One of our guests on shearing day was Nathan B. Gale or “Nate” to his friends. Nate is one of our neighbours and somewhere north of 80 years in age…..he is a DVM and back in the late 60’s was Director of the Los Angeles Zoo. Nate and his wife Ellie are fascinated with the alpacas and have had experience with alpacas, vicunas, guanacos and of course camels.



Nate was intrigued with the upright shearing and Ellie was an absolute angel weighing the fleeces as they came off the alpacas and recording the results which will be sent with the 4” x 4” fleece samples to Yocom- McColl for inclusion in the IAC (Ideal Alpaca Community) EPD study.

Nate and Ellie went home with a couple of Mike Safley’s books on alpacas to discover what is being said about alpacas in the 21st century. Nate is still active in animal welfare and sits on the Jackson County animal control board.

One of the many advantages about the IAC (Ideal Alpaca Community) is that you can print off shearing lists in a variety of orders and also print off the paperwork which is attached to each fleece sample that you then send off to Yocom-McColl who produce the analysis and histogram. Yocom-McColl also send the data direct to the University of Massachusetts for inclusion in the EPD data calculation program.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.
Click here to register for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.
Click here to find out about National Alpaca Farm Day 2007.
Click here to see a very pregnant female that's available until May 15th 2007.