Why Should You Consider Buying Alpacas During Depressed Economic Times?
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Why Should You Consider Buying Alpacas During Depressed Economic Times?
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Little Hummers Alpaca Farm
was established in early 2004 by Shelia and Greg Andrews on 5 acres we owned in northeast Alabama. In early 2006 we decided that we
needed more room, so we moved the farm to Greg's hometown of Ozark, in southeast Alabama, onto the Andrews' family farm of almost 200 years.
The family farm land has now been annexed into the City of Ozark, and even though we have a "Livestock Grandfathering Guarantee" from a previous
administration, no one in the current administration has any intention of honoring that obligation (to wit, they have blatantly ignored and
broken a verbal contract with us) and they are giving us lots of grief about the Alpacas being inside the City Limits. Therefore, having no
choice but to vacate the City of Ozark, we have purchased a 20 acre mini-farm in a very small town about 10 miles south of Ozark and are now
in the process of setting up our farm on those 20 acres. This land is close in to town, but far enough out to be just outside the City Limits.
We have moved all our boys to a farm just north of Montgomery for a short period of time so we don't have quiet so many animals to contend with
while spending so much time away from the current farm. Even though this was a forced move, we are very excited about getting the new farm set
up and getting us and the animals moved into the new digs. We wish to express our heart-felt thanks to Jo Walter of DDHummers Alpaca Farm
for helping us out of a tight situation by allowing us to move our entire herd of male alpacas to her farm during this transition period...
Our alpacas are all high-quality ARI registered Huacaya Alpacas with bloodlines from "Peruvian Drambuie", "5Peruvian Valeroso", "PPPeruvian Royal Fawn", "My Peruvian Ferrari", "Acero Marka's Mr. Know It All", "PPPeruvian Misty Maiden" and "Arcuta's Jackpot". All Championship bloodlines. All of our animals have been tested for bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and are certified BVDV free. As of we own 23 alpacas although we only have 13 of them physically located at our present location. As soon as we get relocated to the new farm, we will have our full herd back together, plus be agisting an additional 12 alpacas, 4 miniature donkeys, and 3 Great Pyrenees dogs, so we'll start off with a pretty full farm. We'll also be in full swing with our breeding program again. Click on the "Meet the Herd" tab above to see our foundation alpacas and take a look at the News & Updates section for additional information about recent farm activities.
We proudly support the alpaca farming industry by being active members of the following organizations: the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA), the Southeastern Alpaca Association (SeAA), the Alpaca Registry, Inc. (ARI), and the North American Alpaca Fiber Producers Coop (NAAFP).
Our mission
at Little Hummers Alpaca Farm is to produce alpacas of exceptional fiber quality, conformation and temperament. We help maintain a
gentle disposition by treating our alpacas with respect using the
CameliDYNAMICS philosophy when dealing with them on a day-to-day
basis. We will continue to promote the alpaca industry and support others who wish to become involved with the alpaca
lifestyle.
Our values
represent the old-South, timeless values of integrity, honesty and hard work. We still believe a person's word is a bond,
and a handshake is a contract that can be depended upon, and means as much as any written document. We strive to make each and every
customer a friend for life and will provide the support needed to help make the alpaca experience pleasing for those friends.
Our breeding philosophy
is to start with the very best breeding stock to produce exceptional crias. We discovered early on that the quality of the foundation
females plays a vital roll in any successful breeding program. The female contributes one-half of the genes that are passed on to the cria.
We continually breed our females to outstanding males throughout the country to improve fleece, confirmation and temperment in our crias.
We are committed to producing the highest quality alpacas and improving fleece quality with every new generation. In early 2007, we
invested heavily in outstanding females for our breeding program. We have bred up to outstanding males, such as "McGwire", "SCA Peruvian
Magnum" (Winner, 2007 AFCNA Spirit of Fiber Award), "MFI Peruvian Earthshaker" and "Hemingway's Great White" to improve our alpaca genetics.
We pledge to continue this breeding philosophy for the betterment of the alpaca future.
Our experience
in the alpaca business officially began in early 2004. However, before purchasing our animals, both Shelia and Greg attended several alpaca
"how-to" classes in preparation for this adventure. We made numerous farm visits to other farms, taking in all the information we could
digest about how those other farms ran their businesses. From each farm visit, we dropped the bad points and added
the good points to our own farm design. After preparing for the eventual purchase of alpacas for over three years, we
now have our alpacas at "home" and are gaining more and more practical experience each and every day. As with many other things, with
raising alpacas you never stop learning.
The Southeastern Camelid University®
has now become a reality and is the vehicle we will use to put our alpaca training and experience to work by presenting alpaca seminars for
others that might be interested in the alpaca lifestyle. These seminars will be presented by us here at Little Hummers Alpaca Farm as well
as by specialists in various areas of the alpaca industry. Once a seminar is scheduled, it will be announced on the web site so
click here to see the seminars we currently have scheduled...
About us.
Both Greg and Shelia grew up in southeast Alabama and that is where Little Hummers Alpaca Farm is now located. We both attended Auburn
University, where we met and were later married. Both worked for Auburn University for a number of years afterwards.
Greg is a computer programmer with over 35 years of experience, the last 18 of which was spent as a
Government Contractor developing internal
web sites for NASA. In early 2000, he retired from the computer industry and shortly thereafter discovered the alpaca lifestyle.
After attending their first alpaca show, the stage was set for the development of
Little Hummers Alpaca Farm. Greg uses his computer experience in the development of the web site for Little Hummers Alpacas as well as
in processing the day-to-day farm activities using AlpacaEASE, by far the best alpaca-specific
computerized herd management and financial management software package available.
Shelia is an accountant with over 30 years of experience and has recently been promoted to Director of Treasury Management for a
multi-million dollar corporation in southeast Alabama. She uses her accounting background to help keep the farm on track when making day-to-day
financial decisions for the business.
- We are proud members of the following alpaca farming organizations -
Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association
Southeastern Alpaca Association
Alpaca Registry, Inc.
North American Alpaca Fiber Producers Coop