Electric clippers were buzzing as more than 100 alpacas patiently endured close hair cuts at Kensington Prairie Farm's spring shearing market on Saturday and Sunday, May 10-11.
They were gently but firmly held down as their fleece was shaved off, then piled in front of Cathy Merkley for grading.
"This is one of the baby fleeces, so it's very fine and very soft," Merkley explained as she sorted through one fluffy pile.
"Alpaca's first fleece is the finest fleece, and then they tend to coarsen a little bit as they age."
At the event, Kensington invites other farmers to bring their alpacas to be sheared. The market featured live viewing of the shearing, a market with Fraser Valley artisans and makers presenting their handmade goods, live music, and visits with other furry critters.
Kensington manager Deprice Milton described it as an opportunity for the public to witness the process, "of how we shear our alpacas and the journey the fibre takes before it gets made into yarn."
Milton explained the alpacas at Kensington grow eight to 10 pounds of fibre every single year.
"We harvest it [and] we sort it," Milton told the 黑马磁力.
"Then, based on which grade, colour, and actually the length of it, we decide what we're going to do with it."
The baby fleeces, the softest get made into the "most luxurious products that we wear right against our skin, but nothing goes to waste," Milton said.
"Some of the other products gets made into yarns that we might make rugs with, or stuff dog beds with."
Spring shearing market at Kensington Prairie Farm at 1736 - 248th St.
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A portion of the event鈥檚 proceeds was going to benefit Quechua Benefit, a charity that supports children in rural Peru, by providing access to medical care, food, warm clothing, shelter, and education.
Peru is home to about 80 per cent of the world's estimated 4 million alpacas.
Kensington Prairie Farm is a working farm and home to Huacaya alpacas, Suri alpacas, llamas, camels, chickens, ducks, bunnies, pigs, emus and Hereford cattle.
In addition to selling luxury alpaca products and souvenirs, the farm also produces honey, jam, hay, and silage.
