IT WAS 2009 when Cathy O’Sullivan and Lachlan Cassidy decided to adopt alpacas.
It’s not hard to see what drew them to these animals, alpacas are unusual looking, have long necks, fuzzy bodies and mischievous faces with a top knot of fur that flows over their eyes.
“I initially got three wethers, that’s castrated males, and from there I thought I’d breed some too,” Ms O’Sullivan explained.
The alpacas were named Topaz, Dexter and Rebel.
“I bought a few females from a different breeder, who then brought a stud male or two to my place to mate with them,” she said.
“We had a few little babies come along after that.”
Ms O’Sullivan’s first alpaca herd lived contently alongside all manner of animal on their 80 hectare property named Mysteria Alpaca Farm at Grandchester.
“We’ve got beef cattle and meat sheep, and horses which are just for our pleasure really,” she said.
“There is also a goat, guinea fowl and some chooks.
“We had pigs at one point but don’t have them anymore.”
There are 40 head of cattle on the farm in a mixture of Brahman females and a Bazadaise bull, plus a few Murray Greys and a couple of Droughtmasters.
There are also 50 black headed dorper sheep and an Aussie white ram.
“We mainly sell our cattle at the saleyards,” she said.
“We’ll slaughter one for ourselves once a year ... if that, and we send it away when that happens.”
The farm is full of life and very busy, the couple like it that way but as their alpaca herd grew, so did the bills.
“There was a bit of trouble with bills and that sort of thing, it was a bit costly for a while,” she said.
“About 18 months ago we decided to open the farm up and let people come and visit the alpacas.”This decision enabled them to create a second income steam, one that could be used for the farm’s upkeep.
The couple already had public liability insurance.
“We haven’t had to go through too much red tape because we don’t run a café or anything like that, so we didn’t need a food licence,” she said.
“Down the track that might be an option, but not now.
“We have a gift shop but that’s about the size of it at the moment.”
The alpaca herd has now grown to 13 with four more expected soon.
A baby alpaca is called a cira, which also means ‘baby’ in Spanish.
“The younger alpacas are able to be haltered and walked by visitors,” she said.
“It’s proving very successful, people enjoy being around them and learning more about them.”
She said it was once expensive to have alpacas as pets but as population numbers grew they became cheaper to own.
“You used to pay a lot of money for a pair of them, but not now, I think that’s because there are so many of them within Australia,” she said.
“There are about 400,000 of them now whereas when I got into them there was probably only about 100,000.
“The last couple of wethers I bought were only $550 each.”
She said the animals were low maintenance and easy to feed, making them the perfect pet for those with enough space.
What noise do these animals make?
Ms O’Sullivan said if there was something around they wanted to alert her to, they’d make a braying sound.
“It’s similar to a donkey, otherwise they hum and also make a squeaky noise,” she said.
“They are actually really quiet.”
A few people have approached her asking to buy one of her alpacas, but she said she wants to keep her herd intact and is not ready to go down the breeding path just yet.