New alpaca farm, gift store bring family back to S.D. roots

Sometimes, things just seem meant to be.

That is how Wade and Laura Mosset felt when they saw the words etched on the sidewalk at their new home.

Laura Mosset, a lifelong fan of the old-style red pickup trucks with rounded fenders and the proud owner of a restored 1950 F1 Ford, learned that a kindred spirit had lived there before her. And that person had felt such an affinity for scarlet-hued pickups that she had named her business Red Truck Art Studio.

“It could be seen as chance, but we think it was meant to be,” Wade Mosset said.

The Mossets’ venture into South Dakota agritourism, although a world away from an art studio, carries a similar name, Red Truck Alpaca Farm.

Their farm and its 21 alpacas opened to visitors June 1, ready to introduce those perhaps more familiar with hogs, cattle and chickens to the world of graceful, long-necked Peruvian natives.

The animals greet their visitors with curiosity but a natural wariness, an admire-me-but-don’t-touch attitude that can mimic the born-with-it superiority often attributed to cats.

Mosset can get close to his alpacas, but even then, they resist any attempts at head-scratching or, heaven forbid, hugging.

It disappoints visitors, he acknowledges, because with their long legs, large ears, camel- or llama-like faces and soft fleeces, alpacas are just so darn cute.

And, they have personality-plus, Mosset said.

“They’re very curious and intelligent,” he said. “They’ll come up to you because they want to know who’s coming, but since they’re a prey animal, they’re very cautious.”

Mosset has learned a lot about alpacas in the past two years. Alpaca owners are a convivial group, eager to help newcomers learn more and be successful, he said. One owners’ group, the Alpaca Owners Association Inc., headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, has about 2,200 members and more than 285,000 alpacas in its registry database.

Agritourism is of growing importance to South Dakota. According to information from Travel South Dakota, tourism supports 55,157 jobs in the state, while 37 of South Dakota’s 66 counties derive at least half of their total output from ag and ag-related industries.

Wade and Laura Mosset grew up in South Dakota. He’s from Rapid City; she is one of nine Heisel siblings from Sioux Falls. The couple married after meeting at South Dakota State University and have lived in Kansas, Michigan twice and San Francisco, returning to the state often to see family members.

Wade is a mechanical engineer, who later joined business-and-computer-science-major Laura in operating math and reading centers in the Twin Cities area. Laura sold her last center in 2020 after she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

With the third of their three sons graduating from high school, the Mosset parents decided to try a new venture, one that would bring them closer to home.

First came finding a home. The acreage they found just south of the Brandon city limits suited their needs, both in living quarters and the additional buildings on the property. The previous owners had used the outbuildings both as an art studio and a place to restore cars and for woodworking.

The Mossets purchased the property in December 2020 and began moving in in 2021 on a part-time basis. By the time the first five alpacas arrived in October 2022, they were settled in.

The decision to raise alpacas wasn’t immediate.

“Now what are we going to do?” Wade and Laura Mosset asked themselves. The acreage was too small for a cattle farm, and the barn could stable only a couple of horses. Something was needed to make the farm self-sufficient.

As they researched agritourism opportunities, alpacas seemed like the ideal solution. They purchased their first alpacas from farms in Colorado, getting a deal on animals that would arrive in stages, including two pregnant females and two young males.

Other alpacas came from a farmer in Gregory who once had lived in Colorado. An additional 10 were purchased, mostly experienced mothers age 10 or 11.

Because alpacas can get pregnant at any time, the females and males are kept apart. Female alpacas have a gestation time of about 11 months, and they deliver without any assistance, Mosset said. He has come out to the barn in the morning only to discover the crias, or newborn alpacas, have arrived without notice.

“Most of them are born before noon,” he said. “The mothers have a little bit of say in it.”

That’s only a fraction of the knowledge he has learned while overseeing the alpacas and acting as his wife’s full-time caregiver. He had family members in northwest South Dakota and southwest North Dakota who raised beef and hogs and planted wheat and oats, and those visits had left him with a desire for his own acreage.

Laura Mosset had another vision in mind, too, one that Hallmark would approve. At one point, she explored purchasing a Christmas tree farm.

There still is some Christmas in the Red Truck Alpaca Farm store and gift shop, located in the former art studio. Alpaca-themed Christmas decorations fill several shelves, along with items such as socks, scarves, stuffed animals, glassware, baby booties and yarn. The Mossets also set up a small refreshment station for hungry and thirsty visitors. As attendance increases, they plan to add offerings such as soft-serve ice cream, homemade waffle cones and freshly baked cookies.

Looking to the future also means timing the arrival of new crias for spring 2025 so visitors can see the alpacas at a variety of ages.

Some of the Red Truck store items will contain fleece from the Mossets’ herd. The traveling alpaca shearer stopped by several weeks ago, and thick fleeces fill plastic bags or are drying on long tables.

It can take up to a year for sheared fleeces to return in a usable form, Mosset said. He is fortunate because Maker’s Way Fiber Mill opened several years ago, also in Brandon, and Mosset can deliver the fleece there.

The fleece is carefully labeled, so matches with the alpaca donors can be made in later years. Alpacas come in colors such as black to silver and rose gray and white, from mahogany brown to light fawn and champagne. Some of the Mossets’ alpacas have sharply outlined dark spots and rings that resemble raccoons.

The wool is strong but fluffy and soft, Mosset said. The hollow fibers are softer than cashmere, he said, and warmer than wool. The fibers naturally wick water away from a person’s body.

Without annual shearing, the fleece would continue to grow. Because alpacas are used to the cooler weather of Peru, it is essential that in South Dakota’s humid summers they don’t overheat.

Content among each other — when not jockeying for top place in the pecking order — alpacas fill the air with soft humming sounds. While they can kick, their padded feet won’t do much damage, and they have only a few teeth on their lower jaw.

That does not mean insurance companies leapt at the chance to offer Red Truck Alpaca Farm liability coverage, Mosset noted.

And yes, they spit, but only at each other in pecking-order disputes. It is just sometimes a case of being caught in the crossfire, Mosset said.

He plans to be creative with making the alpaca farm self-sustaining. The coarser wool, which is unsuitable for garments, will end up in small holders that can be hung outside. Birds can pull the fibers out and use them to line their nests.

Even the animals’ manure may end up in bags as a rich fertilizer for home gardens.

If you go

Red Truck Alpaca Farm is open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. If demand is great enough, it will open on some weekdays. Individual visits also can be scheduled by calling 952-500-2568.