Blog

It's official.... Sandhills Suri Alpacas officially has a new standalone website! Visit sandhillssurialpacas.com to meet more of the alpacas in our herd and to learn more about us.

We're back and GRAYter than ever! :) We have big plans in store for 2017, and can't wait to share them all with you! We've spent the last four years out of the limelight of the industry, spending time critiquing our genetics and relishing the day-in-the-life moments of simply raising these magnificent animals.

This year, specifically this past February, marks a big milestone for Sandhills Suri Alpacas; we're celebrating our sixteenth year in the industry, and still loving every momen

It's been a while since we've posted on our blog, but we're back! Today we had a wonderful time conversing with fellow alpaca enthusiasts at the National show in Grand Island, NE! It was a great way to kick off the show season and meet some of the new breeders in the industry!

Unfortunately, our crias this year weren't quite old enough to attend Nationals, but they will be old enough for shows later this spring; so keep an eye out for some Grey Bachelor babies in the show ring this

The first snow of the year is always a shock for some, especially those that have never seen snow in their lives! This year we had six little foreigners to the snow. As they spent most of the prior day lounging around in the barn they missed the change of season that brought shock to their little noses this morning.

With one glance out the barn door, everyone who has endured the cold Nebraska winters went, "oh this again", and was smart enough to enjoy the warm

The fourth brings great time with family, as we celebrate our nations birthday, yet it also brings the sounds and sights of fireworks. At our ranch, we don't shoot any fireworks off. Certainly not because we don't enjoy them, but for multiple reasons.

Our ranch is located on top of a canyon ridge, therefore we can catch shows from the city of Omaha and two close by towns, Blair and Ft. Calhoun. The other reason is our animals. We read in an article that fir

For the past few months our alpacas have had some company in their barn. Although, their visitors weren't really invading the animals space because the visitors don't really utilize the ground. In the barn there has been a family of birds up in the rafters. We weren't really sure if there was a nest until yesterday when three young birds "fell" out of their nest.

The animals haven't really noticed their new friends we have. All day today and yesterday these new

When you first start out in a business you want everything to be perfect, including your logo. Well, that was the same for us. Lots of thought went into our logo because we wanted to incorporate our alpacas into the design.

If you take one glance at our logo it may not seem special, yet the logo is truly unique. The heart shape came from our location. Sandhills Suri Alpacas was founded in the heart city, Valentine, NE. The heart is formed by two Suri strands

Here at Sandhill Suri we don't let any day go unnoticed with our alpacas, although some days are more important than others. Today was a very special and important day for our: senior foundation herd member, first ever farm purchase, and two time grand champion winner, Ameripaca's Lorraine. Today was Lorraine's 13th birthday.

Looking back over the years, many of you may remember Ameripaca's Lorraine from the show ring a good 11-12 years ago. She always presente

The more and more time you spend around alpacas, you realize how smart they truly are. Not only do they know their name, but they also know who their "family members" are. It's amazing when you go to the barn and see brothers laying together or find an entire family of sisters camping out together.

One specific "family" in our herd, that are very close, is Morgan Moon and her three daughters. Morgan's first little girl, Zoey, was born in 2008. Her second daug

Raising alpacas isn't all just going to the shows or utilizing the fiber; there is so much more that alpacas have to offer. They are such personable animals and truly have personalities that make everyone feel better. For us we like to share the relaxation of being around alpacas with others and often make trips out in the community with them. We have been to local nursing homes and also have spent time at our local feed store. It's a great chance for people to meet these remarkable

Even in a herd of sixty we are still able to keep track of birthdays. Today is one of our foundation females, WRSR Peruvian Brandywine’s, 12th birthday. She has been a great mother and always a good milker; which results in good size crias. Her 2012 cria was her tenth, Brandy’s Biondi; he is five months old and already 75 lbs. This was his second time on the halter and he did wonderful walking with his mother.

Brandy is very special and important to us. She was

Hope every person and 'paca is enjoying their Valentine's Day!!

We happened to have an unneeded snap of the camera, and when we looked at it closer we noticed our two little four month old cria’s were giving each other a "kiss". It definitely fit the occasion of Valentine’s Day!!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our herd to yours!

Here at Sandhills Suri we are all getting in the Christmas Spirit, including the alpacas!!

When you look at our herd now gray isn't an uncommon color to find. This year has been some remarkable gray break throughs for some foundation females in our herd.

It all started in September when our Balboa daughter, London's Lilly of Northern Lights, delivered her first cria. We had high expectations from our dark silver gray girl, but we were still very thrilled to discover that she delivered a dark silver gray tuxedo female!

Then in Octo

Summer’s Sander is a beautiful true black herdsire. He has great locks, luster, confirmation, and personality; but his life started out very rocky.

Sander was born August of 2008, a month early to a maiden dam. He didn’t figure out right away how to nurse, and his dam being a new mother didn’t understand how to help. We started milking his dam, and amazingly she stood patiently for us to milk her and watched as her new baby boy got her bottled milk. Sander had a plasma transfer an

It just takes time for even the most awarding winning alpacas to start to age, but is that always a bad thing? One thing that we have noticed in the many years of raising Suri Alpacas is that the older the mother the better the cria.

Although that might not be the case for every alpaca, we have noticed it in our herd specifically with Brandywine's crias. Brandy is a ten year old and has a great conformation, lock, luster, and density for her age. Brandy has been bred