Alpaca Products
Alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, three times warmer than sheep’s wool, hypoallergenic, water repellant, and odor resistant. These properties make alpaca products easy to wear and care for, as well as, very durable.
You can learn more at a blog post we wrote on the subject. See: https://cottoncreekfarms.com/why-alpaca-products-are-a-great-purchase/
Our products are made in Michigan, other states within the United States of America, and Peru.
Alpacas must be sheared annually for their health. This is a humane process and it is done with great care and by a team of professionals.
Our fur products come from Peru and they are harvested from already deceased animals. Over 80% of the world’s alpacas still live in Peru and in the Andes Mountains. Because environmental conditions and existing diseases (enteritis, enterotoxemia, and pneumonia) they have a much higher mortality rate than here in the United States. They lose many babies each year and this loss is by small family farmers. Instead of losing all value of the animal, the fur is harvest post-mortem and used so the small family farms can have some value from their alpaca breeding program. It is not a norm in our industry to kill alpacas to harvest the hides. We do not do it in the United States and reputable farms do not do it in Peru either.
Our store offers hundreds different alpaca products. Products that come from our alpacas include items like socks, hats, headbands, mittens, cowls, scarves, baby booties, baby hats, dryer balls, rugs, trivets, nesting balls, Christmas ornaments, yarn, roving, and felt. We’re working on increasing the variety of products made from our alpacas and hope to expand this list soon.
While Grandma Lil is our favorite artisan, we also have alpaca products made locally by Kathy, Pat, Nancy, Jody, and a few U.S. based mills.
In addition, we knit socks right on our farm and these socks are made from USA grown alpaca.
All other products would be made by artisans in Peru. You might ask why we would purchase products from Peru for resale. There are two main reasons. The survival of the alpaca industry is heavily influenced by Peru. Over 80% of the world’s alpaca population still live in Peru and this community is important to the longevity of alpacas as a whole. We support these artisans because they are critical to our industry. Another reason is the United States does not have a large number of mills that can support the production of alpaca products. It is very difficult to locate a mill that can produce garments from our alpaca fiber. We are working on establishing these relationships, but this process does take time.
Yes. All of the products within our onsite farm store are also available for purchase via our website’s online alpaca store.
If you live in or are visiting the Traverse City area, you are welcome to place an order online and select local pickup. Once done, just contact us ad let us know when you’d like to pick up your goods. We’ll do our best to accommodate your schedule.
At this time we do not ship to locations outside of the United States. We hope to offer this service in the future.
Just visit our contact page and reach out to us via a website inquiry or phone call. We’ll be happy to help.
We have a no-questions-asked return policy and simply require you to return products in their new condition and within thirty days of purchase.
We certainly can. Whether you need 500 socks for holiday gift baskets or a very unique gift for someone special, we’re here to help. Learn more about our corporate gift program.
Alpaca Livestock Purchases
We do sell alpacas to both new and existing farms. If you are interested in purchasing an alpaca, please reach out to us via our contact page.
We do not sell and ship alpacas overseas. We sell to locations within the United States only. We recommend you reach out to Little Creek Farm Alpacas if you’d like to ship alpacas overseas.
We do not sell baby alpacas. For the physical and mental health of the alpacas, crias (baby alpacas) must stay with their dam for at least six months.
Miniature alpacas do not exist. Small or mini alpacas are the results of genetic issues or problems related to improper nutrition.
While we do sell both boy and girl alpacas, we do not sell a mating pair to new farms. Alpaca males and females must be kept separate. The female anatomy cannot support frequent breedings. Gelded alpacas can still be problematic and cause the female harm if housed together.
We do not place alpacas in the same shelter or pastures as goats, sheep, horses, cows, pigs, or other livestock. We talk about this topic in-depth in a recent blog post. We recommend you read through the post to understand the ramifications of housing alpacas with other livestock. Chickens can easily intermix with alpacas.
4-H Program
If you are interested in joining our Farm and Fleece 4-H group, please send an inquiry via our contact page. Jason will follow up with you to discuss this opportunity further.
You do not need to own alpacas to participate. Each year we make a certain amount of alpacas available so children without farms can participate in 4-H. Please contact us to determine if we have an alpaca available for your child.
A Cloverbud is the youngest 4-H level and this begins at age five. You can learn more about the Cloverbud program at https://4-h.org/parents/programs-at-a-glance/.