(steady rock music) ♪ Hey ♪ (steady rock music continues) ♪ Hey ♪ (steady rock music continues) ♪ Hey ♪ (rock music concludes) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

The Midwest.

They have lots of livestock, generally.

You're talking pigs.

You're talking cattle.

But what about alpacas?

Well, today's guest knows all about 'em.

We're gonna be talking with Kathy Albert from Rio, Illinois.

How you doing, Kathy?

- Great.

How are you?

- Pretty good.

It is Rio, R-I-O.

- It is.

That's how we tell if you're a tourist.

- Is if they say Rio?

Okay.

And how many people screw that up?

- A lot.

- Pretty much everybody, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- Where is Rio?

In the great state of Illinois.

- 10 miles north of Galesburg and about a half hour south of the quad cities.

- Gotcha.

And that's not where you're originally from though, right?

- No, I'm from Chicago area.

- Chicago, grew up in the suburbs or in downtown?

- In the suburbs.

- Which one?

- Libertyville.

- Oh, way up north.

That's up by Wisconsin, right?

- Pretty close.

- Yeah.

It was it, Six Flags up there.

- Great America.

- Yeah, Great America.

The old wooden rollercoaster.

The Screaming Eagle.

- The Eagle.

- That thing, you know, you go on all the new ones like the Batman and all that.

Turn you upside down.

It's that one drop on the Eagle.

That's the ride of the whole park.

- You're right.

And you can ride it backwards too.

- Huh?

- Yeah.

- How do you go up, you go up the big thing?

- They have one track that goes forward and one that goes backwards.

- Alright, focus Kathy.

Now I'm distracted.

Now I'm fascinated by how that works, but I digress.

Okay.

You are the owner of Heartland Criations.

Creations?

- Criations.

- Okay, but you spelled it wrong.

- I did, a Cria is a baby alpaca.

- C-R-I-A?

- Correct.

- Is a baby alpaca?

- Yes.

- Okay.

And is that English language?

- Yes.

- Okay.

I didn't know.

I know all the other ones, you know, like sow, gilt, barrow.

I know all like that, but I don't know the alpaca terms.

- That's it.

- And that's a male or a female?

- Correct.

- Okay.

Alright.

Okay, let's start with you.

You didn't grow up on a farm, grew up in Chicago, and your parent, your dad was an exotic vet.

- Avian and exotic, primarily birds and exotics.

- Like what kind of exotics?

- I thought it was normal to walk a cougar on a leash and realized mid grade school that I was the weird one.

- You would, a cougar on a leash?

- I had a strange childhood.

- I mean, I didn't even know you could tame a cougar.

- They act like a domestic cat.

Just bigger.

- Yeah, but they could, did they have claws?

You take those off?

- No, they're declawed.

- Okay.

Take their teeth out?

- No.

- So they could- - You could train them.

- You could, did you ask Siegfried and Roy about that?

Didn't work so good with those two boys.

- That's true.

- Yeah.

Your dad would just have you walking a cougar around.

- He has a lot of clients who own exotics.

- And I mean, just like, not your neighborhood, you wouldn't be walking around.

- No.

- Yeah.

They get a lot of attention from the boys.

Is that why?

- There's certain licensing requirements.

- Oh, well that Tiger King fella.

He didn't get any of those though.

- I don't know about that.

- You see what he did is he mixed a lion and a tiger and then that's a loophole because you don't need a permit because it's not a real animal.

- Oh geez.

- Yeah.

Old boy was smart, for an idiot.

So growing up like that, was that what made your love for animals?

- Yes.

I've grown up saving everything.

And of course animal welfare comes first in our lives.

I grew up in the horse world too.

And so that's where my interest in livestock came from.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I can't take care of something and then put it on my dinner plate.

- So you don't eat alpacas?

- I do not.

- Is it alpaca or alpaca?

- Alpaca.

- Okay.

- Depends where you're from.

- Like tomato.

Tomato.

- Yes.

- Do they like, they're from South America, right?

- Andes Mountain region, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.

- Are they a meat animal down there?

- When they're beyond their reproductive years, they do.

- Grind them up.

Okay.

But you won't do that?

- I don't.

- Okay.

So anything that is on your farm is safe from being on your plate?

- Correct.

- Okay.

Anything?

- Yes.

- Do you have anything but alpacas?

- Llamas, dogs, cats, an ill-mannered parrot.

- Okay.

Yeah, probably wouldn't eat any of those.

- No.

- What's with the parrot?

- He's been in our family for 41 years now.

- Does he cuss?

- No, but likes to yell at the dogs.

- Your parrot likes to yell at the dogs.

- Or the vacuum.

- What's it say?

- Oh, he has a pretty big vocabulary.

- I honestly am fascinated by it.

So like, how many words can this parrot say?

- They say that parrots have the intelligence level of about a gifted 4-year-old.

- Really?

But they can't put together sentences, can they?

- They come up with appropriate responses.

- Really?

- And they laugh at times when it's appropriate to laugh.

So they can sense, they know they're smart.

- If you were walking through the kitchen and you fell down, your parrot would laugh at you.

- Yes.

Yes, most definitely.

- You might wanna revisit the whole eatin'- - Exactly.

- Little KFC action there.

Alright, where were we?

- Not much meat.

- Yeah.

(laughing) Went to school at ISU.

- I did for my bachelor's and Western for my master's.

- What did you want to do?

- I started out pre-vet and I walked out a high school English teacher.

- Oh, that's quite the jump.

Didn't like the pre-vet.

- I'm not real sure where the transition came in.

I really think it's because I had a lot of awful high school teachers.

English teachers.

Maybe I shouldn't say that.

- What's their name?

- I don't remember.

- Yes, you remember one of 'em.

Guarantee it.

- But I thought I could do better.

- So you had crappy teachers, so you went to school to become a teacher so that you could not be a crappy teacher.

So some kids- - Maybe you shouldn't publicize that, but- - It makes sense to me.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- There are a lot of things I didn't learn that I could have easily been taught.

- Oh, in high school.

Okay.

What high school?

- I'm not going any further.

- I need to be better at asking questions.

So you know how they do it like on 60 Minutes, right.

They'll make you feel all good and then they're like, oh, what high school was that again?

And you're like, oh yeah, it was just Sucku High, right?

Yeah, okay.

Alright.

Went to ISU, got your degree.

And now you are a teacher.

Did you start teaching right out of college?

- I did.

I moved over Galesburg direction.

I got my first teaching job in Abingdon at the high school there.

- Teaching what?

- High school English.

- Okay, did you make your students parse or diagram?

- Neither.

- Really?

Okay, how'd you teach 'em the right- - Holistically.

- I don't know what that means.

- You can just teach within the context of writing and the students are a lot more apt to learn it.

- Oh, I think a lot of high school students, they do the diagramming.

Right?

- That's what I, yes.

- My English teacher, which I didn't appreciate.

I didn't like him 'cause he did too much homework and stuff like that.

But we had to parse it.

Right?

So you had, I've like underlined the subject two lines for that type of thing.

But then when I went to college and you did like the test or whatever, and then you're able to skip like the English 2.

- Right.

- 'cause he taught us so well.

- So you learned.

That's good.

- Yeah.

I didn't appreciate it at the time.

- I'm not sure my students always appreciated me either.

- Well, eventually they do.

- I think so.

- When they get a skip.

Yeah, but here's a shout out to Mr.

Henley from Bradford, (bell dings) Bradford High School.

- Very good.

- Good job.

- Nice.

- Yeah.

Did you like teaching?

- Love it.

I still teach every day.

- Okay, but not formally at a school.

- Correct.

- Okay.

So you taught, but then you moved into principal.

- I was high school principal for a decade.

- Did you do that 'cause you wanted to like smack the kids around because that's discipline, right?

- No, kids are great.

Kids are great.

- Oh, come on.

- They live up to whatever your expectations are.

- Really.

You didn't have like the troublemakers, you just wanted to, you know, ship off somewhere.

- Oh, sometimes.

- But you couldn't do that.

- No.

- That would be tough.

I always thought it would be tough to be a principal because literally every mistake in the school is yours.

But everything that's going right, probably everybody else gets a credit.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

But you were content with that.

- It was good.

- Yeah.

Did you enjoy it more than teaching?

- As a teacher, you have control of your classroom.

- Yeah.

- And control over what happens every day.

As an administrator, it's exactly what you just said.

You're at the mercy of whatever decision somebody makes on a given day.

- But in a way though, you could be like an admiral because you're in charge of all the classrooms.

If you said as a principal, all right, we're gonna start every class with "Thank you Mrs.

Albert, for everything you do."

They would have to do it.

- Well, I'm not sure that that would be appropriate.

- Again, that makes no difference.

All right.

I don't know where we're at.

Oh, alpacas.

All right.

So how did you even find out about alpacas?

- The ad on the side of the boot was the very first ad I ever saw.

It was in either Country Living or Country Magazine.

- Oh, okay.

So it basically just says, Hey, you could grow these things.

Did you know anything about 'em?

- No.

I called my dad and I said, what are alpacas?

- Really?

He obviously probably knew, right?

Being a vet.

- Well, he knew what they were, but he didn't have any experience with them.

And that started about a year and a half's worth of investigation.

- Why is it in a boot?

- Northerner boots are the best boots around.

Those haven't been in poop though.

(bell dings) - They're not a sponsor, but- - That's okay.

They don't make 'em anymore.

- Oh really?

What's so great about 'em?

- They're insulated, they're warm, they're waterproof and they're functional.

- Okay.

But there's a lot of boots like that, right?

- I don't know.

I'm partial to these.

- Not as good as as this one.

- They're just harder to find.

- Do you have like a hoard of them?

- I do.

- Really?

Like how many?

- I think I have two extra pairs right now.

- Oh, that's not bad.

Yeah, I'm talking like, like a pickup truck full.

- Oh, not that many.

- Yeah.

Okay.

But you can't get 'em anymore, - Right.

- How long do they last?

- Couple years.

- Oh, that's not bad.

Yeah.

Alright, so you see this ad.

What appealed to you about this ad?

Why did you wanna- - I wanted livestock, but I didn't want to have to take care of something and put it on my dinner plate.

- Okay.

- And so knowing that there were fiber animals, I started that investigation.

At the time that I got into it, they were very expensive.

- Yeah.

- And so there was a lot of research that I did prior to buying my first one - Is this alpaca, what do you call it?

Fur?

- That's Suri Alpaca fiber.

- Okay.

I like it.

And this is, I don't know, I've touched wool.

I don't know.

I don't know what I would compare this to.

It's like my- - Cashmere.

- It's like my wife's hair.

- Okay.

- Is that weird?

- I don't know.

(laughing) - Let's move on now.

- It's hypoallergenic.

It's very soft, yeah.

- So it won't make you sneeze?

- No.

- Alright.

What is different?

To me, this looks like hair.

Compared to a wool.

- There's two different types of alpacas.

There's Huacayas and there are Suris.

Huacayas you can see in the picture in the middle of the boot.

- Okay.

- Are puffy, their hair grows out like a sheep.

They have a denser fiber.

Suris, they have what we call a cooler handle and it grows down in dreadlocks.

And so it's a little bit silkier to the feel.

- How often do you shear 'em?

- Once a year.

- Once a year.

What time a year?

- Late April.

Early May.

- Yeah.

So they got the summer coat on.

- Right.

- Okay.

And then do you process the hair?

Or does that go somewhere else?

- I average 40 to 50 animals at home.

So I process everything off my animals.

And then I also work with additional companies.

'cause I need to sell more than what I can produce to sustain everybody.

- Oh, gotcha.

Now your farm though, it's gotta be difficult to make money off of livestock that you can't sell to butcher, to market.

Right?

So you are actually adding kind of an agri-tourism part to your farm too.

- Agri-tourism is a big part of my business.

- Tell me about that.

- Oh, I have farm visits, individual visits, bus tours.

Sometimes I'm part of a mystery bus tour where they tell the people who buy the tickets the destination, but they don't tell the stops along the way.

- Oh.

- Which is always fun because people don't know where they're stopping.

And that's where I'm still in education.

My arena's just different.

My arena's the barn or set up at festivals or scenic drives and things like that.

- Gotcha.

- I do host weddings and reunions, birthday parties.

- And people.

What do they wanna do when they're out there?

You just wanna pet these things?

- Visit the alpacas.

Feed the alpacas.

I have a full line alpaca farm store on site.

I have a hand cranked carousel.

- I know, I rode on it.

- I know.

- I was very, very afraid to get on that thing.

'cause I- - I was so excited about that project.

- I don't know if you noticed, but I'm a little hefty.

- It's for adults- - You said it was okay.

- You survived.

- It did hold up.

Tell people about it, 'cause you have to hand crank it.

Where'd you find that thing?

- I found it outside of Galena when I was with my mom.

He found it outside of Georgia and I have not found another one like it.

- No, I don't think I've never seen anything like that.

- There's 12 horses and six benches and you just hand crank it and it goes around like a carousel would or like a merry-go-round would.

- Do you know how old it is?

- I was originally thinking 1940s or fifties.

But people keep telling me they think more probably 1920s, 1930s.

- Okay, you should have those, the two old boys on TV come out.

- Pickers.

- Pickers.

Yeah.

Because you kind of, when you go to your farm, it has that feel like you got the old signs and stuff.

- I do.

- Do you enjoy the antiquing?

- Love it.

- Yeah.

- But I collected all my signs before they were popular.

- Oh, you were cool before.

- Much cheaper price.

- So who's coming out to your farm?

Like what's your average customer?

- All ages.

- Really.

And because I would assume like the kids would, you know, a mom would wanna take her kids there and all that, but are like the more mature people, older people, they enjoy it too.

- Yep.

All ages.

I have a vendor event that I host in July where I have 35 to 40 outside vendors come in for the day.

So it's a very high quality vendor event.

Of course the alpacas are a draw for the kids.

And so the kids can come out and be preoccupied while mom shops or dad shops.

The Fall open house I have, we set up farm style carnival games, so we try to create a family friendly event venue where there's something for everybody.

- Like the corn hole game and all that.

- I do have a set.

- Okay.

You also have llamas on your farm, right?

- I do.

- And they're, they look the same, but they're bigger, - About 200 pounds heavier.

They're the guards.

- And they, you probably are like, no, they don't look the same.

But they're the same.

- Same family, yes.

- Type of animal.

Yeah.

And what is their purpose?

- They guard the alpacas - From predators.

Stuff like that?

- Predators.

Even if you were to walk into my pastures, the llama would immediately approach you or stage himself between you and the alpacas.

- The alpacas.

Are they more lovers than fighters?

- They're smaller, they don't have the defense mechanisms to fight off a coyote.

- Is that the main predator?

- In my area.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- As far as like where these are grown, is it just kind of sporadic throughout the country?

- Llamas and alpacas?

- Yeah.

- They're pretty much in every state now.

- Like you said when you started, they were expensive.

It seems like they've kind of taken off as... Do people just have 'em as pets?

- Some people do.

- Yeah.

But then they wanna share 'em.

And I don't know anything about these.

I know like sheep, what it costs to share 'em is actually probably a little bit more than the wool is worth.

But these are different, right?

Because this is a lot more quality.

- It depends.

Yes it is.

I process mine and stop the processing at different stages because it's a value added product.

And my market of selling products that are at least partially processed or fully processed is greater.

Not everybody wants to come and take the fiber off of the animal.

- Yeah.

- And work a project from start to finish.

I do have some people like that who come out and say, okay, I want the fiber off of so and so when you share next year and then they'll process it themselves and make a sweater.

- What is the bread and butter product?

- Alpaca socks.

- Socks.

I have a pair.

- You do?

- You pointed out to me that I was not wearing them today.

- You should be.

- Well, I mean, I can't wear 'em every day.

- Why?

- When did this become about me?

They are wonderful socks.

They are, I will say that because when I've got the heavier ones and when you generally have a heavy sock like that, it's one you're really going out in the cold and you're basically gonna sweat in them.

But this, I don't know, not so much.

- It wicks moisture away from your body.

- Is that what it is?

Okay.

So people will come and they'll say like, what's a random alpaca name that you have?

- Jasmine.

- She sees Jasmine.

And like, I want socks from Jasmine.

And you can do that.

- Probably not socks, but I can either process it into roving, which is the step before yarn or into yarn or then take it to the next step, which is rugs or socks or things like that.

- Gotcha.

You created a nice shop there.

- Thank you.

- As far as like the profit that comes off there, is the shop what makes the money?

- Combination effort between livestock.

- Yeah.

- I do buy and show and sell the breeding stock.

Of course there's alpaca transport services that do nothing but transport alpacas back and forth across the country.

- It's like an Uber.

- More or less.

- Yeah.

Okay.

You're not afraid to have people on your farm.

You also have like a, tell me about the RV overnight thing.

- Oh, I'm a Harvest Host site and I love having Harvest Host guests.

It's a subscription service for self-contained RV-ers.

They can sign up and they can stay the night.

They get the educational tour with the alpacas and then get to shop the farm stores also.

- Kind of like an Airbnb type of thing.

And people sign up and are gonna park their RV at your farm.

- Correct.

- That you've blood, sweat, and tears into and you trust them.

- It's my sanctuary.

I love sharing my farm with people.

- Yeah.

But people are stupid.

- I researched that for about a year and a half too before signing up.

- Have you had any problems with it?

- No.

- That's not real wood.

- Oh, we'll pretend it is.

(both chuckle) - So the people that are coming there, I mean, what are they expecting?

What are they getting?

- They're looking for someplace to stay that is safe and where they're not lined up next to other RV-ers.

Like they are at a campground.

- So it's just one.

Okay.

And do you find the people respect your farm?

- Very much so.

- Okay.

Do you think it is in how you present yourself and your farm?

'cause your farm is very, very nice.

- Thank you.

- And it's not, how do I say it?

If you went to a place that was more a junkie, I think people might not respect it as much.

Do you think how well kept it is and how much you love it and coming across that way, that's why people respect it?

- I hope so.

- Yeah.

I still, it's not for me.

Yeah.

- I work at it every day.

- Because they're there one night.

That's it?

That's okay, that would be okay.

If they wanted to pay for two, would you let 'em?

- They can stay for two.

It just depends on my schedule - Three?

- No.

- Yeah, I can see it.

We're liking that.

It's like, all right, hit the bricks.

(both chuckle) But you don't have the hookups.

Right.

They're all self-contained.

And yeah, just parking it.

And do they get to go in and pet the alpacas and stuff like that?

- Yeah, they get a guided tour.

- But you have to be around.

- Yes.

- They can't go in their on their own?

- No.

- Okay.

Well that makes perfect sense.

Well, if someone has a place right out in the country or wherever and they're thinking about getting alpaca, what advice would you give 'em?

- Do a lot of research.

Visit a lot of farms and purchase from a reputable breeder.

- Oh, are they hard to find?

- There's a lot of unreputable ones out there.

- What would be the issue with buying from Unreputable?

- Quality of the animals.

Congenital defects, things like that.

If they're not preserving their breeding program, you also wanna make sure you learn the proper care.

Alpacas are not necessarily hard to keep, but they are different from other livestock.

Even drug dosages and worming dosages and things like that are different.

- What do they eat?

- They graze all the time.

They have access to hay all the time.

They eat an alpaca pellet for grain.

And they have a free choice mineral.

- But if someone just has like a picked an area and they just, oh, I just want something to just go out there and eat and I don't really want to pay much attention to it.

Is this their animal or not?

- Alpacas are not the answer.

- Okay.

- They like things groomed.

They have me very well trained.

- Oh, they have you trained?

- They do.

- How many do you have?

- 40 to 50.

- Which one do you like the least?

- Oh, they all have a purpose.

I like 'em all.

- You had a name that came to mind?

Yeah.

Do do you have 'em all named?

- Of course.

They're all DNA registered.

- Oh really?

Okay.

- That's one of the things I liked about the industry is you have to prove the pedigree.

So it's taken away some of the line breeding and breeding and not so nice parts of say the horse world.

- Oh yeah.

- It's gotten rid of that horse trader mentality.

- Those guys.

So you don't want the inbreeding with it.

So that's, I mean, I can't imagine the defects because they're a unique looking animal anyway.

Some people would say not so bright looking sometimes.

Some people, I wouldn't say it.

- Okay.

- To me, they look pretty smart, but you know, - They are smart.

- When they look at you and they do that thing and then they have the two teeth hanging out.

It's like, how much worse could it get?

- I have no answer.

- Moving on, what do you love about it?

- Everything.

You can spend 20 minutes or I can spend 20 minutes in my barn and feel like everything is right in the world.

- [Rob] Just peaceful.

Okay.

- The animals hum.

They're two-toed.

They're easy on the ground.

- Whoa, whoa.

You what?

- They hum.

- They hum.

- So they're not noisy.

- Like what did, hmm?

- Mm-hmm.

- That's their- - There's different inflections.

You can tell if they're irritated or not, but- - Mm.

- Yeah, there you go.

- It's like they're moo.

- You just mastered the alpaca language.

- You're not dealing with a chimp here.

I can tell that you absolutely love what you do.

- I do.

- It comes true.

We've had a chance to talk to you before this and a chance to see you on your farm.

You just love those animals.

And I have a feeling that you've put them before yourself a number of times.

- Every day.

- Yeah, well, if people want to find out more about you or your farm, where would they go?

- HCalpacas.com is my website.

I also have a farm Facebook page.

- And again, you spell creations wrong.

- Correct.

- Heartland Criations, but it's clever.

Yeah, because that's the name of a baby alpaca.

- Yes.

- A young alpaca.

- Correct.

- Okay.

Alright.

I enjoy talking to you.

I enjoy talking to people that are passionate about what they do, that truly love what they do.

I think you have found your purpose in life.

- I have.

- I think you have found something that makes you happier than anything else.

And it's a joy to watch.

- And now I understand why I wore my socks inside out 'til I was in about sixth grade.

- Huh?

What?

- I don't like chunky toe seams and I sell socks for a living.

So I'm very particular in the type of alpaca socks I sell.

- I've never even thought about a chunky toe seam.

- Oh, I couldn't stand it when I was little.

- What are you talking about?

- Told you I was weird!

- Like the end of the sock.

- Now it makes sense.

- And yours doesn't have those.

- No.

You've worn 'em.

- I have worn 'em.

I'm wearing 'em right now.

Alright.

Kathy Albert from Rio, Illinois.

Kathy, it's a pleasure to interview you.

It's a pleasure to show the absolute true love of agriculture that somebody can have.

So you are- - Thank you.

- We definitely credit to agriculture and farming and I wanna thank you for that.

- I appreciate that - Kathy Albert, everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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