116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Prairie Patch Farm llamas become destination through TikTok videos
How long necks in costumes are more than a pretty face
Oct. 6, 2023 10:08 am, Updated: Oct. 6, 2023 1:48 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — Since childhood, there are three things that have brought Kahle Atherton-Boutte joy in life: her late uncle’s acreage near Shueyville, her sense of creativity and llamas.
For most of her life, those three things were separate — until Prairie Patch Farm.
After buying her uncle’s land and getting two llamas as pets in early 2019, the new mother and fairly new Iowa resident was at a crossroads in life. She knew she wanted to share with the public the land near Shueyville that she had made so many treasured memories on — holding cats on the porch, rowing a boat in the pond, foraging for mushrooms or watching pheasants fly through the prairie as she rode ATVs.
More than 10 years after her uncle Steve Atherton died in 2008, the question for the former music therapist was how.
If you go
From yoga and hikes to Llama-grams and retreats, there’s plenty to do with the herd at Prairie Patch Farm. For more info, visit prairiepatchfarm.com.
Want to hike with the llamas? You’ll have to book months in advance, as hikes sell out quickly after opening.
“I think there was a real drive in me … to keep his name alive, to keep saying his name, to keep remembering all the amazing work he did in conservation for the state of Iowa,” Atherton-Boutte said. “I wanted to memorialize him in a way that was personal for us.”
After listing the wildlife preserve’s cottage on Airbnb and llama hikes on Airbnb Experiences in late 2019, her desire to help others was rebirthed through the herd of what’s grown to 10 llamas and one alpaca — plus a handful of goats and cats on the side.
Then came some business challenges in her first year — most prominently, the disruptions of COVID-19. Outdoor activities turned out to be a blessing in disguise during the dark early days of social distancing. But after she got on TikTok in 2021, she tapped into potential that has taken the farm to new heights.
Harnessing a new power
Now with 119,000 followers and millions of hits, the business has found new life thanks to a blue tutu and a blonde clip-on hair braid. After some casual fun posting videos of llamas dressed for Halloween and Christmas, she branched out with her content.
Earl the llama dressed up as Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen” in a quick video set to Idina Menzel’s song “Let it Go” in December 2021.
As Atherton-Boutte got more acquainted with the power of TikTok, she found that the viral video wasn’t a one-off in the algorithm. As the costumes became more elaborate, so did the llamas’ relationships with viewers across the country racking up millions of views.
She didn’t use TikTok as a business tool — just pure, feel-good content in a world of pervasive gloom and doom. Like her former job in music therapy working with prisoners, it was simply a way for her to bring joy to a dark world.
Despite her aversion to new social media, the 39-year-old was driven to interject happiness.
“If something I can do on a virtual app is making a difference for people who can’t physically be here among these healing animals, then of course I’m going to do it,” Atherton-Boutte said. “I feel a responsibility to put more good in the world.”
Becoming a destination
Before long, Prairie Patch Farm went from a local attraction for Iowans to a bona fide destination for viewers, drawing visitors from several states away. The farm has been featured in People magazine, travel blogs, specialty publications and Access Hollywood with Mario Lopez.
Did you know?
There’s more to llamas than long necks and spitting. Here are some fun facts about the herd at Prairie Patch Farm:
– Related to the camel, they have two toes with toenails on each foot, not hooves.
– Their most common sound is a hum.
– They don’t spit on humans, but often spit on each other when they have conflicts over food, personal space or dominance.
– They share a communal bathroom instinctively with their herd.
– They ride in the back of a minivan, not a trailer.
– Their fiber is hypoallergenic.
Atherton-Boutte said it’s reached countless audiences who have told her how the light of some silly videos have helped them in dark times. Now the joy she put out into the world has boomeranged with a return on investment.
Visitors come for the magical, empathic aura of the llamas, who visitors say they can feel peer in their souls. Their handler credits that to the animal’s storied development over thousands of years, helping South Americans as companions and pack animals that provided milk and fiber for survival.
Llama liaisons
Now, they are a key to providing a similar glimpse into the past: Iowa’s prairie history before large-scale agriculture.
With trails meandering through oak trees and native prairie grass on 49 acres of rolling hills, Prairie Patch Farm looks the way Iowa did before it was cleared en mass for corn and soybean farming. The former farmland, restored by Steve Atherton over about 20 years, reflects the passion for conservation its former owner championed throughout his life with the Department of Natural Resources and his tenure as a professor at Kirkwood Community College.
Today, the trees and vegetation he planted have taken on new maturity as the land comes into its own with newfound purpose — sparking the same passion for ecology and conservation that he passed on to his niece. Its largest population, a herd of long furry necks, are simply a liaison to help them discover the environment of a bygone era.
“But people are getting to experience going out into what Iowa used to look like before mass agriculture, with a llama beside them,” Atherton-Boutte said. “It brings a different layer of magic and a responsibility.”
For visitors, it’s a reminder to recognize what humans do to the land and how they can preserve it for the next generation. For the land’s owner, Prairie Patch Farm is new chapter with a welcome change of pace.
“I went from the music lady to the llama lady, and I totally consider that a promotion,” she said.
Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com
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