Most mornings, Trina Schaak starts her day with a gentle hum.
The Falls woman said that she likes to take her morning cup of coffee, grab a lawn chair, and sit down to watch her herd of alpacas each morning as they eat their breakfast of hay, minerals and cud, romp around the yard, and communicate through gentle humming noises that she finds so endearing.
“You just fall in love with them,” Schaak said.
Each animal is a little different, she said, all having their own personalities with good days and bad days. But, generally, they’re docile, friendly creatures, an equal mix of curious and timid.
“Alpacas are very personable,” she said. “They’re fascinating creatures.
“They’re very gentle animals and they’re easy to handle.”
Recently, those morning visits with the herd have been especially interesting, as she is expecting “Leila,” the chocolate-brown colored female, to give birth any day. Schaak said that an alpaca typically gives birth in the morning very quickly, and the baby, or cria, is up and running with the herd by nightfall.
So, among other alpaca-related duties on the farm, Schaak serves as a midwife for the mother and cria. She also administers health care, and is in charge of the daily chores of feeding and cleaning up after them.
And while Schaak has bonded with her alpacas, they’re not just pets; they’re also a business.
With soft, luxurious fur, these silky relatives of the camel and llama are prized and raised for their abundant fleece. The natural, hypo-allergenic yarn made from their fiber is well known to knitters, crocheters, and spinners.
There are two breeds of alpacas, huacaya (“wah-KI’-uh”) and suri (“surrey”), which are distinguished by their coats. The huacaya, have fluffy, crimped fleece which to some may resemble a teddy bear, while that of the suri is straight and forms pencil-like locks that cascade.
Schaak and her fiance/business partner Larry Wendt, have 18 huacaya in their herd at Riverdale Alpaca Ranch.
The herd started with three mothers and one cria each in 2008, and has very quickly expanded to include males and females in multiple age brackets.
The alpaca join the small Borderland farm that also includes horses, chickens and several dogs.
“I’ve been dragging stuff home since I could find them,” Schaak said, referring to all of the animals she has owned throughout her life.
The alpaca are domesticated camelids native to the countries surrounding the South American Andes Mountains, such as Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia. There, they are used both for their fleece, and sometimes as meat. In the United States, they are used exclusively for their fiber and breeding.
The alpaca have a regal history dating back to the ancient Incan civilization. They were first imported to the United States in 1984. According to Schaak, the importation has ceased, meaning that the country will rely on breeding to continue the species here.
Riverdale Alpaca Ranch has one original Peruvian import, a female named “Olivia.”
“You don’t have to kill them to get money back of your investment,” Schaak said, referring to profits from selling the yarn and breeding fees.
In northern Minnesota, Schaak said that the animals are sheered in the spring so that they stay cool over the summer and have plenty of time to grow their coat back before winter.
During the sub-zero winter, Schaak said that the alpaca do quite well, but eat more and spend more time in shelter out of the cold and wind.
Schaak said that she hopes to send the fleece of the eight animals sheered this past spring to a fiber processing plant in Hastings, Minn. That plant would return the pile of loose fibers in the form of a yarn, which could be used or sold. There are also fiber co-ops in the state, which Schaak said she was looking into.
She said that she has hopes of learning how to spin yarn herself and joked that she wants to become a “spin-ster.”
Schaak said that she was heartened when she went to buy an alpaca and the owner said that she was making sure that the animal was going to a good home. That compassion for the animals, and the camaraderie among alpaca owners, is important to Schaak.
“It’s just an awesome community,” she said.
There are alpaca competitions and shows, much like other animals. Schaak said that these were great places to meet other alpaca owners, who were more than happy to share their tips and wisdom with Schaak.
The Riverdale Alpaca Ranch will hold an open house, where the public is invited to meet, pet and learn about the animals, as well as purchase alpaca products. It will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 26 and 27.
The ranch is located at 4418 County Road 91, about three miles west of the Falls on Highway 11-71.
