Sugar Hollow Farm Alpacas LLC, Pennsylvania

Shearing Day 2017.  Although the sky threatened rain most of the day, we managed to keep our herd dry and have a successful Shearing Day on Monday, April 24.  Matt Best of Best Shearing expertly and efficiently removed the fleece from our 15 alpacas and two llamas in less than 2 1/2 hours (that's between 8 & 9 minutes per animal!) providing us with about 104 lbs of fiber to be taken to the mill and turned into yarn.  If you or someone you know loves to knit, stop by the farm to see, and more importantly, feel our alpaca yarn.  And after you choose your yarn we'll take you out to the barn to meet the animal who produced it!

EPD stands for Estimated Progeny Difference - basically how likely a specific trait is to be passed on to offspring.  Sugar Hollow's renowned herdsire Snowmass King Leonidus and our extremely fine fleeced dam Georgianna of Legacy's Conclusive are in the top 1% for 2016.  

Georgie was number 86 out of 39,442 alpacas in average fiber diameter and 36 of 39,422 in standard deviation of average fiber diameter meaning that her fleece is not only fine but very consistent.  This is what makes great yarn and also why 2 of our 3 herdsires are her sons Matoskah and Jumpin' Jack Flash.  We are using both in our breeding program to continue to pass these traits on to future generations.    

King Leonidus was number 152 out 21,089 in average fiber diameter meaning that even as he ages he is still able to produce very fine offspring.  He also carries a trait that is not able to be measured by fiber analysis - Density.  Even with his fine fleece it is difficult to reach in and get to his skin (as Kathy can attest whenever she has to give him a shot) because of the amount of fleece he packs into each square millimeter of space.  He is continuing to pass these traits to his offspring as you can see on our farm in his daughter Layla.  He will continue to have a role in our breeding program for the foreseeable future.