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AlpacaNation Q&A with AuSable Valley Alpacas
Jay & Julie Ward
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57 Howard Heights Lane, Jay, NY 12941
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518-524-0545
AlpacaNation: How did you become interested in alpacas?
AuSable Valley Alpacas: In early May 2003, Jay "bumped" into alpacas at a May Faire festival held at our daughters' Waldorf school. As Board President at the time, Jay thanked the alpaca owners for coming to the event, asked a couple of typical "uninitiated" questions like, "do they pack?", and went on his way thinking nothing more.
And so it happened that one of the girls (they both take credit) brought home a brochure from the event because "it had nice pictures", and later that evening after everyone went to bed, Jay - being a late night internet surfer - realized the scope and possibility of the industry. By 2 am Jay was ready to invest! It took the rest of the family (read Julie) a little longer to climb aboard, but on Memorial Day weekend we purchased our first alpacas and the rest is history....
AlpacaNation: How long have you been in the alpaca business?
AuSable Valley Alpacas: We've been proud and enthusiastic alpaca breeders since Memorial Day weekend 2003.
AlpacaNation: What has been your biggest lesson learned in terms of breeding?
AuSable Valley Alpacas: "Test, test, test."
Ed Friedman from Mountain Edge Alpacas taught a seminar at the Empire Alpaca Extravaganza in the Fall of 2003 which Jay attended. Ed said something like "if you do nothing else, go home and test your females to be sure they're still pregnant and CONTINUALLY test them."
Jay came home and tested our bred females only to find that one had slipped her pregnancy sometime in the prior 3 or 4 months! Thanks Ed!
AlpacaNation: What advice would you give to those just getting started in the industry?
AuSable Valley Alpacas: Build the biggest barn you can! Or several small ones...
We built what seemed like an over-sized barn when we started, and now only two years later, we could use more space!
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