We are Rina and Phil Levy, Pacatudes principals. We entered the Alpaca business in mid 2003 with the objective of building up a small to medium sized herd of Huacayas of high quality conformation and fleece characteristics. We started with two black maidens who impressed us with their self confident bearing, conformation and fleece. As these girls moved about their enclosure it almost seemed as if they had some kind of “attitude”. Hence the name “Pacatudes”
and our tag line “Alpacas with an Attitude”. Our breeding philosophy is to match each female with the best available herdsire based upon their complementary conformational, disposition, and fleece characteristics and with a view to improving upon the 50% of genetics contributed by each parent. We also participate in the competitive halter classes at various shows to validate our breeding program and breed stock purchases.
We currently own a full Peruvian black herdsire, Peruvian Domingo in partnership with Lisa Shimeld and Brad Johnson of Alpacas del Valle Cereza. Domingo had a very competitive show career, culminating with wining first place in both his shorn class and fleece class at the 2004 AOBA National Conference. We also own two junior herdsires which will start working by the end of 2007. The first is full Peruvian and ½ Accoyo, SA Peruvian Morpheus which we own in partnership with Lisa and Brad. The second is our first born cria, El Corazon Bradley. Bradley has been very competitive in his several shows including two color championships and carries excellent blood lines. We believe that these three along with selected outside breedings will be the core of a very successful breeding program for the foreseeable future.
Our fiber strategy is to outsource the fleece processing to a mini mill and to produce “one size fits all” garments as well as yarn. We have found that blending the yarn with silk results in the most supple and soft garments. We have no store per se, preferring to consign the finished product.
Our ranch is a virtual one. Our herd is agisted at Lisa Shimeld and Brad Johnson’s Alpacas del Valle Cereza. Lisa and Brad are internationally known as leaders in our industry and we feel very fortunate to have established a long term understanding with them for the housing and daily care of our animals.
Recently our son, Joey joined our team as marketing director. Joey has a media arts and advertising background, and it is his talents that you can see behind this web site and many of the photographs.
Please feel free to call us to chat about the alpacas at any time or to set up a physical ranch visit.
