A Little About Us

My brother and I each started our own alpaca farm on the same day. My name is Rose Page and I own Dameron Alpacas. My brother, Ben Clark, owns Wishful Thinking Farm. Our farms are about two miles apart in Dameron, Maryland.

I have five acres of land on which I built my retirement home at the same time I started my alpaca farm. I only cleared about two acres on which my house faces the alpaca pasture so that I can see them from my family room. I love watching the alpacas.

My primary focus is on building a small huacaya alpaca herd to supplement my retirement. I would also like to offer a wide range of alpaca fleece for hand spinning, weaving, felting, knitting and crochet enthusiasts. Although I'm still undecided, I am considering opening a small farm store in which I would also sell alpaca clothing.

Ben already owned a farm, but he didn't have any livestock or established pasture. In fact, he wasn't a farmer, he just lived on an old farm and had a few pet rabbits, 1 duck, 5 roosters, no hens and a pot bellied pig.

In 2004, when I first starting looking at alpacas I was only curious, I certainly didn't think I was going to start breeding alpacas. Like many others, my farming experience had been limited. I had planted tomato plants and watched my dog have puppies, but never raised livestock. Anyway, I was curious (and bored), so I looked at the Alpaca Owners and Breeders website and located alpaca ranches near my home. I called Sharon and Dan Roberts of Camillo Valley Alpacas the closest ranch to my home, and made an appointment to go by and see their alpaca farm. At this point, I was only "looking".

After returning from my visit with Sharon and Dan, I came home that evening so excited. I loved the unusual animals with their cute curly little heads. They ran up to the edge of the fence when I drove up and then came over to sniff my hair. Then they hummed at me. I fell in love and hummed back.

After talking to Sharon and Dan, seeing their alpacas' irresistible faces, wonderfully manageable size, and their utterly charming dispositions, I knew I wanted to do this too. I told Sharon and Dan the various obstacles that I thought were blocking me from starting my own alpaca farm and they showed me the many ways to overcome those obstacles. If I could do it, so can you.

My parents and five siblings were very leery and tried to persuade me to forget about alpacas. They said it was too good to be true, too risky, too expensive, and so on.

One day, my younger brother Ben and I were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery for $100,000.00 and I told him I would buy alpacas. After we talked further and he realized that I thought it would be a better investment than putting that money towards something "safe" (like my new mortgage), he started asking a lot of questions. He went with me to the next two alpaca farms I visited. We were very fortunate and ran into a couple of bargains. Thanks to Tom and Kate Perez of Mount Airy Alpacas, we both purchased alpacas that day (owner financed). Tom and Kate graciously allowed us to leave our alpacas in their care until we had a suitable place to keep them.

In May 2006, my brothers, brother-in-law, father, and boyfriend started helping me fence about an acre of land for my alpacas. In August 2006, we had a one sided shelter errected and called it a "barn". Our alpacas could finally be delivered. By that time, Ben had purchased two more alpacas from Mount Airy Alpacas, his first alpaca had her cria (baby alpaca) and was bred again, and my first alpaca (Jezebel) had her cria (Chloe) and was bred again. So we had our 6 alpacas delivered to my place, Dameron Alpacas.

	Dad, Joe & Ben examine the pile driver and line it up. They're getting ready to drive in the first fence post	This is me carrying a fence post across the pasture
I'm driving the tractor while my brothers, Joe & Ben, line up and drive the posts into the ground	All the fence post are in. Tomorrow we need to put up the wire
		The first day at their new home

In November 2006, he finished fencing in three areas on his farm and turned them into pastures. Until then, his alpacas stayed at my farm so our alpacas could keep each other company. We purchased our first alpacas from the same farm (Mount Airy Alpacas in Mount Airy, Maryland), so they were already friends. In December we moved my alpacas (Jezebel and SadieBug) to his farm with his alpacas. Hia pasture had plenty of orchard grass for them to eat. My pastures looked bare.

I never thought I would go from working for the government behind a desk for 30 year to becoming an alpaca breeder. But that is exactly what happened. And if you are lucky, it can happen to you too!

Farm Visits: All visitors are welcome, but please call ahead to ensure someone will be here to accompany you. I can almost always be reached on my cell phone at (240) 577-1751.