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About Crystal Valley Alpacas After spending more than 26 years in Asia (mostly Japan) representing the US wheat industry we returned to the US in late 1998 settling in the Seattle area. In Late 2000, after deciding we wanted a more country lifestyle, we moved to Southwest Washington near Woodland. For bob, who grew up on a grain & livestock farm, adapting to alpacas has been relatively easy, but for Michiko, who grew up in Japan, has a degree in music, and spent much of her life in Tokyo, this has been a totally new experience. She has adapted very well, however, and the alpacas have basically become the center of her world. She first heard the word 'alpaca' in the mid-70's when she bought a coat in a Tokyo department store. We are a relatively new alpaca ranch. We met our first alpacas at an open ranch in late 2003 and were hooked. Since then almost everything we do seems to revolve around some type of alpaca-related event. We started with two bred females and two maidens. Since then, through careful selection of herdsires and breeding match-ups, the herd has grown to include a broad range of bloodlines. Because we did not want to take the immediate plunge of building barns and fences we are currently agisting our alpacas at a nearby ranch where they are well taken care of and we participate in their care and training. Since a primary goal of the alpaca industry is to produce high-quality fleece to meet the needs of the textile industry, one focus of Crystal Valley is to enter our alpacas and fleeces in a variety of shows and spin-off competitions to see how we compare with others in the industry. The results so far have been very good. Please contact us with any questions you may have about our alpacas, our services, or just alpacas in general. |