About TopKnot Care: Professional Alpaca Shearing & Herd Care
MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Pete Hofmann
Pete oversees standards,
routing structure,
crew training, and long-term growth.
His focus is simple:
Build a system livestock owners can rely on.
Heidi
Heidi runs scheduling,
client communication,
and backend systems.
If your farm is on the calendar,
it’s because she built the route.
Team Leaders
TopKnot Team Leaders manage individual routes and are responsible for:
Work Hard. Travel Far. Grow as a Man.
TopKnot Care offers more than a seasonal job. It is an opportunity for men to work hard, travel the country, serve alpaca owners, and become part of a close-knit crew. Through demanding work, real responsibility, and strong mentorship, we help young men develop the honesty, integrity, discipline, and work ethic they need to succeed in their careers, families, and communities.
Our Experience
Shearing Foundations
Pete Hofmann began shearing sheep at 15 under his father, a competitive sheep shearer who represented the United States internationally. The work was seasonal and required technical consistency.
At 18, Pete began shearing alpacas to make some money while attending college. What began as a way to generate some cash during school developed into regular spring travel across multiple states.
Over time, he worked with a wide range of farms and herd sizes, gaining direct experience in the operational side of alpaca care.
TopKnot Begins
TopKnot began in 2009 as a mobile alpaca shearing operation. Pete and a small crew traveled during the spring season, travelling to farms across state lines.
As demand increased, additional services were incorporated into scheduled visits, including teeth trimming, toenail care, vaccinations, and deworming. These services were structured into a single organized appointment.
The business operated seasonally and continued expanding its routing footprint year over year.
Intentional Expansion
In 2019, after relocating to Montana, Pete began expanding TopKnot beyond a single-crew model.
The company added additional crews and introduced Team Leaders to manage defined routes. Structured seasonal routing was formalized. Biosecurity standards were standardized. Scheduling systems were clarified.
At peak scale, the company operated six crews across multiple states during the spring season.
This period marked the shift from individual crew travel to coordinated multi-route operations.
Operational Refinement
As the company grew, operational systems were tightened.
Scheduling was centralized through Heidi. Route planning became more deliberate. Equipment protocols were standardized across crews. Training expectations were clarified. Deposit and membership systems were introduced to improve route predictability.
The focus shifted from expansion to stability, profitability, and operational consistency.
A Routed Alpaca Care Company
Today, TopKnot operates as a structured, seasonal, multi-state alpaca care company.
Team Leaders manage defined regional routes. Crews operate with biosecure equipment. Spring and fall visits are planned in advance through centralized scheduling.
Thousands of alpacas are serviced annually through organized route planning.
The objective remains consistent:
Deliver organized, full-service alpaca care on schedule.
Why We Continue
TopKnot operates as a seasonal routing business built on structure and repeatability.
We are not reinventing the shearing industry.
We’re re-organizing it.
Defined routes. Higher standards. Clear scheduling.
That’s what allows the system to work year after year – and why farms continue to schedule with us season after season.
