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AlpacaNation Q&A with Alpaca Kingdom Acres
Hank & Mollie White
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3568 U.S. Hwy. 62 NE, Washington C.H., OH 43160
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740-333-4481
AlpacaNation: Tell us about yourself...
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: We are family owned and operated farm. Hank retired in 1997 after 30 years in the insurance business. Mollie has been and continues to be a stay at home mom. We have been foster parents for over 36 years and currently have seven children in the house. Our three youngest, Sonya 12, Dani 11 and Josh 7. There are also four of our foster children. We have nine plus acres with 11 alpacas and 2 llamas.
We have Peruvian and Bolivian stock.
AlpacaNation: How did you decide on your farm name? Is there a special meaning behind the name?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: My wife and I are both christian and believe that we have been richly blessed in our lives. So when it came to a name for our farm, Alpaca Kingdom Acres fit just right. That gave us the initials A.K.A., so are also A touch of Heaven. God has provided us with health and happiness for over 40 years of marriage and has blessed us with over 200 children, five of them we adopted. The name fits! God has blessed us. May he bless you today.
AlpacaNation: What sets your farm and herd apart from others in the industry?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: After visiting and becoming friends with many other alpaca owners I must say there is not a lot of difference between us and many others. However we do our very best to serve our fellow man. We are a small farm with low overhead and wonderful genetics. Our girls come from Acreo Marka stock as well as Peruvian Chaval and Gold Stock to name a few. Our herdsire is out of Peruvian Holy Smoke with Chaval and Royal Fawn thrown in for good measure. Our girls are bred to the like of Accoyo Express, ATV Titanium a Danko son, GBF Incantation out of Black Epic, and B. Peruvian Brando a Royal Fawn son. Great genetics and fabulous crias coming soon.
AlpacaNation: What steps did you take to prepare for raising an alpaca herd?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: We jumped right in. Then we drowned for a while trying to catch up with the learning curve. We subdivided our barn area, fenced off two pastures of about 3/4 acres each. Then we built a catch pen with two gates, cut a 6 inch sewer pipet length wise for a feeded, bought some feed and buckets and we were ready. NOT!!!
I can tell you that we're glad we didn't wait until we knew it all or we'd have never got started. We are still learning.
AlpacaNation: What advice would you give to those just getting started in the industry?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: Visit many farms. Everyone does it differently. Some focus on genetics, some on nutrition, others on herd management and still others on pasture and health. The answer is somewhere in the middle. Focus on your strength. Whatl do you like about alpacas? Waht do you want to do with them? What is your goal? Then jump in!
AlpacaNation: How do you see your farm and alpaca business growing over the next 5 to 10 years?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: Being retired with three children still at home and facing the rising costs associated with running a household and sending kids to school we put the following plan in place. Growing our herd to 20 breeding females in the next five years . Having four top quality herdsires in fawn, brown, black and silver. Diversifying our genetics to include ten lines. Those are our ten year goals. That will put a herd of about 50 on our property. We feel we can easily handle 60.
AlpacaNation: What has been your biggest lesson learned in terms of breeding?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: Do not count your chickens before they hatch. Alpacas sometimes re-absorb a fetus when under stress. Like us, they do not always get pregnant when you want them to. No matter how much time you spend and how good you think the decision on the herdsire, the cria may not turn out the way you planned. Do not get discouraged.
Always breed up.
AlpacaNation: Describe your first alpaca purchase... would you do anything differently today?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: We met and purchased from wonderful people. I can not stress enough the importance of finding the people you are comfortable with and building a relationship with them. They had the package we were looking for and provided us with great herdsires for breed backs. The only thing I would do differently if I were buying my first alpacas wuld be to invest in having bred girls ultrasounded to assure pregnancy. Rather than bringing them home quickly after confirmation of pregnancy I would leave them for 60 days.
AlpacaNation: What unique challenges do you face as a small, mid-size, or larger breeder?
Alpaca Kingdom Acres: Advertising costs heads the list. We have wonderful animals and top genetics in our herd. However we do not have the resources to place huge ads in the national magazines. Whether we like it or not, the value of our alpacas has a lot to do with advertising. Hopefully as we win more ribbons and gain more recognition for our herd, others will see value and come to us. Sales will allow us to then advertise more.
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