Life on the farm
Early mornings, shearing time and family life at Ellie Jake Farm.
Day to day
Up before dawn
It's not all fun and games on the farm, and a herd of alpacas requires a lot of time and effort. You can often find us up at 4 in the morning or earlier tending to our animals. This is particularly important in winter, with a lot of animals requiring extra care as they live inside the barn.
Alpacas are very inquisitive by nature, but also very domesticated animals. While they don't need as much hands-on attention as some animals, they can be very mischievous!
Our alpacas feed on a diet of grass, hay and alpaca mineral, which they receive daily. They need the mineral because of our climate. Alpacas love apples and carrots as a treat, and need less food than most animals to maintain a healthy body weight. That said, all our animals have ample supplies of food, particularly through the cold winter months! As well as being well fed, all our alpacas receive a daily check to make sure that they are healthy and happy.
Shearing time
From fleece to yarn
Around June every year, our alpacas are sheared. Our shearer travels from New Zealand to provide the highest quality of care to our animals.
The raw fleece is sent to the mill and turned into yarn, which is sent to the loom. This yarn can be made into garments, soft toys, or balls of knitting wool so you can create your own clothing with our top-of-the-range alpaca wool.
Our home
A family farm
As well as tending to our alpacas, Ellie Jake Farm is our home, where my husband Malcolm and I raise our two fantastic children, Ellie and Ethan.
Ellie is the livestock farmer of the family. She loves lambing time and has helped hand-rear orphan piglets. She loves to bottle-feed the babies as well as pushing them around in the pram, and has been known to bring her orphan lambs into the house for cuddles!
Ethan is the arable farmer of the family. He loves driving the tractors around the farm when the time comes to make the hay, as well as spending time tending to our land.
Rachel
Questions about our alpacas or products?
We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch and Rachel will get back to you.