When three brothers re-unite after being apart for a while, crazy things often happen. In our case, the desire to do something business-wise together without at least 2 having to uproot themselves, coupled with an Alpacas Magazine, went from "Hmm, looks interesting" to... "Let’s do it!" So, Kem, a middle school teacher from Orange County, California; Mike, a painting contractor from Saratoga, in northern California; and Jon, owner of a diversified farm called Rainbow's End in Stanton, Michigan, banked a few bucks together in the spring of 2002 and created Heart of Michigan Alpacas, LLC.
Rainbow's End houses the herd in an old barn built in 1912. On 100 acres producing a variety of fruit and vegetables with a primary focus on 11 different conifer species mostly grown for Christmas trees, wreaths and garland, we set 5 acres aside for the initial pastures and corrals, which we can easily expand as we grow. A package deal and a high-quality single purchase created our starting herd; and those breeders’ willingness to share information and “teach us the ropes” gave us confidence to keep going during the nervous early days of the "learning curve."
At Heart of Michigan we hope to "flatten the curve" for all our customers with complete information disclosure before purchase and full support after purchase. We have taken our core herd and consistently made improvements through quality breedings. Now, we are able to offer sales from starter packages and top-quality single alpacas to a pair of hand-knit mittens made by the "Milo" girls from our alpacas' fleece. All the while, we study and learn about fleece, husbandry and breeding advancements as we strive to create the finest dense, elite-fleeced healthy alpacas capable. We have truly put our Heart into the business of breeding these wonderful animals whose uniquely beautiful fleece has become, for us, a "fiber of passion."