An Alpaca Day Out

Alpapca Day, Dunchurch

Open day at Toft Alpaca Farm and Studio, Dunchurch

Yesterday was an Open Day at Toft Alpacas and a chance to get up close to these lovely, placid animals.  There are 250 alpacas and one Llama at Toft’s, which also has a shop and a studio where they hold workshops in a variety of alpaca-related crafts.

For open day, the workshops and tours were free and included wet felting, crochet, knitting and talks on how the alpaca’s fibre is used.  Some events needed to be booked and a ‘booking booth’ had been set up in the studio while outside bails of straw made some effective seating.  Drinks, cakes and scones with jam and cream were available and there was a good crowd attending throughout the day.

Unlike the llama, which is used as a pack animal in Peru, the alpaca is a herd animal, bred at Tofts for their fine fibre; they also sell them on – they make good guard animals apparently, as well as being used at petting farms and for stud. 

For me, the highlight was Halter Training, which involved taking an alpaca for a walk around an obstacle course. The staff have an interesting way of herding them using a length of rope; the alpacas interpret the horizontal rope as a solid object and naturally walk away from it towards their pens without any bother or need for a sheep dog. The obstacle course was not too grueling and our alpaca seemed happy to be led around with his friends in a slow procession between fences, over tubes and around buckets.  The session ended with a very informative talk on the introduction of the alpaca to the UK and their characteristics which was enormously interesting.

The farm tour was slightly blighted by this year’s usual showers but took us out to see some of the farm’s fields and more alpaca, including cria, (baby alpacas), with their mothers. The tour included lovely views of Draycote water and the surrounding Warwickshire countryside despite the greying clouds.

The alpaca are sheared annually, leaving a tuft on the top of their head for cuteness, and the resulting fibre that contains hardly any oils only needs one wash during its processing.  Unfortunately, alpacas don’t produce vast quantities of their best ‘wool’ which accounts for its cost but after carding and spinning the resulting yarn is very fine and silky. The shop has a range of items for sale as well as craft kits and patterns.

Tofts are open six days a week and run workshops and tours. There is a wealth of information about alpacas plus Tofts and events and on their web site: www.toft-alpacas.co.uk  and their shop and studio website: www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk

 Tofts Alpacas – Dunchurch, North Warwickshire, nr Rugby. CV22 6NR