Cairparavel Alpaca Farm

Owners: Ryan and Kimberly Erickson•35016 State Hwy 6, Deer River, MN 56636•218-246-2627

www.alpacaman.com•Email Us

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Welcome to our farm!

We're glad that you found us on Openherd. Please take a look at our sales lists and enjoy learning more about our farm. We welcome your enquiries and questions!

As Suri alpaca breeders in the lakes region of Northern Minnesota, we have a great opportunity to promote alpacas to vacationers from various places. We enjoy sharing our love for alpacas with visitors on a weekly basis. Our farm store allows us to share alpaca wear with our visitors.

At this point we feel it is very important to only breed Suri alpacas to Suri alpacas and to minimize the potential of Huacaya offspring from Suri alpacas.

We are pleased to have participated in several alpaca shows and have won ribbons at each show. We plan to continue showing our alpacas and will utilize the feedback from fellow breeders and judges to enhance our breeding program.

We participate in the Annual MN Alpaca Tour and National Alpaca Farm Tour which will be held on the last weekend of September, 2010.

How did we get started with alpacas you may ask. It all started when we decided to move out of town. Ryan was looking for an excuse to buy lots of land. His goal was 40+ acres and he needed a reason to justify it. Recalling an infomercial from a few years back he started talking about "calpacas". Kim had never heard of a "calpaca" and thought he was looking for a "cowpaca". What in the world was a "cowpaca"? The month was July 2003.

One day at work Kim was talking with a coworker about the "cowpaca" livestock her husband was extolling. The coworked suggested maybe he was actually thinking of alpacas which they had noticed at the Minnesota State Fair the year before.

Now that the species issue was resolved, Kim searched the internet for more information. The first thing to notice was the price per animal. This was not an investment to take lightly. Lots of great information available from the internet continued to pique our interest.

Within weeks, a weekend of alpaca farm visits were scheduled. Five farms in two days - no problem. Three Huacaya farms and two Suri farms were visited. It was quite a priviledge to see these animals up close and meet the great people caring for them. Each farm had their own styles and ideas. By the time we arrived home, we had decided to focus on Suri alpacas. The month was August 2003.

Suri alpacas are only about 18% of the alpaca population in the U.S.A. Their rarity inspired us to pursue breeding them.

We moved into our new house in September 2003. The barn was built in November 2003. Fence posts went in shortly after Christmas 2003 - yes the ground was frozen. Our first alpacas arrived just before the end of the year! Wow! They were two gelding Huacayas and one Suri male. They made the winter go so much faster and our Suri girls arrived in March 2004. It has been totally awesome and we have no regrets on our decision to raise alpacas.