Middle Earth Origin and Philosophy

Middle Earth Llamas derives its name from the fairy tale trilogy "Lord of the Rings" written in the 1930s by J.R.R. Tolkien. We started in 1981 and were fortunate to acquire a male weanling who matured into a 46" stud with heavy medium wool. He was named Gandalf after a main character in the Tolkien masterpiece. At this point he is retired from packing but continues to be used as a stud. Without any Team or Mallon training this wonderful stud is completely desensitized, friendly and comes to you when a halter is displayed.

Over the years we have remained with North American bloodlines and have gradually increased the size of our dams. As Ferdinand Porsche once said there is no substitue for horsepower-- there is no substitute on the trail for a well built tall llama. Not being a livestock person it took me awhile to realize that to consistently produce well conformed taller stock, both stud and dam needed to be very tall. Currently our breeding stock is mostly 47-49" at the withers with excellent clearance and nice personalities. All would make great packers. All of our younger herd sires are out of well known super pack studs. A secondary goal of Middle Earth Llamas breeding program is to produce stock with nice coloring. We have had just a couple all white crias over the years.

You are invited to visit other locations on this site to see the breeding females, studs and packers, sale animals or investigate hiking with llamas and structural guidelines for pack llamas. We also have a llama leasing program.