We had our granddaughter Meagon with us for the weekend so decided to go to Benchmark Alpaca Farm in Goodrich, MI. We were met by co-owner Barrie Lynn Wood who gave us a detailed tour of the facilities. WOW!!! What an education it was. There are over 100 Alpacas here and they are raised and used mostly for breeding and sale. The fleece from the Alpaca is beautiful, super dense and soft making it extremely warm when used in clothing or blankets/quilt stuffing. The Alpaca is originally from the Andes Mountains in South America. They are a prey and not a preditor so do not warm up to people easily. Of course, any animal seems to warm up to Meagon so she had her hands on them frequently. She was advised not to pet the Alpaca like a dog but to burrow her fingers into the thick fleece and massage the skin. This got the Alpacas following Meagon for more massages. I had the perfect day surrounded by two of my beauties, a friendly, informative host and wonderful, soft Alpacas. Mrs. Wood told Meagon as we were leaving that, if she ever needed any research on South America (where Alpacas are from) or Alpacas, she should revisit, call or email her and she would help. This is the place that I will recommend if asked by someone where they could learn about and/or want to get started in raising Alpacas.
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