. Of course you will see some awesome Alpacas and one friendly Llama that loves to give kisses. Our farm is not a perfectly manicured white picket fence kind of farm but we do take pride in all we have accomplished since moving from the suburbs of Detroit in 2003 to live the country life and be among these magical animals.
Farm Maintenance: Paul & I do all maintenance from bean scooping to spring shearing and everything in between our selves. It gives us pleasure to be among the Alpacas. Yes even bean scooping can be enjoyable when you stop to watch the Alpacas and especially the Cria's (baby Alpacas) at play, and the beans are great for the garden! We built the barn and set up the pastures and fencing ourself, well with a little help from some great friends & family. We went to several Alpaca farms to check out their setup's and what they liked and didn't like about the way things were set up before planning our own. We are really happy that we did because we received a lot of really good advise and are now quite happy with our layout. We are looking forward to putting a second barn in in the near future.
Breeding Decisions: We are of course always breeding up to get the best fiber quality & conformation possible. We do not base our breeding decisions on All Peruvian, All Accoyo or all anything. We base them on the best genetics, fiber quality and conformation whether the ancestry is from Bolivia, Chili or Peru.
If you are looking to purchase Alpacas: We have gained a lot of knowledge about farming and Alpacas over the past 7 years and we enjoy sharing that knowledge with those that come visit the farm. If you come looking to purchase Alpacas we will give you all the advise we can offer and make sure you are happy with any purchase you should make. If we do not have the genetics you are looking for we will help advise you on reputable farms that may have more of a selection. Since we go to many farms throughout MI. shearing, we get our hands on a lot of fantastic Alpacas. Before we sell an Alpaca we make sure it is halter, lead trained and used to having hands on them for nail trimming and other herd health practices. We use Marty McGee methods in training our Alpacas.
If you are making your first Alpaca purchase we will teach you herd health practices and give you plenty of after sales help as well as before sales advise.
