BIDDEFORD – Last Monday, East Coast Alpacas welcomed a curly white-fibered newborn that visitors will get the chance to meet during this year’s Maine Open Farm Day.

The local farm will participate in the annual celebration of Maine agriculture on July 28. East Coast Alpacas will be open for Biddeford visitors and residents to get a glimpse into the life of breeders.

The cria, which is the proper term for a baby alpaca, said Melissa Worrell, one of the breeders, is already showing some sought-after characteristics for alpaca sellers and potential buyers.

“He’s something special,” Melissa Worrell said. “See all those curls? That’s a super desirable trait. If he were born with straight hair we’d be like ‘Oh, bummer.’ He’s showing already to have dense, curly fiber. For some animals, it takes a couple of years before their fiber grows in.”

The one-week-old will live on the farm anywhere from nine months to at least a year before it’s even ready to be sold. According to Melissa Worrell, cria need to be weaned and acclimated from being away from their mothers.

“He’s got really good genetics,” her husband Marc Worrell added, “which is one thing in the industry that you’re that you’re always trying to get better at.”

The couple said they have been living the “alpaca lifestyle” for the pst six years. Starting off the journey with two pregnant females, their herd size has expanded to almost 30, and they even compete against multimillion-dollar farms that can have 500 to 1,000 alpacas alone.

“For a small farm in Maine, we go to big shows,” Marc Worrell said. “Like in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. We’ve done quite well.”

Besides breeding for fiber, the Worrells sell alpacas, making sure their buyers are properly introduced to the needs and behaviors of a typical alpaca. For exmaple, the couple said that alpacas are not the type of animals to cuddle with or pet.

“We make sure very early to tell people two words: curious and skittish,” Marc Worrell said. “That’s the way I describe them, and we want people to know that in advance because we don’t want people investing in a farm and then getting these animals home, and they’re disappointed.”

Marc Worrell also stressed how social alpacas are with each other.

“You can’t have one alpaca,” he said. “You hve to have at least two because they’re herd animals, so they want to be in a herd. If you take one of the females and put her on a big, wide open land of her own, she’d be scared to death, and she may even die from stress. It’s very important that they’re together. We recommend to folks three and if you can’t have three, get at least two.”

With every sale they’ve made, the Worrells ensure that their buyers are up for the challenge.

“We make sure folks know what they’re getting into,” Marc Worrell said. “We make them volunteer, so they come here and they work. We do a herd health day, which is usually nails, sometimes teeth. We give them injections de-worming. We do some vitamins and things like that, and we do the whole entire herd that day, so they aren’t actually just seeing it, but are also doing it.”

When it comes to the competition, Melissa Worrell said she never expected such a friendly atmosphere.

“People are so welcoming in the industry,” she said. “It’s not cutthroat. People are always cheering the other farmers on, and so we’ve really made a bunch of friends through the process. It’s just really encouraging to see an industry where we’re all kind of friends rooting for one another.”

She also mentioned that alpaca breeding and selling is still recent in the states, which might be the reason for such a positive environment.

“Alpacas are relatively young,” Melissa Worrell said. “It’s been about 30 years since they came to the U.S., so it’s a baby industry. We all kind of know that, and we’re just trying to educate the public about the qualities that come from alpaca fiber.”

Even with the pressure of a full-time day job, Marc Worrell said that caring for the alpacas is more pleasure than added labor.

“People will ask me, ‘How do you do it?’” he said. “’How do you go home and do farm work?’ It’s work, but it’s also not because I love it. This is my therapy. It’s my calming thing- -it really is.”

Catherine Bart can be reached at cbart@mainelymediallc.com.

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