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FEEDING TIME: Stacy Heydt’s alpacas eat right out of her hand. “They’re all halter trained, gentle and ready to go,” she says.
FEEDING TIME: Stacy Heydt’s alpacas eat right out of her hand. “They’re all halter trained, gentle and ready to go,” she says.

Business Spotlight: The Alpaca Pivot

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Stacy Heydt doesn’t know why her 16 Huacaya alpacas chew on the fence at the 27-acre farm in Marshfield for White River Alpacas LLC. She suspects it might be boredom. Alpacas, known for being docile, have no top teeth. The defenseless and shy creatures with pads on their feet similar to dogs don’t challenge fences, but more expensive fencing has been installed for six of the acres to keep out predators.

“The alpacas have opened so many doors for me,” Heydt says.

Heydt’s initial nine alpacas produced fleece, and she was subject to what many alpaca entrepreneurs struggle with – what to do with the fleece? Her husband and co-owner of the business, Terry, sent her to a spinning school.

“I was freaking out the first couple of times, but I really found it relaxing,” she says.

In 2004, Heydt became a distributor for New Zealand-based Ashford Handicrafts Ltd. She sells looms and spinning wheels and teaches loom and spinning classes to students ranging from 9-year-olds to grandmas.

Heydt says she doesn’t teach the traditional method. “I want people to just have fun and relax,” she says.

Though easy to handle and soft to the touch, the animals were not initially easy on the pocketbook. But the 2008 economic crash impacted alpacas, too.

“When we first got into it, you could spend $40,000 on one alpaca,” she says. “They’re not going for that now.”

Still, some of the top show quality alpacas sell for over $20,000.

“That’s not my niche,” Heydt says, explaining that hers can run between $300 and $5,000. She has one alpaca with champion bloodlines she expects will go for $10,000.


She travels to shows with her alpacas, from Chicago to Ohio to Louisiana, and says many alpaca farmers are shifting.

“They got into it for the animals and then the fiber is kind of a byproduct,” she says. “Well, now it is changing and the fiber is coming to the front of it.”

Although some alpaca owners have gone the direction of online fiber sales, she’s not fond of the practice, because she says people need to touch it first. She teaches the skill and technique in processing the fiber to make it the softest possible for clothes.

But the online market has helped in another area. Fun Fibers Art Design Studio, which launched a year ago to offer kits and classes, has attracted 16,000 online visitors.

“All those traditional arts are coming back,” she says.

Declining to disclose annual revenue, Heydt says the bulk of sales stem from art kits in the $10 range and classes in the $100 range, as well as fiber products and seminars.

She’s now creating kits specifically for homeschool students.

“Everything that you need to make that art piece is in this little box,” she says.

The greatest attribute of alpacas – 22 natural colors – was also the greatest challenge to selling the fiber. But all of that is changing after a recent meeting in Washington, D.C. Sheep and goat industries have their own fiber councils, Heydt says. A fiber council for alpacas has been two years in the making.

“We got together and decided to form the U.S. Alpaca Fiber Council,” she says, pointing to original discussions in Wooster, Ohio, with U.S. Department of Agriculture representatives. “At that time, the individual businesses were not willing to give up proprietary information even for the advancement of the industry.”

The council decided about three months ago it was time to work together and drafted a mission statement and press release.

They now have standard guidelines for fiber length and grades in harvesting. The next step for the U.S. Alpaca Fiber Council is to work with the USDA to become listed with the agency so fiber can be sold and purchased in bulk.

“The biggest problem that we had in being able to move the fiber industry forward is that we have so many different colors of alpacas,” she says. “We didn’t have the bales, the poundage of the same color, the same quality that goes into a bale, and now we do and that’s exciting to see.”

Terry Passanante, owner of Clover Bottom Alpaca Ranch about 50 miles west of St. Louis, says the council’s formation is a huge leap for the industry. Clover Bottom, White River and Morning Moon Alpacas in Rogersville are among over 40 members of the Midwest Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association.

“It’s a very exciting time for alpaca farmers. Alpaca fiber is softer than cashmere and warmer than wool,” she said. “This is the time when it’s starting to break.”

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