Smithills Open Farm welcomes new furry alpaca friends

Smithills Open Farm, one of Bolton’s most popular attractions, has recently welcomed some new furry friends into its family after four baby alpacas were born over the last two weeks – as well as new little lambs.

Carl Grimshaw, owner and manager at Smithills Open Farm said alpacas are one of their biggest attractions.

He said: “We have had four baby alpacas born in the last couple of weeks, and they are in our pets corner.

“We haven’t had any baby llamas for a while, so we are also due for a big rush of baby llamas soon.

“One of the babies was born last week and three a couple of weeks before.

Baby alpaca (Image: Smithills Open Farm)

“All four of them have names, and all of our alpacas have chocolate related names.

"One of our first alpacas was called Caramel and it carried on from there and we have a Wispa and a Curly Whirly too.

“Caramel, which is one of the mum alpacas gave birth to Caramac, Kinder who is another one our mums gave birth to Milka, Twirl gave birth to Ripple and Smartie gave birth to Revel.

“Alpacas are a big attraction, they are cute and cuddly and when they are babies they are light and really fluffy and are nice and soft for people to meet and greet them in pets corner.

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“We have our pets corner where people can come and we will bring pets out to meet and greet them, where they can also learn about the animals.

“We generally have our youngest baby animals in pets corner, and we try and have a variety of animals all year round.

“With the alpacas we train them more or less straight away so they can walk on a lead, and we walk them around pets corner for people to meet them and they can have a little stroke of them on the way round as well.

“And they are already out meeting and greeting already, we try and do that from the get-go, so they are nice and friendly and to get them used to the human interaction.

A little lamb was also recently born (Image: Smithills Open Farm)“They are the biggest attraction in pets corner at the minute because they are so small and fluffy.

“Everybody at Smithills Farm loves the alpacas, they are just so nice.

“People who have visited since the alpacas have been born have been amazed, it is not everyday you can get close up and personal with a baby alpaca.”

Carl said they have never had four alpacas bought all at once.

He said: “Alpacas are pregnant between 11 and 12 months so it is a long time, and to have four born at one time is crazy, we have never had that.”

Carl said they are welcoming lots of baby animals as the spring season approaches.

Jacob Lambs (Image: Smithills Open Farm)He said: “This time of the year there are more baby animals being born especially lambs and goats.

“We have just had lambing and we have around seven or eight different breeds of sheep and we have a great variety of different baby lambs being born at the minute too.

“It is a great time of year to come down to the farm and meet all the animals because there are so many baby ones being born at the minute and there is such a wide variety of different animals that we have here.

“It is so nice to come and see them, especially with the weather becoming nicer and with it feeling like spring.”

To learn more about Smithills Open Farm, visit their website at: https://www.smithillsopenfarm.co.uk/.

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