Jan Pressler is the farm manager at Marlee Farm Alpacas. She was smitten with alpacas about four years ago, and now along with managing a herd of over sixty animals for Barry Meinerth, the owner of Marlee Farm, she also owns her own small herd of five alpacas that she agists at the farm. Jan graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Business and a minor in Animal Science. She had always wanted to be a vet, but soon realized that her allergies to short-haired animals would make that dream very difficult. She has had the great pleasure to have a number of different opportunities, challenges and experiences in her career. Prior to working with alpacas, she worked with sheep, horses, beef cattle, and many different types of poultry. She has also worked in retail management, process engineering, manufacturing production control, manufacturing consulting, been the director of a non-profit organization, and most recently, owned and operated her own quintessential Vermont Country store. She also spends a great deal of time pursuing her hobby of photography and finds the alpacas and their antics, to be wonderful subjects.
Her love and appreciation of alpacas continues to grow daily and she is dedicated to learning how to treat the animals in her care with respect, safety and efficiency. To this end, she studies yearly with Marty McGee Bennett, who has been training llamas and alpacas with respect and results for many years. Jan earned the Camelidynamics Handler Seal last year and is currently pursuing the Camelidynamics Practitioner program under Marty’s training.
When Jan is asked about what she does, she often responds, “I am extremely lucky to work here at Marlee Farm Alpacas, not many people are lucky enough to spend so much time with these wonderful animals. There are some days that I loose whole blocks of time, just stopping to watch them. They are so naturally curious and intelligent, but most of all, they make me smile, and I think they love to have fun as much as I do!”