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| The Vaughan Family |
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Our story begins with a cameo on Good Morning America when Edna Kennedy showed off her alpacas. After viewing the televised broadcast, Leon thought this could be something his wife, Noreen, might be interested in. After sharing his television experience, both Leon and Noreen agreed that a life with these very interesting animals could be something they would enjoy together. Shortly thereafter, their first formal introduction to alpacas was planned.
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Together, Leon and Noreen set off for Sante Fe, New Mexico. Leon was determined to convince Noreen that alpacas were nothing like Camels, although related. Upon arrival, Noreen fell in love with the alpacas at fist sight. This is when they trully realized what alpacas were all about first hand. Thus, sealing the Vaughan’s fate.
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Leon and Noreen purchased their farm in November of 1993, purchasing first alpacas in January of 1994. After Dana, their oldest son, graduated from high school and enlisted into the Air Force, they sold their home in Tempe, Arizona and moved to Prescott Valley, Arizona. Soon after, the barn was built and the farm adequately fenced, or so they thought, in preparation for the alpacas that were due to arrive. The very first arrivals were, one pregnant female (Qena) and two herd sire hopefulls.
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Noreen was raised on a farm in Phoenix, Arizona where her and her family previously raised goats. This is when Noreen gained early on experience of breeding and raising livestock. Since then, Noreen has found this previous experience has made switching to alpacas relatively easy. Of course, having to learn the differences in the management between the two has become an on-going learning, yet enjoyable experience everyday.
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Following the arrival of the very first alpacas, Noreen has been present for almost every birth of every cria born on the farm to date. In the beginning, Noreen's previous experience with goats and their deliveries assisted in the successfull gaining of knowledge and experience to handle the births of alpacas. Because of this she has delt with few complicated births and known to be fully capable of determining when the prudent and necessary to intervention is required. Thus, ensuring the health of both mother and cria is not lost in the process of cria delivery.
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| Noreen & Mandy with new cria |
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As it all turns out, at that time, Leon and Noreen started out as the only alpaca breeders in Arizona. In doing so, they educated the community, secured county zoning, and county planning & building permits. In addition, they had to find a veterinarian who was sensitive to the needs specific to alpacas. All of this added up to what is known as the adventure associated with owning, raising, breeding, training, showing, and caring for alpacas. Since then the population of alpacas in Arizona has grown exponentially.
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| Dana on the job... |
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Dana later joined in and shared the adventure of raising alpacas with his parents. While still in the Air Force and preoccupied with his busy career, he still finds time to come home and participate in various farm activities. He started out with just one young female in 2001 with his herd growing to over twenty since.
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The Vaughan's focus on breeding well-conformed, healthy alpacas that have excellent coverage, fineness, density, and crimp. They believe in keeping the animals health and breeding capability a first priority. Breeding for current trends dictating color and appearance are a far second.
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Additioanally, the Vaughan’s believe that an alpaca that is familiar with human touch is an alpaca un-afraid when the alpacas need to be worked with or assistance with a health related issue. Therefore, each alpaca born on their farm, from birth, are handled to encourage the socialization with humans. They have found this effort facilitates ease of management and the necessary care provided to these animals. Their alpacas seem to enjoy the interaction and human contact with a scratch behind the ears or a gentle hug. Both of which has shown to be an enjoyable experience for both alpaca and human. Each one of their alpacas knows their name and occasionally come when called. Alpacas have shown that they have emotions and some of those are surprising. They respond to praise, verbal discipline, smile, cry, pout and grieve a loss in the herd. If you've yet to witness such an event, we invite you to set up and appointment to come out and meet our alpacas. We are confident that you'll witness these events first hand.
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Leon and Noreen hope that this presentation
was an informative and pleasant one!
Farm visits are always welcome and just a phone call away!
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