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Photographs by Byron Kerman
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Alpacas are pretty mellow. Sure, put one up on the shearing table and she’ll probably start to freak out, but that’s a relatively painless procedure that’s over in a few minutes. Afterwards, each sleek, denuded alpaca tromps gaily into a holding pen with her buds, and quickly returns to her default state—standing, maybe chewing a leaf, chillaxin’, and growing more fur for those beautiful alpaca sweaters that we love.
Odelia Alpaca Farms in Troy, Ill., is home to 18 of the camelids, as their scientific grouping is called. At the annual Shearing Day, the public gets to watch the harvesting of a year’s worth of thick, soft fur from each animal in the herd; feed them a few leaves and pet them; and go inside owners Beth and Rodney Brown’s home to shop for alpaca-fiber sweaters, hats, socks, mittens, etc., and enjoy cold cuts and lemonade.
If you don’t want to wait another year for the chance to pet an alpaca, contact Odelia Farms for an informal tour, or mark your calendar for the next public event, Alpaca Farm Days at the end of September. Then, you can head to Troy to be introduced to big-eyed beauties with names like Dreamsicle, “Cocoa” Chanel, Black Lace, Ice Tea, White Lily, Bijou Noir, and one, um, functioning male alpaca named “Kama-Sutra.”
Odelia Alpaca Farms
8349 Old Lebanon Troy Road
Troy, Illinois
618-667-0226 or 314-703-0680
