The Farm Rhodie Hill Farm actually began in 1982 when we started raising premium Dorset and Dorset-cross sheep. Our marriage had joined a country girl with two horses to a suburban guy with a green thumb. We started with a small farm that had no fencing and a burnt down house but it did have a two-story barn built in 1935. A small house was built, some fencing put up to corral the horses, and the thought processes started to decide what livestock to raise. We both worked as research scientists so our home life was supposed to provide interesting but relaxing diversions. Bob's suburban life hadn't generated any pertinent input about livestock so more consideration was given to Viv's childhood experiences. Viv likes cows but remembering the continual commitment to milking twice a day every day quickly eliminated them from the list. Since Viv had raised sheep as a kid and knew that her grandfather had enjoyed them until he died, they seemed to be a safe and reasonable type of livestock to consider. Additional local and regional support was available so the raising of sheep for meat, wool, and breeding stock became the purpose of Rhodie Hill Farm.
We visited Marty and Perry at their farm in the Finger Lakes area of New York and arranged to bring home our first llama right after we were to return from a cruise to the Caribbean. Andy, a breeding male, arrived home that fall and by the following spring, we bought our first two females from Brad Sprouse of Great Lakes Llamas in Michigan. One of those, Arrow, was pregnant with her first cria (a Monsieur son) and the other was a yearling named Trumbull. While Arrow is still going strong, we lost Andy in 2004 just 8 days shy of his 21st birthday, and Trumbull this past winter also just shy of 21. Arrow has a number of grey hairs throughout her chestnut coat, but still acts like the girls half her age. Andy fathered some of our first crias, was gelded at 10 years old, and became our guard for our sheep flock until he died. Over the years, we chose to reduce the size of the sheep flock and increased the llama herd. We sold most of the sheep breeding flock and have had the privilege of letting many of the original foundation ewes live out their lives here at Rhodie Hill Farm. Our oldest ewe died at 19 years of age and our one remaining ewe is currently 16 years old. While "Heather" is now partially blind, she gets along great with the miniature donkeys and two gelding llamas she lives with.
Llama Industry Involvement One of the main reasons we became interested in llamas was for their use as a pack animal. We both liked the outdoors and thought that hiking with llamas would be a comfortable fit. Our very first cria was taught to pack, and we helped organize the very first llama packing event in New York in 1988. Since the early 90's, we became part of show management for the first NY county fair llama shows, and the NY State Fair Llama Show. After 8 and 9 years of continual involvement as clerk and/or ring steward, we stepped down from those positions. We also served in the same capacity for the Northeast Llama Showcase in West Springfield, MA during the six years it ran. Last year was our final year for "officially" being part of the show crew for the annual Ohio State Fair Llama Show held in Columbus, OH. After organizing the first llama event in New York (a manned display with llamas at the Empire Farm Days), we helped start the New York Llama & Alpaca Association (NYLAA). Viv served on the Board of Directors for a number of years. We have also been with the Greater Appalachian Llama & Alpaca Association (GALA) since it's start - Viv has been a Board member representing NY for a couple of terms, has been co-chair of the Packing Committee, and we were both heavily involved in the Packing Track for the annual 2002 & 2003 GALA Conferences.
Workshops
Since the start of Rhodie Hill Farm, we've put an emphasis on trying to learn as much as we could about the husbandry and management of our animal friends. Raising llamas since 1985 and working with a herd that cumulatively has been well over 100 animals, has given us the opportunity to utilize the majority of that education. Our experiences have led us to speak at various events and teach hands-on workshops on a private and group basis. Group workshops are structured more like demonstrations while Private workshops offer extensive hands-on opportunities. For example, in Llamas 101, a Private attendee would be invited to actually halter a llama; the Group session would only watch. We conduct the workshops from May 1st through September 30th as they are best done outdoors but early scheduling arrangements are encouraged. Workshops Currently Offered
RHF's Version of Llamas 101 - Perfect for the person thinking about acquiring llamas or has found her/himself as a new owner with limited support. Whether you have no or limited experience with animals other than dogs and/or cats, we can help you understand the needs of these wonderful animals ensuring their health, safety, and well-being and YOUR peace of mind.
Beginning Packing for Llamas and Handlers - Designed to teach packing to both the beginner handler and the beginner llama. You will get the most out of this workshop if you bring your own llama to use. We teach llama packing for the person interested in pleasure hiking on day or lunch treks, as well as those interested in packing with their llamas over weekends that would include overnight experience. Beginner's Guide to Llama Fiber - Covers the basics about llama fiber including hands-on opportunities to harvest and prepare fleeces for processing up to the spinning stage. (We do not teach spinning.) Shearing Your Own Llama - We show you how to shear YOUR llama here at our farm. Once you see how easy shearing really is, you'll wonder why you haven't already been utilizing this important health management tool. No fancy equipment needed. Contact us for more information and rates.
Llama Fiber - From Our Herd Raised in Central New York
Continuing our involvement with fiber animals, harvesting and processing their fleeces has led to our annual presence at fiber festivals throughout the state. We have always attempted to educate the public to the total uses of these wonderful animals so it was a natural extension to promote their fleeces. As others have said, pack llamas can have wonderful fiber too. We usually have a variety of unprocessed fleeces available. They have been picked (most vegetation and guard hair removed) but not washed. Some carded and washed fleeces are also available and occasionally we have combed llama fiber too. Our preference is for 100% pure llama fiber but sometimes, we are asked to provide blends with sheep wool. These may vary in percentage of llama fiber. The sheep wool used is usually either Finn/Dorset, Merino, or colored Romney lamb. We are very pleased to have our own Lluxury Llama© yarn for sale. All yarn sold is banded with the skein weight and calculated yardage. We have created predominantly 2-ply sport weight yarn but are now adding finer and thicker weights to our inventory. In some cases, a batch is from a single llama; in others, we have blended fiber from similar animals. Our labels will reflect the animal's name or batch should you request additional skeins. Soon you'll be able to access our Fiber page for more details but you can contact us anytime about yarn and fiber availability.
Llamas
Our animals are pure llamas as closely as we can determine (not intentional alpaca or guanaco crosses). Bloodlines have been carefully selected and include some of the well-known "North American" gene pool like Dr. Doolittle, Chief Sitting Bull, and Chico The Canadian Legend. We had also sought out lesser known, but correct and consistent outcross bloodlines. All our llamas are registered to assure tracking their genetic diversity to the best of our ability. We made a conscious effort to not follow the fads of the industry but rather selected animals that exhibited the style of what we felt looked like a llama. Our basic goals had been to combine correct conformation with reproductive soundness in a balanced, well-proportioned "classic" style llama with a medium-to-large athletic frame (many with a wither height of 45" or greater). We prefer the light or intermediate wool length in a variety of colors with enough guard hair to keep the luxurious fiber clean and healthy. We always relied on the gentler approach of matching good quality foundation stock with basic good husbandry to produce young llamas as naturally as possible. We never felt the need to hurry up and breed back the female or to breed very young animals just to produce one more sale animal. In fact, we didn't sell any llamas for the first few years of our "business" as we wanted to see how the subsequent generations turned out. To help our customers and llamas get the most from their relationship, we have always tried to match the human with the animal. The well-being of the animals is our major priority. All llamas sold were always registered and blood typed, including the geldings used as guard animals. We always provided written reproductive guarantees on breeding stock and complete health and lineage records on all animals. All of our llamas also are halter and lead trained before leaving the farm. We will not sell our animals into "single-llama families"; instead, we have always offered 4-H and package discounts (at least 2 animals per package) to help provide quality animals at reasonable prices. Our exceptions to this have been when we've placed "guard" llamas, but these situations must meet very specific criteria. We have included insurance, organizational memberships, industry magazine subscriptions, and training clinic registrations as well as the usual halter and lead rope with our llamas. And we're always available to all of our customers "for life". With the herd size growing and our laid-back style of llama economics, we found ourselves with less and less time available to hike. We have always offered our customers the opportunity to try out our packing prospects on the local 100 mile long Brookfield Horse Trail System maintained by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. But as our time was taken up by tending to the maintenance of a breeding herd, we had given up the hours needed for pack training and conditioning. In addition, as the number of rescue llamas increased, we were asked more and more to take in these needy animals. Because of these situations, we made the conscious decision to reduce the number of llamas we bred and then completely stopped our breeding program in 1998. The only crias born since then were the result of bachelor herd escapes. Recently, some personal health issues also triggered a bout of reassessment of our farm's purpose. We decided to reduce the herd size so that we might expend more time and effort in our first love - Packing with Llamas. We had many quality light and medium wool llamas available and continued to provide our written guarantees on breeding stock and complete health and lineage records on all animals. Since the herd size has now dropped from over 100 llamas to a mere 40, we have discontinued an active sales list. We might offer select llamas from time to time but due to their ages, our reluctance to see them leave, and our capabilities to provide for them until their natural deaths, selling them is very low on our priority list. If you're interested in buying llamas, consider taking our RHF's Version of Llamas 101 workshop to make sure your potential purchases match your needs as well as ours have for us.
Llama Books & More
At fiber and other llama events we were often asked to sell our personal copies of llama books and other items we had on display. Now we offer selected brochures and books that are our favorites on llama care, packing, and fiber and occasionally other fun items in our llama booth. Soon you'll be able to access our Books & More page for more details. If you have any questions about Rhodie Hill Farm, just give us a buzz or send us an email. We invite you to share our experiences to see how llamas can add to your lifestyle. We'd be happy to have you visit Rhodie Hill Farm, but please make advance arrangements as we are not always available for drop-in guests. Thanks for stopping by, and please check back soon for more info on our completed site!
New York Llama Farm | NY Llama Packing Workshops | New
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