An Alpaca Whisperer | Local News

What started as a love for horses turned into a passion for alpacas.

As well as llamas.

In fact, Tracy Wilson is something of an “alpaca whisperer,” one client called her.

“I think if you’re around alpacas and you’re close to them for years, you learn the little quirks,” Wilson said, “and how to deal with them.”

As Wilson spoke, the alpacas Dagr and Gunner browsed on the leaves of a fallen tree branch. Wilson said “those two know how to get in through the dog door…and they’re still the same two,” she said of a fenced off section near her farm.

Wilson, 51, owns Aris Farm located about a quarter mile west of Universal in Vermillion County. She inherited the farm from her grandmother in 2001. Although it is now an alpaca farm, it is named after her first horse, which her parents bought when she was in 6th grade. year. He was an Arabian horse who died in 2005 at the age of 25.

His journey to his farm began in the army.

From 1989 to 1996, Wilson served in the United States Navy as an electronics technician in South Korea, Guam and Diego Garcia, repairing and calibrating radar and communications equipment. Then, from 1998 to 2015, Wilson served as a chief warrant officer in the Indiana Army National Guard and was deployed for a year to Iraq in 2008 as a maintenance technician as part of the combat of the 76th Indiana Infantry Brigade.

“I moved from the military to here. And basically I went there so I could afford college, so when I came back I did that,” a 2000 graduate of Saint Mary-of -the-Woods College with a Bachelor of Science in Equine Studies.

She then served as an alpaca herd manager for the Sisters of Providence from 2001 to 2016, where she maintained the health and welfare of the alpaca herd, trained and supervised interns, volunteers and staff involved. in alpacas.

“At first, all I wanted to do was work with horses. I worked for the stable (at Saint Mary-of-the Woods College) training horses and giving lessons,” he said. she declared. She also trained horses at client farms that didn’t have “proper horse training facilities. I thought I just needed to get a job to get enough money to build a barn so I could to house horses here and train them.

“But I got really involved with alpacas. I had my barn built and I trained horses, but then I got so involved in the alpaca industry because at the time my boss , Sister Ann Sullivan, would send me to workshops and clinics everywhere, like Ohio State University which has the International Camelid Institute,” Wilson said.

The Sisters of Providence started raising alpacas” and we bought some animals at high prices and showed a lot of them nationally. I was just in love with it all. Over the next five years, my barn turned into something different, weaning horses and I built alpacas My first two alpacas were from the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice.

“I also ended up with a rescue alpaca and a huarizo,” which is a cross between a male llama and a female alpaca, Wilson said. “He (the huarizo) ended up being one of our favorite animals and became a 4-H animal as well. Then I bought some breeding females. I didn’t do a lot of breeding, but some from time to time I built my own herd.”

Wilson now owns about 20 alpacas and a llama, and she rides three other llamas. Of his alpacas, four are Suri.

Although there is only one species of alpaca, there are two types or breeds of fleece called Huacaya and Suri alpacas.

In 2022, Indiana farms have 4,998 registered alpacas, including 1,061 Suri and 3,937 Huacaya, according to Alpaca Owners Association Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The alpaca association has approximately 4,000 members and over 280,000 alpacas in its registration database.

Huacaya alpacas produce dense, soft, curly wool, while Suri alpacas have longer, cylindrical dreadlock-like coats. Suri alpaca fiber is rarer and more prized than that of the Huacaya-type alpaca, according to the Alpaca Association. Huacaya is the most common, comprising about 90% of alpacas in the United States and up to 98% worldwide. Both breeds are about the same size and live in the same environments.

Aris Farm’s income comes from various agribusinesses. It includes income from alpaca fiber used to make sweaters and socks, but also from the sale of chicken and duck eggs, educational camps, recreational camping, training and working with 4-H clubs.

Wilson shears the alpacas every spring.

“It’s not easy to sell, it takes a lot of effort. Last year I sent most of my fibers to a mill in Tennessee, then I collect yarn and sell the yarn” , she said. She also “roved,” a step of alpaca fiber before she was ready to step into a spinning wheel, Wilson said.

“Yarn is easier to sell. Roving I can sell online to hand spinners. You have to know your target consumers,” Wilson said. “But if you’re there for that, you’re not going to make any money. You have to do other things too, unless it’s for a hobby.”

In addition to alpacas and llamas, the 20-acre farm has 13 dairy goats, three mini donkeys, two mini horses, chickens, 15 ducks for duck eggs, three pot-bellied pigs, two horses, as well as dogs and cats.

For other income, the farm started offering educational day camps last year.

“This year we had two four-day camps in June and they were maxed out,” she said. Each camp has 12 to 14 participants.

Family friend Doug Bohannon said a nature trail was built on the farm “so we can tag the trees so that (campers) can identify them. I also buy from ( false) arrowheads and I will throw them in a certain place for them to find.”

Another revenue stream launched this year is becoming a “Hipcamp,” Wilson said, similar to an Airbnb.

“We just got our first Hipcampers last weekend,” Wilson said. “They camped in the back of their van. We have a few campsites in the back. We also have an area with a concrete slab and the bathroom (building) on ​​the farm. We showed them around and where they can go and what they can expect, like you will hear roosters and dogs.

“You hear about Airbnb, but it’s for people who like to camp. It’s people’s farms and backyards. People book and pay for their stay on the (Hipcamp) website. Hipcamp provides the insurance for the people on your land,” she said.

And Wilson and his sister, Wendy Wagner, share a booth at Northside Pickers in Clinton, a small mall. “I sell the fiber goods, the socks and the yarn and Doug Bohannon makes things that we sell.”

Bohannon also began creating “inspired and rewired” artwork using ball yarn. This work can be seen on Instagram by searching “inspired.and.rewired”. He made over 160 pieces, with the proceeds going to the farm.

Perhaps most rewarding for Wilson is working with 4-H members. Wilson started as a 4-H leader in Vigo County and remains involved with that 4-H club. But now she’s also an officer of the Vermillion County 4-H Alpaca and Llama Club.

Although she sells very few alpacas, Wilson doesn’t breed much either. However, her newest alpaca is 9-month-old Dagr, a Suri alpaca. Dagr was introduced at the Vigo County Fair this year by 16-year-old Jalie Scott, who lives in Vermillion County but is a member of Vigo County 4-H. Scott trains at Aris Farm.

“We have won the title of Grand Champion of the Alpaca Grand Show,” Scott said. “It was Dagr’s first show and his first outing from the farm and (Dagr) worked really well with me,” adding that she started halter training Dagr when he was four months old.

Wilson began training for the fair with 4-H members in March, holding practices at his farm and at the White Violet Center. Wilson still works for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods under contract, “so when they need vaccines, breeding or whelping they reach out to me. I help them every weekend with interns,” said she declared.

For those who want to see the alpacas up close, Aris Farm will be hosting an “Open Barn” on September 17-18, complete with farm tours and games for the kids. Look for the Aris Farm Facebook page for more information.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.