These Friendly, Multi-Purpose Animals Are Helping an Oregon Couple Live
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AM GOING TO SEE IF LAYOUT ARTIST CAN USE ANOTHER PHOTO THAN ONE AT LEFT. I PIONEER SPOTLIGHT DON’T LIKE THE TWINE --IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S OVER THE EYES AWESOME TheseALPACAS friendly, multi-purpose animals are helping an Oregon couple live their dream Alpacas are easy on the land, unlike cattle and horses, one of the reasons the Gardiners wanted to raise them. newpioneermag.com ‘While in high school, I learned how to spin,’ By Barbara Delbol “ Christine says…She fell in love with the fine-textured, soft fleece that’s hypoallergenic, anti- microbial and flame retardant.” PHOTOS BY THOMAS KIRCHEN John and Christine Gardiner at their farm in Oregon. Their alpacas generate income from fiber and fiber products, meat, breeding stock and compost. oaming a grassy pasture guarded by big white dogs, the shaggy alpacas seem content to spend the day doing nothing more than lounging about. But as charming as these South Ameri- can native camelids appear, they’re the bread- winners at John and Christine Gardiner’s Siskiyou Alpaca business (siskiyoualpaca.com). The former university professors came to farm life in a roundabout way. “We wanted to engage in a life that expresses the principles of permacul- ture,” Christine explains. RJohn met Christine in 1990 when both were working The hair on Suri alpacas is lighter and finer than in the field of urban river restoration—John in the Unit- that on the more popular ed Kingdom and Christine in California. In 1995, John Huacayas. newpioneermag.com Summer 2019 | THE NEW PIONEER 15 became a professor at Middlesex Uni- versity in London, specializing in sus- tainable environmental management. In the late 1990s, a Bay Area river restoration firm lured the two of them with an offer to open a branch office in Portland. They bought a small farm east of Portland outside the city of Sandy, and that’s where they first became acquainted with alpacas. While some people were promoting alpacas as an investment with money to be made in the breeding and sale of the animals, the Gardiners’ attrac- tion to them was more practical and immediate. “We had 20 acres, and the grass was four-foot high,” John says. Conveniently, a neighbor was selling his herd, so the Gardiners took the opportunity to but it. Through this venture, they found their passion for small-scale farm production that nur- tures the health of soil and water. MORE THAN MEADOW MOWERS But it was more than acquiring a natural mowing system that en- ticed them. “While in high school, I learned how to spin,” Christine says. The Gardiners with their At one point, she worked with alpaca partner, Stacie Van De roving, a fiber processed to be ready Weerd, her son, Jayven, for spinning. She fell in love with the and on of their Maremma fine-textured, soft fleece that’s hypo- livestock guard dogs, allergenic, antimicrobial and flame Solomon. retardant. “Of course, I thought I BELOW: Alpaca fleece is warmer than sheep’s BELOW: Christine feeds the alpacas organically then knew everything about alpac- wool, is not prickly, is water repellent and con- grown grass hay in the winter. In the spring and as,” she adds with a smile. Which, of tains no lanolin, which can make wool greasy. summer they forage on pasture and fresh hemp. 16 THE NEW PIONEER | Summer 2019 newpioneermag.com Stacie with an alpaca hide and the socks and gloves made from alpaca fiber that she and the Gardiners sell. Pick Your ’Paca Alpacas have been domesticated for thou- sands of years, and fiber was considered to be their primary product. Compared to llamas, another South American native, alpacas are smaller, about 3 feet tall at their shoulders. They typically weigh between 100 and 200 pounds compared to the heft- ier llama that can get up to 450 pounds. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2012 agricultural census (the most current available), there are more than 141,000 alpacas in the U.S., with Ohio, Washington, Oregon and Colorado noted as the top alpaca production states. Alpaca ABOVE: The Gardiners΄ alpacas are very friendly, female and four male Huacaya alpacas, registries, however, cite unverified num- thanks to the way they raise them. Christine the thick-fleeced breed that is the more bers as high as 250,000 in this country. refers to their method as “dainty farming.” common of the two alpaca breeds. Of the two breeds, the Huacaya Preferring the finer, lighter fleece of (pronounced ‘wah-KI-ah’) alpaca is the most common at about 90 percent of the course, the Gardiners didn’t. the Suri breed, the Gardiners began documented population compared to the But as river and land restoration transitioning the herd makeup, first Suri’s 10-percent representation. The pri- specialists, they knew that alpacas by selling off the male Huacayas and mary difference between the two is found minimize potential problems in the acquiring Suri females for breeding. in their fleece, with Huacayas producing pasture. “We saw that alpacas are thicker fleece similar to that of sheep, while gentle on the land,” John says. Be- ON THE MOVE Suri hair is longer and falls in thin rope-like cause alpacas have only lower teeth In 2001, the Gardiners launched their bundles resembling dreadlocks. at the front of their mouths, they own water resources management “Hair will be up to 8 inches long for Suri don’t rip up rooted plants like horses firm called WaterCycle, with river and up to 4 inches for Huacaya,” John Gar- and cows do. Their soft, padded feet projects ranging from Washington to diner says. Suri hair “has the distinction of don’t churn a pasture into knee-deep southern California. With the pros- being slick and lustrous and much denser” than Huacaya hair. mud as do the feet of hard-hoofed pect of the collapse of the banking Unlike that of sheep, alpaca fleece livestock. With a new alpaca herd at system in 2006, they realized they doesn’t contain the oily lanolin that can hand, the Gardiners’ education in had either to sell the farm and return make fleece feel greasy. Alpaca fiber also is quality breeding and animal hus- to city life or join another farm with softer, hypoallergenic, water-resistant and bandry was underway. their alpaca herd in order to move considered to be warmer than sheep wool. Their first herd consisted of eight toward practicing permaculture. They —Barbara Delbol newpioneermag.com Summer 2019 | THE NEW PIONEER ## were invited to join a land-trust farm in Southern Oregon and decided to make the move so they could “farm like they mean it.” “As a child, we traveled, and I saw lots of different parts of Oregon,” Christine says. She recalls her attrac- tion to the crystal-clear rivers and botanical diversity of southwestern Oregon. By the end of 2006, they had moved their herd of now 40 alpacas to the farm in Cave Junction. There, they opted to become tenant farmers, to rent farmland rather than buy. “If we The Gardiners deposit hay had to own the land, then we couldn’t in patches throughout the alpacas’ pasture, which afford to farm,” Christine says. Their keeps them eating and alpacas had won some of the high- walking, simulating their est awards in the toughest national habit in the wild. competitions, so they knew the quality of their herd would endure. Now, 12 years later, their herd stands at 36 FABULOUS FIBER top-grade breeding alpacas, down from “Fiber is still the top reason for rais- kindness to show respect. about 80 a decade ago. ing alpacas,” Christine notes as she Before shearing begins, dust and At the new farm location, the knits alpaca yarn into a hat. Alpaca debris are blown off the animal to Gardiners have practiced integrating fleece grows all year and is shorn just clean the fiber of dust and “veg.” This these small livestock into the pro- before the summer season by the Gar- also helps to prevent excessive wear duction of food, fiber and medicine. diners’ professional shearer. He works on the sharp blades of the shears. One The herd and farm now produce six with a team who are all trained by one, each alpaca is laid down and income streams. These are 1) breed- in fiber production and handling tied down on a mat while the shearer ing livestock, 2) alpaca fiber and alpacas with respect. “We’ve come to carefully removes fiber from one side, fiber products, 3) “Siskiyou Pacapoo” understand that it is not a contest of from belly to back, then turns the an- compost, 4) meat products made by strength or will,” Christine says. “It’s imal to its other side to shear there. a local sausage company, 5) hide and one of trust and cooperation.” And Fiber shorn from the legs and neck is bone products and 6) plant medicines they practice those skills with the sorted into bags of like fiber by color that grow well on soils enriched with herd all year as they work with the and grade. All the fiber has an end Pacapoo compost, like hemp. animals, touching them often with use, so nothing is wasted. Hemp For Animals Hemp is traditional livestock fodder, i.e. Hemp fodder is easy to grow in many cli- a crop grown for the purpose of feeding mates. It’s a ready solution to the hay crisis, if livestock. It is “feed” when fed to animals as we can focus together on creating small-scale seed to add oils and protein to their diet.