10562 N. Meridian Rd. Ossian, IN 46777

Email: info@specialkalpacas.com

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Welcome! Glad you could join us! This page is here so you can get to know a bit about us. My name is Kathy, and I operate Special K Alpacas with my partner, Cecil.

I always enjoyed farming and livestock, having grown up with horses, and spending a few years working on thoroughbred farms in Kentucky. While working for some of the big thoroughbred farms, I learned about breeding, bloodlines, birthing and general horse maintenance and care. With this kind of background, I was confident I could properly care for livestock on my own farm.

When we moved out here to rural Indiana, I knew I wanted to be around farm animals again. I love horses, but didn't have the land or the time for them. Not to mention the high maintenance cost of horses. When I found out about alpacas, I thought they might be right for our small farm, so I started doing some research. I was thrilled with their ease of maintenance, and we had plenty of room to start a small herd. We visited some farms, and once I started working with them, their gentle nature convinced me they were perfect for our place. So started our adventure with alpaca farms.

Cecil wasn't convinced quite as easily. He suggested I get some goldfish. Well, the alpacas won out, and won him over. He acts as general farm hand, but his specialty is cria watch. Because I'm often away from the farm at work or during shearing season, Cecil has had to field many of the crias at birthing time. He does an excellent job, and his presence makes the farm run very smoothly, even when I'm not here.

We started out with four females that I really liked, and when I was in different parts of the country on business, I found a few more females to add to the herd. I chose my females based on pedigree, phenotype, and potential. Our herd numbers around 20, which we find to be a comfortable number. About the time I purchased my first alpacas, I learned to shear, and now I operate a mobile shearing service. We cover most of Indiana, and parts of Ohio and Michigan. We shear, and trim teeth and toenails. The one-stop spring "makeover".

We have learned a lot since first researching alpacas. Our goal is to improve quality and consistency of both fleece and phenotype with each generation of alpacas we produce. We match dams and sires carefully in order to optimize the desirable traits in each. We have 2 active herdsires but I still send some of my girls to other farms for breeding. The addition of outside bloodlines gives our clients a wide variety of quality genetics to choose from.

I see many similarities between the alpaca industry and the thoroughbred industry, and I use some of the horse industry lineage and bloodline principles when selecting the sires of my crias. Many of our females are sent to other farms for breeding, in order to maximize their genetic potential.

While we have alpacas of all colors, we are becoming more focused on the blacks and darker colors. For me, the excitement is in combining bloodlines to achieve the best possible results. It is an exciting industry, and still very new. We feel that there is much all of us as breeders can do to improve on fleece quality, and with careful breeding selection, we can all make a difference.

Give us a call some time, and come out to visit. Visitors are welcome anytime. We’d would love to meet you (our alpacas would too!). Let us show you what these wonderful animals and the alpaca community are all about!

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