Magazine of the Week

Welcome back!

Cover of Alpaca Culture magazine

This week’s title is a trade magazine for the alpaca raising industry in America. The magazine was launched in June 2012, and has published 5x a year since then. Native to Peru, alpacas are a smaller relative of the llama and camel, and are valued for their soft, warm fleece. They are also super cute and easy going as livestock animals go. Alpacas were first imported into the United States as livestock (as opposed to curiosities) in the mid-1980s.

Article about alpaca breeding techniques

 

There was a period of dramatic price speculation in the 1990s, when the animals were marketed speculatively as side businesses for retirees. By the 2000s, prices of breedable animals had dropped, as owners discovered the lack of support industries to get fleeces processed and sold. There are now approximately 190,000 registered alpacas in the United States. The states with the greatest populations of the animals are Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, California, Pennsylvania and New York, in descending order.

 

 

Cover of Alpaca Culture 2017 Directory Issue

 

Alpaca Culture is a glossy magazine with articles on fashion trends and alpaca-friendly design, small producers and their products, upcoming fairs for both fiber and livestock, detailed articles on fleece types, market statistics, directories of alpaca farms, and raising the animals themselves.

This title is one of several magazines aimed at the owners and breeders of alpacas. Other titles with similar subject matter include Alpacas Magazine, published by the Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association of the U.S. since 1990); Alpaca, published by the British Alpaca Society; and Alpaca World which began publishing in 2002.

 

 

Statistics on alpacas in the U.S.

Video about Peru trip welcoming Alpaca Culture’s editor, Meyla Bianco Johnston: