Raising alpacas in Alberta
They jokingly call their house a shack and refer to their acreage as “spartan” but there is nothing simple about the Pedersens passion for the alpacas in their backyard.
Pete and Monica Pedersen have been raising alpacas at the Pedersen Place near Tilley since 2001.
Their dive into the alpaca industry began when people started suggesting they buy horses and cows.
“With 17 acres of land we didn’t have the capacity for big animals like that,” Pedersen said.
“So I jokingly said, ‘well ostrich or emu or something like that maybe.’”
Around that time a neighbour graduated from vet school.
She had a llama herd and hoped to specialize in camelids: llamas, alpacas, and other mammals of the camel family. Pedersen read about it in the paper and an idea took root in his mind.
“So I was at work one day. It was kind of quiet with not too much going on and I punched ‘alpaca’ into the search engine and started browsing a few websites,” he said. | Read Full Story>  |
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