On Saturday (September 26, 2009) my husband and I visited a local alpaca farm — it was having an open house in celebration of National Alpaca Farm Day.
It was fun seeing the cute animals, as well as chatting with the animals’ owners, Paul and Lisa Rogers, at Singing Meadows Alpaca Farm.
We forgot to take our camera, but here’s a photo of one cutie from the farm’s website:
Wordy side note: I’ve noticed several places that have fiber animals calling their places farms. I’ve always thought that farms had mainly crops, and ranches had mainly animals. My cursory research this morning bears this out. So what’s the deal with all these fiber farms, alpaca farms?
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October 2, 2009 at 7:27 am
bermudaonion
The ranch owners aren’t as smart as you are, so they call they ranches farms! I think ranch sounds a little snooty, so maybe they’re trying to avoid that.
October 2, 2009 at 7:29 am
wordlily
Hm, that’s interesting. Thanks!
October 2, 2009 at 8:14 am
Breeze Hill Farm
I just learned (maybe I already knew) that any of us who raise animals are in fact “ranchers” not farmers. Breeze Hill Ranch just doesn’t do it for me though.
Love you blog and have bookmarked it. – MaLinda
October 2, 2009 at 8:22 am
wordlily
OK, I can buy that farm/ranch rationale, I guess.
October 2, 2009 at 8:27 am
softdrink
He’s kinda got a punk look going, with that haircut.
So do alpacas spit like llamas do?
October 2, 2009 at 8:29 am
wordlily
I don’t know about camels, but I have been spit on by an alpaca (when I helped shear a couple years ago, at a different place). During this farm visit they were all friendly and well-behaved.
Alpacas also hum …
October 2, 2009 at 10:08 am
Eva
Awww! So cute!
There’s a yarn store here that has their own llamas.
And I lived in central Texas for 5 years, then went to school in the middle-of-nowhere Illinois. So I definitely know the difference between a ranch and a farm! lol
October 2, 2009 at 11:12 am
AlpacaFarmgirl
That’s wonderful that you visited an alpaca farm!
Alpaca Breeders choose their own names. Some do choose ranch, particularly the ones out West.
When I think ranch I think cattle or horses. Ranches are also usually on vast amounts of land. Alpacas can be raised (and usually are) on small acreage. You can put 7 alpacas per acre, whereas the stocking density for cows and horses is 2 acres per animal.
Ranches also make me think of cowboys. Alpacas are so small you don’t need to be a 25-yr.old cowboy to handle them.
I think farm has a more broad useage so I see why people use it. Many alpaca farms are right next to subdivisions. Hard to picture a ranch up against a subdivision.
The main thing to remember is alpaca breeders do their own thing. They think outside the box, so they will call their operation whatever suits them. Ours is simply called Fairhope Alpacas.
October 2, 2009 at 11:22 am
pcNielsen
Ranch = animals
Farm = plowed fields
Framch = a combination of the two above
At least that’s how it is in the midwest
October 2, 2009 at 11:22 am
wordlily
Of course people who raise alpacas choose their own names. I’m pretty sure the density ratio (animals:acre) isn’t a set number, though. It varies from place to place (amount of rain being one factor), as well as the type of animals. Nevertheless, I’m well aware alpacas don’t require as much land as cows.
As I stated in an earlier comment here, I can understand wanting to name your land/farm/operation/business whatever you want. That’s fine by me.
I certainly didn’t intend to raise anyone’s hackles here; it was just a question.
October 2, 2009 at 11:49 am
Leslie
Around here we call everything a farm, whether it has animals, crops, or whatever. No ranches in this part of Virginia. I think the use of the word “farm” comes from the fact that the first settlers here were subsistence farmers, with a family cow, pig, maybe some beef cattle or sheep to sell for meat, and the crops and garden to sustain it all. Large holding of land were practically non-existent by the turn of the 19th century so we didn’t use the word “plantation” either.
October 3, 2009 at 5:09 am
MonikaRose
G’day, cute alpaca. Enjoy your day
October 3, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Elizabeth Mahlou
I think the formal distinction and everyday usage is quite different. I grew up on a farm, and we had both crops and animals. (What would you formally call that? A rarm or a fanch?)
October 4, 2009 at 4:30 pm
zenasurialpacas
The difference between a ranch and a farm: Ranches have fields for grazing; farmers break the ground for crops. Because of the dry climate in much of the West, tilling the soil is inadvisable. That is why more ranches are found in the West.
October 5, 2009 at 7:29 am
fleurfisher
We have llamas here, in the far south west of England. But we don’t have ranches – I’ve always known them as a purely American concept – so they definitely live on a farm!