Chris and Lisa McNinch have turned a play-on-words into a growing farm and business venture producing some of the finest natural fibers known to man.
Beginning in 2006, and at their own farm on Italy Hill Road since 2007, C ‘n’ L has carved a niche of success by looking beyond the ordinary, the usual, the common types of farming in Yates County.
A tour of the farm shows the complicated social and breeding dynamics involved in raising alpacas.
Separated by both gender and stage of development, sires and dams must also be paired for breeding by color to increase the chances of producing a cria of the desired shade.
Dams have no specific cycle of ovulation and must be wooed by the sires. Once a cria can be weened they must be penned separately in order for the dam to breed again, but now be segregated by gender to prevent premature or random mating.
Despite their appearance, alpacas are not generally cuddly animals. The smaller, softer cousins of the better-known camels and llamas native to the Andes Mountains of South America, they are adapted to a harsh climate, but more skittish among humans.
While domesticated llamas are used as pack animals, alpacas are bred exclusively for the very light, soft, and warm wool they produce. Far finer than sheep’s wool and without lanolin oils, it is considered to be hypoallergenic and can be worn by many whose skin is usually irritated by animal fibers.
Harvested by a team of Australian trained itinerant shearers, the alpaca wool is cleaned and spun in a nearby mill.
Lisa dyes all of her own fibers, using no harsh chemical processes.
“I wouldn’t use anything that I wouldn’t allow on my own children’s skin,” she says.
Her shop attached to their beautifully renovated Greek Revival home is stocked mostly with the wool produced by their own herd of 27.
In May C ‘n’ L Paca opened a booth in Lown’s House of Shops on Main Street in Penn Yan.
Both locations offer a wide selection of yarns, knitted, and woven products. Very soon our weather will turn, and the hats, scarves, mittens, gloves, shawls and sweaters will be much-appreciated gifts for the holidays.
C ‘n’ L Paca is a complete family enterprise. Chris and Lisa’s teenage children, Justin and Katie help care for the animals and halter train them from an early age to be shown in the ring.
