How many of you have ever seen an alpaca, let alone touched it or fed it? This is an opportunity available to you at Twin Springs Alpacas on 271 Deerfield Lane east of Pineville. From Jane, take Highway 90 East to Route E, turn right, then turn left on Deerfield Lane.
Rob and Jamie Zimmerman and their children Jacie, 14, Aaron, 12, Aiden, 6 and Liam, 4 give everyone a warm welcome and don’t charge for an educational tour. Call ahead at 417-435-2282 to set up the best time to see the alpacas.
If you are familiar with llamas you may expect alpacas to be similar, but they’re almost the opposite personalities even though they look somewhat the same. Alpacas are curious like llamas but are sweet, intelligent and predictable. They’re smaller than llamas, don’t spit and will gently eat right out of your hand.
Their lifespan is about 20 years, gestation is 11.5 months. Baby alpacas are called crias. A female will give birth, usually without assistance, in the daylight hours. Any time there is a twin birth, it makes news.
Their wool is incredibly soft and is compared to cashmere; the animals are sheared annually. The fiber is stronger, lighter and warmer than wool, is hypoallergenic and comes in 22 natural colors. The colors in the Zimmerman’s herd include medium rose grey, beige, cashmere, light rose grey, true black, dark fawn, light fawn, white, medium brown and medium fawn.
For those of you who garden, alpaca poo is PH7, perfect for gardens - this fertilizer won’t burn your plants and has no odor.
The Zimmermans have simple fencing on their 40-acre ranch to contain their herd of alpacas. The “girls” are kept in one area and the “boys” are kept in another within site of each other. Only one boy, Magic, doesn’t “play well with others” so he has to stay with the horses who are so much larger they can keep him in line.
Ricardo is their alpha male who almost died protecting his herd. Baby Bella, a black female at five months old is their youngest. Roku, a rare alpaca from Peru, travels to schools and the children’s shelter.
Girl Magic is the boss of the females, especially at feeding time; Teyha is the friendly show baby; Shadow is black and is their oldest animal, very majestic and noble; and Casper is a deaf blue-eyed white whom they rescued so he wouldn’t be put down.
These are just a few of their alpacas’ names and each name usually describes their personality or a physical characteristic.
When calm, they communicate by softly humming. They trumpet when in danger. The Zimmerman’s two Great Pyrenees dogs keep the predators away from the alpacas, but somehow missed keeping a tomcat from getting near their less-than-one-year-old cat they have on the ranch to keep the mice away. So now there are five kittens to increase the collection of three horses, 16 ducks, the alpacas, dogs and a cat.
Predators come in all sizes; recently a Rogersville, Mo. alpaca farmer had to shoot a female black bear which went after his herd. Conservation officials confirm that it’s illegal to hunt bears in Missouri but they can be shot if they pose a danger to lives or property; they also confirm that bear sitings are up this year.
Eight of the Zimmermans’“girls” are pregnant, so new crias will appear on the ranch any day now. Sounds like a great time to visit the ranch.
Additional information about the Zimmermans’ ranch can be found at www.openherd.com/ farms/3624/twin-springs-alpacas-llc or you can email them at [email protected].
Religion, Pages 7 on 06/20/2013