LYING DOWN ON THE JOB: Specialist alpaca shearer James Dixon prefers to shear on the floor rather than a table. Photo: Fairfax NZ Australian alpaca shearer James Dixon's job is as good as a passport ...

Alpacas are pretty mellow. Sure, put one up on the shearing table and she’ll probably start to freak out, but that’s a relatively painless procedure that’s over in a few minutes. Afterwards, each ...

Shearing the animals on the floor or on a special tilt table also resulted in changed clinical parameters such as heart rate. These values remained at normal levels only when the animals were sheared ...

Her morning included a pedicure, but for Zadie it was no day at the spa. Zadie is one of about 100 alpacas at Wild Hair Alpacas in Black Forest; the owners, Peter and Barbara Ziek, have been raising ...

GALCHUTT, N.D. - Low hums rumble across the Ten Seven Acres alpaca farm here on a hot afternoon in early May. Dirk and Jessie Monson's herd of 15 alpacas and one llama, plus another group of nine from ...

GOODE — On a chilly, damp Sunday, alpacas at A Goode View Alpaca Farm parted ways with their warm, thick fleece. When Goldmine, the first alpaca to undergo her annual shearing, was led out of the barn ...

OPINION: You may have noticed increasing numbers of alpacas in paddocks around Manawatu and surrounding regions the past few years. Holdings range from just a few to over 50 alpacas. Many owners have ...

Alpacas, a species of New World camelids, have very thick wool. This requires them to be shorn regularly, just like sheep. But shearing is a source of stress for the animals. This has now been ...