Recently the family "hobby farm" acquired two young alpacas as pets. These are two boys who weren't going to be used for breeding and therefore had little purpose on the farms from which they came. As there is no market for alpaca meat in the US they get to live a nice quiet life with us.

Like any haired beast they will need a haircut in the spring. I was contemplating what I could do with the wool and thought that maybe it might make a decent fiber insulation to stuff in a UQ. Anyone tried just loose, not felted or spun wool as an insulation? I figure that after it's been washed it should be pretty fluffy and it's keeping the alpacas warm in our fair Michigan winter. I have another experiment for the spring.