A Close Shave Alpacas Like Summer-Weight Coat - But Not The Clip

Like most 2-year-olds, Abyoyo has a hard time sitting still for the barber.

He whines, wiggles, cries and kicks as two people hold him down - one by the ears, the other by his backside.

That would be tough treatment for a toddler, but Abyoyo is a full-grown alpaca getting 12 pounds of fleece removed.

Bill and Nola Graham held their annual Harvest Shearing Day on Friday, a time for folks to bring in their own alpacas for $25-$35 haircuts at the Castle Hill Farm in the Rimrock area of northwest Spokane.

Just before Abyoyo, Black Knight went under the clippers. He was excited about the yard full of alpacas surrounding him.

“He thinks he’s here for more than shearing,” said his owner, Cindy Cates, 17, of Springdale.

The Graham family has about 150 alpacas of their own.

The Grahams took 17 of their alpacas to the world’s largest alpaca competition last week in Denver, and brought back nine blue ribbons.

Nola Graham said she has been breeding alpacas for eight years. On Friday, the family expected to shear at least 200 pounds of fleece from about 40 alpacas.

Most alpacas don’t like getting sheared, but they appreciate their lightweight coats once it’s over, said Andrea Rowley, who helped with the mass shearing.

Tell that to Abyoyo.

He whined and kicked wildly as Rowley tried to find his tail and drag him onto a piece of blue tarp.

“He thinks it’s water,” she said.

His silvery fleece will be spun into yarn to be sold as fabric for clothing. Some of that spinning was going on even as the shearing continued Friday.

Theresa Frank, a 20-year spinning veteran, considers alpaca fleece among the best because the fibers aren’t barbed, like wool, so there is no itch. In addition, alpaca fibers contain no lanolin, which many people are allergic to.

Nola Graham prefers alpacas to llamas for the same reasons. Besides, she said, they have better social skills.

“You can’t put a bunch of male llamas together. They’ll fight to the death or castrate each other,” she said.

“Abyoyo is proud and strong, but he’s not an egomaniac. He just walks around like ‘Yeah, I know I’m cool.”’

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