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About Us
Located amongst the beautiful bluffs in southwestern Wisconsin,
Rolling Acres is home to Thomas (Tom) and Jody Coleman and their
five children. Rolling Acres sits on a picturesque 250 acre farm
in the middle of a quaint Amish community 20 scenic miles south of
LaCrosse, WI. The tillable acreage is maintained by an Amish
family using antique equipment and draft horses. In addition to
raising alpacas, Tom currently serves as a Navy Seal in the United
States Reserve Forces.
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Tom's fascination and research of alpacas started in 1994 which
lead to the first purchase of Suri alpacas in 1995. Our initial
females came from a wide variety of award winning bloodlines. Our
herdsires and many of their offspring have won numerous awards at
regional and national levels.
We are committed to the long-term growth of the alpaca industry and
look forward to the future success in the industry. We invite you
to share in this rewarding opportunity. We are members of the alpaca associations listed on this page.
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History
Tom was born and raised on a farm. His father had registered Morgan horses and beef cattle when Tom was a child and he and his father had traveled nation wide buying, selling and delivering National Champion Morgan horses. Raising animals was definitely a dream of his own. His dad knew he was looking for a farm and called him up and told him that he had found the perfect farm for him. It was 12 miles from where he was born and raised. The farm was purchased in 1992. The main buildings (house and dairy barn) were in good shape as they were built in1979. The original homestead in the back of the farm had deteriorated to just a old farm house. There was a lot of work to do to get the farm to a profitable working condition however the next step was determining what to do with a very valuable asset (dairy barn) that sat empty for years.
The big question was determining what type of livestock to raise that would be safe for the children to be around, easy to handle, and profitable to raise. Tom came across an article in the local farm paper talking about alpacas. After a conversation with the owner of those alpacas, he decided that alpacas would be a perfect fit. His dream was quickly becoming a reality. We bought 5 bred Suri females (two from Peru and three from Bolivia). Although his eighty year old father tried his best to convince him to raise other types of animals, Tom was not wavering in his decision to raise alpacas. His father lived long enough to see that his decision to raise alpacas would be a successful venture. That was a great feeling when his father admitted that these strange looking animals from Peru and Bolivia were really a excellent investment and family endeavor.
We remodeled the barn to accommodate alpacas. We fenced in paddocks so we could rotational graze the herd. We went to our first National AOBA Convention in1995 and continually learned as much as we could. We sold our first cria in the National AOBA auction in Columbus, OH and from there we have sold alpacas all over the United States. We have met a lot of acquaintances along the way and have really enjoyed our decision to raise alpacas.
Come see for yourself why we are excited about alpacas. Visitors are always welcome! Directions are available for those wishing to visit the farm.
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Copyright Rolling Acres Alpacas, All rights reserved 2006 |
enDev, LLC |
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