About Us
We are Dennis and Melissa McFail. Former city dwellers who got fed up with the hustle and bustle so we packed up and moved our family from the cold winters of Michigan to the inviting mountains of Tennessee. That was August of 2005.
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When we moved, we had no idea what we were going to do with our modest home and 9 acres. Neither of us had any experience with farming or livestock, so we waited for an idea to come to us.
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One day some misdirected mail brought us a Farm & Ranch Magazine. While browsing the pages, I (Melissa) saw an ad that caught my eye. It was the sweetest face I'd ever seen. It was an alpaca.
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Now neither Dennis or I had ever seen an alpaca before that day and it was about a month later when we actually saw one in person. Like most everyone else who looks into the eyes of these gentle animals, we were immediately hooked!
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We started going to shows and visiting farms. Meeting people in the business and spending hours online learning as much as we could to help decide if this was the lifestyle we were looking for.
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The most important thing we learned was that even city-slickers like us could handle breeding and raising alpacas. In fact, just about anyone can. Some examples of other alpaca owners: Retirees, farm owners with other livestock, city-folk who board their animals at other people's farms, children who keep them as 4-H pets, handicapped, and even people who are blind or deaf!
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Our first alpaca purchase was made in December of 2006 three yearling males that we planned to care for and learn from until we were ready to take the big leap into our breeding program. Two short months later we decided we couldn't wait and were already purchasing our first bred females on our way to "Advancing America's Herd". That's our goal, to advance America's herd by breeding the best animals and helping others do the same.
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We have big plans for the future. Hope you'll join us.
