“We’re back,” said Carol Millard, the llama show superintendent, who raises a herd of the animals in Ashford, Conn. During the Covid pandemic, she noted, lots of people retreated to the countryside and started small farms, where they found llamas to be charismatic and helpful additions. “They said, ‘I want to have some sheep or a couple of goats,’” she said, “‘and llamas are very well known to be good deterrents for predators, right?’”

Lately, the number of llamas in the Big E competition has been rising 10 percent a year, and growing numbers of spectators are in the market to buy. Carol Reigh, a breeder from Birdsboro, Pa., who brought nine of her 35 llamas to the show, said that there were “a lot more pet people.” And, she added, “there’s a huge, huge guard llama market.”

The animals were no small presence at this year’s fair, which is by far the biggest thing to hit West Springfield each year. On Oct. 1, it drew a record 170,000 visitors to a quiet town of 29,000 that lies across the Connecticut River from its better-known neighbor, Springfield, home to the Basketball Hall of Fame.