Tierra Bonita Alpacas is located on a beautiful 12-acre farm in Columbia, Tennessee...an hour south of Nashville, on the southern area of the Highland Rim, and is home to the Rehker family - Michael, Marion and their little boy, Nash, along with Michael's mother, Dee. It is also home to a stunning herd of truly incredible alpacas. Our intrigue and fascination with alpacas officially began in August 2006, while watching an episode of "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel, entitled Alpaca Shearer. Michael knew what alpacas were, since he is originally from Ohio (aka "Little Peru") and had seen many alpaca farms on his road trips to and from visiting family there. But his strong interest in these animals didn't begin until he started thinking about wanting to buy and run a family farm of his own. Michael always had a love for animals, and had wanted to live on a farm for as long as he could remember. He knew he wanted a livestock species that would be profitable as well as enjoyable to raise. So after much consideration and conversations with his wife, Marion and parents, Tom and Dee, he decided to take this intriguing animal venture a step further. Marion and Michael visited several alpaca farms and talked to many alpaca breeders about raising these magnificent animals. On our first visit to an alpaca farm, we immediately fell in love with these fascinating animals.

Over a year was spent researching and reading all we could find about alpacas and what it took to breed them successfully...as well as participating in many online webinars, and even attending a few hands on herd health management clinics, as well as a very informative neonatal clinic too. The research and conversations continued while we were looking for just the right alpacas to purchase to become our foundation herd. We were fortunate enough to have won our very first alpaca, a full Peruvian herdisre named Shenanigan, in a contest that we entered online. This awesome herdsire officially started us on our way to purchasing several other alpacas, thus becoming bona fide alpaca owners and breeders!

As of May 2010, we have moved to our new farm and have been constantly hard at work in preparing our place to be suitable for alpacas. Building a barn and shelters, erecting new fences, installing water and electricity to the barn, seeding and fertilizing pastures and clearing brush and excess trees are just a few of the many things we've been doing around the farm the last several months...staying busy is easy to do around here. It's hard work, but with amazing dividends and a feeling of true satisfaction.

Our alpacas love their new place! And we are thrilled to finally have them back home with us. We are hands on everyday to ensure that each one receives the care and attention that they deserve so that our herd remains healthy and happy. We love spending time with our alpacas. They are fascinating animals, each with their own personality.

We are constantly learning new things and techniques all the time. Our farm philosophy is to provide a safe, nurturing environment for the alpacas and take our cues from them. Getting to know each animal's personality, we find that their behaviors tell us what their needs are. Nothing is better than watching the alpacas grazing the lush pastures or watching the crias pronk around while playing with each other. The Rehker's are proud to have developed a well-established herd of extremely fine and dense alpacas in a wide range of colors, available for sale in Columbia, Tennessee. We are constantly hard at work developing a well-diversified breeding program and herd that allows for some outstanding results and possibilities. We love sharing our passion and knowledge of alpacas with others, and invite you to call or email us for a farm tour.