Successful Alpaca Farmer Manages Mounting Tasks

Mike Tierney is a businessman who knows an opportunity when he sees one.
After 40 years of helping to expand his family’s insurance agencies, Tierney has
now found success with a furrier new venture — breeding and raising
alpacas.

Tierney, owner of Maple Brook Farm in Westfield, Mass., breeds and
raises more than 150 alpacas with the help of his wife and three sons. Alpacas,
which were once a cherished treasure of the ancient Inca civilization in South
America, have been domesticated for over 5,000 years, and their popularity is
becoming internationally recognized.

The 36-in. tall and 150-lb gentle animals not only make practical pets, but
they also are a sound financial investment because they produce one of the
world’s finest natural fibers that is as soft as cashmere and warmer, lighter
and stronger than wool.

Tierney saw the advantages of alpacas early on. When he established Maple
Brook Farm in the early 1990s, it was one of the first alpaca farms on the East
Coast and the first alpaca farm in Massachusetts. But maintaining his family’s
pristine 40-acre New England farm nestled at the foot of East Mountain requires
a great deal of work.

In the past, Tierney says he always just picked up the phone and hired people
to do the daily tasks around the farm. That was until he happened upon another
opportunity — a utility work machine. Now instead of hiring six people to unload
bales of hay, pick up manure or move pen panels, Tierney’s team does it with the
help of the utility work machine.

As Tierney’s herd grew, so did the amount of work that had to be completed
around the farm. People suggested he buy a tractor or skid steer loader, but he
thought a tractor was too bulky and that a skid steer loader’s tires would tear
up the farm’s lawn. It wasn’t until he visited “The Big E,”sponsored by the
Eastern States Exposition (the ninth-largest fair in North America), that he
happened upon a machine that had everything he was looking for.

Before seeing the Toolcat 5600 at the fair, Tierney says he had never heard
of such a machine. “Within 20 minutes of operating it, I knew we were going to
buy one,” he says. “I’ve never driven any type of machinery before, but I was
able to get in this, go under a big, round bale of hay, pick it up with the
pallet fork attachment and move it down to one of the barns. It was
unbelievable. I moved 11 bales and put them just where I wanted. And that was
it, I was sold.”

With the Toolcat 5600, Tierney and his workers are able to get more work done
faster and with much less effort. Now, with the pallet fork attachment, it only
takes one person instead of six to unload and stack the larger 500-lb bales of
hay. And instead of moving eight to 10 bales of hay for the alpacas to feed on
every day, workers use the utility work machine to stack the large bales

into hay bunks.

“We’re able to accomplish more and keep the farm cleaner,” he says. “I expect
this thing to keep going for a long time.”

Tara Deering is a technical writer for Two Rivers Marketing, Des Moines,
Iowa.