Alpaca Power & the Chalford Herd

Where health and welfare come first.

Breeding healthy true black & coloured alpacas on strong balanced frames with correct conformation.

Growing luxurious soft handling alpaca fibre year on year to support a sustainable fibre industry.

We believe the alpacas we are fortunate to breed should have safe knowledgeable homes in which to thrive.

We offer training, consultancy and lifelong support for those who choose our animals and join the Alpaca Power family.

true black crias

Chalford Kaitlyn

racing in for a health check

From Passion to Practice: The Journey of Chalford Alpacas

It Started with a Rented Field...

In 2002, I was looking for an animal-based business to complement my skills as a qualified Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN). Having originally seen alpacas in Sydney, Australia, I discovered a small but emerging alpaca industry in the UK. After much research, I stood in a rented field, staring at my small herd of female alpacas with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. I had no idea what the future would hold, but I knew one thing—I was completely captivated by these gentle, intelligent animals. The Chalford herd was born.

The Struggles of Getting Started

I remember the frustration of trying to source quality coloured animals, the confusion over health care, and the lack of evidence-based knowledge and support. Every question led to another, and I realised I had to question everything I was told. If I was on a huge learning curve, then others must be too.
That’s when I made it my mission—not just to breed the best quality alpacas with unique bloodlines, but to support and educate others who wanted to experience the joy and success of keeping these incredible animals, with welfare at its heart.

Training Courses

Excellence in Black Huacaya Alpacas

Steadily growing our herd, with a thirst for knowledge, we moved to our own farm in 2005. We developed the farm infrastructure to ensure easy, minimal stress management, which has paid dividends over the years. It means I can work with our alpacas mostly on my own, in a safe, efficient, stress-free way for them.

True black huacaya alpacas soon became our focus. We carefully selected black alpacas with black pedigrees to achieve our goals. Due to the small gene pool, we took a decision from the outset to develop unique bloodlines by importing the highest quality stud males from other countries. Today, our Chalford herd is unique among black herds in the UK; our animals do not carry black genetics common to other black herds.

Whilst we chose to stop showing in 2010, we won Black Championship Halter Classes and brought home the Small Breeder Award from the British Alpaca Futurity Show having entered just 3 black alpacas in 2008. We continue to support Fleece Shows but prefer to keep our animals at home.

Steadily growing our herd, with a thirst for knowledge, we moved to our own farm in 2005. We developed the farm infrastructure to ensure easy, minimal stress management, which has paid dividends over the years. It means I can work with our alpacas mostly on my own, in a safe, efficient, stress-free way for them.
True black huacaya alpacas soon became our focus. We carefully selected black alpacas with black pedigrees to achieve our goals. Due to the small gene pool, we took a decision from the outset to develop unique bloodlines by importing the highest quality stud males from other countries. Today, our Chalford herd is unique among black herds in the UK; our animals do not carry black genetics common to other black herds.
Whilst we chose to stop showing in 2010, we won Black Championship Halter Classes and brought home the Small Breeder Award from the British Alpaca Futurity Show having entered just 3 black alpacas in 2008. We continue to support Fleece Shows but prefer to keep our animals at home.

Recently Shorn Pregnant Females

Sharing Our Passion: Helping You Achieve Your Alpaca Dreams

Over 20 years later, we are just as passionate about alpacas as we were at the start.

Alpacas are unique, enchanting animals. We hope with our experience, knowledge, and our herd of over 80 alpacas, in solid black and most colours, we can help you achieve your alpaca dreams and goals.

Whether it be owning these unique animals as lovable field companions, joining the national breeding programme to establish your own breeding herd or developing an alpaca business idea, it is all possible.

We also hope you enjoy learning more about our herd and how we look after them throughout the year.

Enjoy! Helen

Consultancy

The name Alpaca Power comes from Honda – ‘The Power of Dreams’.

Soichiro Honda was always dreaming of the future. Usually while he was creating it. The dream started Soichiro first saw a car. He dedicated the rest of his life to making it a reality.

With all that we know and continue to learn, we manage our herd with the ‘prevention is better than cure’ philosophy. We handle and train our animals using kind and respectful Camelidynamics methods, resulting in friendly, calm alpacas.

Our farm is strictly biosecure with permanent infrastructure; buried badger proof perimeter fencing, tall hedges, isolation and quarantine facilities. We implement and follow effective biosecurity protocols. As a result our biosecurity is described as ‘exemplary’.

We select breeding males and females with favourable traits and novel genetics for use in our progressive breeding program. In collaboration with UK and international breeders, we have developed our herd by layering and adding carefully sourced bloodlines unavailable elsewhere in the UK, to produce a core herd of high quality alpacas which conform to our breeding goals.