I’m Elaine Moggridge and I started Garsons Field Alpacas in 2006 after taking early retirement from a long career as a primary school teacher.
My husband, Garry, and I had bought ‘Garsons Field’, the land adjacent to our house, in 1994, and having let it to local farmers for cattle and sheep grazing since then, we decided it was time to use it for our own animals.
We have always had dogs, rabbits, chickens (and occasionally ducks) and although wanting to keep livestock, we didn’t want anything we’d have to take to market. Alpacas seemed the obvious choice!
After my final day at school, we visited various alpaca breeders, who were always very enthusiastic and encouraging.
We started with two pregnant females, one potential stud male and two wethers, chosen purely by their looks (not a wise move).
For the last 15 years we’ve had a herd of between 15 and 30 alpacas, bred purely for their wool.
Recently we’ve been focusing on increasing our number of greys, but we have a range of colours and personalities!
In 2017 our menagerie grew to include teddy bear sheep and Garsons Field Alpacas became Garsons Field!