Jan has been breeding alpacas for 23 years: “I actually wanted an exotic bird, but then saw this”

“I think the herd now consists of 40 heads,” says Jan, who immediately indicates that this number is too many for the piece of land he has. “So we’re going to sell a few more.”

But he does not resell all the animals on the land. “We would like to keep some foals because we think they do well at competitions,” says Jan. He also points out an older copy. “He is 23 years old and I have had it from the beginning, he can spend his old age here,” says Jan with a little melancholy.

Jan once started with five alpacas. His son, who was then about ten years old, still remembers that he found it laughable when his dad suddenly came home with the animals. “I did not think then that I would now have a number of them myself,” says Gert-Jan Ligthart. He is now just as fanatical as his father. “We want to improve the quality of the animals every year,” says Gert-Jan.

Tip from Jan

Gert-Jan had started with alpacas because of a tip from his father. “I had sailed with the navy for a while and when I came back with my pay my father gave me the tip ‘better buy an alpaca, it pays more than put your money in the bank.’ I didn’t know then that it would be so addictive,” laughs Gert-Jan. He now owns about a quarter of the herd on the land.

Even though an alpaca yields more than the interest at the bank, it remains a hobby for the men. “We sell the wool once a year and every now and then we sell an animal. We put all the money we get out of here back into the herd, for example by buying a stallion,” says Gert-Jan. His father adds: “The rest are easy animals to hear, they graze on the land all day, only drink water and at the end of the day they want some food.”

Prices

Several times a year the interest group for alpacas in the Benelux organizes an alpaca show, where the animals are inspected by a jury. “You have several classes here, and we have already won in the individual classes,” says Gert-Jan. But it is the total price that is still missing. “Yes, that’s called the Grand Champion, the jury will choose a total winner from all winners. This is the big missing prize with us,” says Gert-Jan.

The jury looks at all aspects of an alpaca. “The coat should be the same everywhere and have a nice curl,” says Gert-Jan. According to his father, they have a contender this year. “I have never bred an animal with such a beautiful coat as one of the foals we have now.” Gert-Jan agrees with his father and concludes with the words: “this must be him.”

Special bond with Sophie

Breeder Jan came in before two years ago the news. One of his pregnant alpacas was suffering from a strange disease. “We still don’t know what it was,” says Jan. They then did their best to help the beast, but unfortunately to no avail. Three weeks before the completion of the pregnancy, the womb with daughter came out of the alpaca unexpectedly. “Unfortunately, the mother died, but we were able to save the baby,” says Jan.

What followed was a long time of care for the foal named Sophie. “Because she saw me first, she sees me as her mother,” says Jan. At that time, Sophie only wanted the bottle from Jan and from no one else. “I also sometimes imitated an alpaca and then Sophie always gained weight,” says Jan.

Now two and a half years later, Jan no longer makes that sound. “I’m afraid she will get confused, she is now a mother herself and also has a sound with her daughter,” says Jan.

His son laughs. “In the stable she sometimes shows that she knows who Jan is, then she jumps him completely. She only does that with him, they really have something special,” says Gert-Jan.