# So what's the deal with alpaca?



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

I just don't get it. You have this animal that produces one shearing a year of luscious fiber. That's it.

You don't eat them, don't milk them, don't pack with them to not damage the fiber, they have an 11 month gestation (longer than all other livestock) and can't be bred till the age of two, roughly (twice as long as any other livestock except highlander cattle). 
The average price for these things is usually $4000-20,000 for a female and slightly less for a male. I don't get it. Am I missing something?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Fads can get overblown......

It all settles down eventually.
The fiber is nice, though.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

lonelyfarmgirl said:


> I just don't get it. You have this animal that produces one shearing a year of luscious fiber. That's it.
> 
> You don't eat them, don't milk them, don't pack with them to not damage the fiber, they have an 11 month gestation (longer than all other livestock) and can't be bred till the age of two, roughly (twice as long as any other livestock except highlander cattle).
> The average price for these things is usually $4000-20,000 for a female and slightly less for a male. I don't get it. Am I missing something?


You didn't miss anything except the investment potential that ended long ago. If you can't make enormous sums of money breeding and selling them to other investors, they're just another four legged animal that needs to be evaluated for their value as a source of meat, fiber or utility unless you're OK with a freeloader hanging out in your pasture.

If you really want to make money, figure out a way to import vicuna into the country. You can be at ground zero for the next animal fad with the best fiber yet.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

I looked up vicuna, and they can only be shorn once in 3 years! What a waste of feed. And they don't give that much fiber. 
So are alpaca worth having if you can get them dirt cheap? Anyone ever eat one or try to milk one?


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## glidergurl03 (Feb 28, 2005)

No, they don't give much fiber, but boy is it spendy lol. 

Alpaca are fiber and novelty animals lol. Granted, some people still get thousands for them, but the market has come way down, and you can generally find fiber animals for $200-500 now. I remember when you couldn't touch one under $15k. lol


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Alpacas can be nice pets, as well. The people I know who have them treat them as such and love them. One woman I know _gives_ away the premium top quality fleece because she doesn't spin or knit. I finally talked her into processing it and selling it to help pay for the hay. And, you can eat them, they do in South America. Not eating them, it's like thinking those of us with a fleece herd don't eat them. We do. But, I don't know anyone in the U.S. who eats them.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Wonder what they taste like.
Hehehehe, the 'alpaca upper crust' would be horrified.


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## jd4020 (Feb 24, 2005)

I have never been in the first wave of anything. lol I'm usually on the tail end of things at best. Maybe I'm an odd duck, but I don't look at animals as a way of making me money,.....as on depending on them to make a living. I see them as being a part of my life and we work together to meet our needs. If there are extra and someone is interested then I might sell but usually not. Don't know if that makes sense, but, I care for them and in return I get milk, cheese, butter, meat, eggs, feathers, down, hides/leather, wool & fiber, exercise, & companionship. 
The two alpaca males I bought for $100.00 a piece. The guy was going thru a divorce and just didn't want them anymore. He bought them as pets/non show quality. They are both 10 years old and in seemingly good health. I need to worm them along with my goats yet. I was a little surprised when my dh showed an actual interest in them. He puts up with all the critters I have dragged home but he doesn't like sheep at all. I have never even tried to cross that line so when he o.k.ed the alpacas....
well, here we are with the carding & spinning.
I like them. So far I like working with the fiber from them. If more come along at the same price, I will probably take them, but no, after learning all that I have learned about them, I really don't want to get into the breeding, showing etc. and all that. I don't mind caring for them and using their fiber, but I don't think I would eat them unless I had too. And the few breeders I have met have been very kind, helpful & knowledgeable.
Just sharing my experience thus far. 
God bless,
jd


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Best article I've found on this so far is here.

I'm with ya - any animal that cannot pay for it's own feed by it's own products (i.e. meat and fibre) except if you sell breeding stock is not worth owning as a business proposition, though it is absolutely fine if you want them for pets and lawnmowers and a fibre source (they are ADORABLE and they can be very friendly, and they do mow, and the fibre is nice...)


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

We got our alpacas for the same price as our sheep (cheaper than some of them actually), and I LOVE the fiber. They're cool animals, and I enjoy having them around, just like I enjoy having the sheep around. They all make me laugh every day :bouncy:


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

I was spinning at an alpaca show this past weekend, and an adorable and curious alpaca came up and actually kissed me while I sat at my wheel!

That right there could almost convince me to get one. Except of course that I have friends with them so I can always get fibre, and I already have sheep that I love.

Still, it was pretty awesome.


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## rootsandwings (Apr 20, 2004)

last night mine charged the critter sniffing around his fence (ok, it was a really big possum) drove it off, then rounded up his goats and brought them into the working pen under the barn light. It was pretty awesome. I'd never seen him in action before.

We do have coyotes, and they do come up to the fence (prints) and I have never had a goat attacked, so I assume he's working even when I don't see it. I have seen him go on point and growl at people's leashed dogs....

the chicken coop is inside the fence too, so no more raccoon break-ins since he arrived.

His poo goes straight on the garden or into tree planting holes (cool like rabbit poo)

and I get fiber.

But no, he wasn't $15,000! My dh would have me committed if I spent that kind of money on something that eats!


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## sheepish (Dec 9, 2006)

Eating alpacas is like eating rabbits. There is not a lot of our North American population that eats either, but it doesn't mean they don't taste good and aren't a good source of farm raised meat. City people especially thought (and some still think) that about lamb as well. They just see a cute critter and can't imagine how good that would be on their table.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

sheepish said:


> They just see a cute critter and can't imagine how good that would be on their table.


That's because they've never been gotten out of bed at some unearthly hour to chase the dang creatures back inside their fences! I always say "by the time they get to butchering size, they aren't cute anymore!"


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

They can be milked but they don't tend to give very much for very long. It also isn't very common.


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

I'll weigh in here. I bought my first alpacas about 15 years ago. The market was really good then so I think my alpacas paid for themselves with the sale of their offspring before the market fell. Right now you can get fiber gelded males for $50 or more. Breeding females, if you don't want registration papers can be purchased for $2,000 or more with breeding males without registrations for $500 or more. It's the registration papers and lineages etc that will still rack up the bucks. Since we started our family, we no longer go to the shows where marketing is easier, so even though we have registered breeding stock that have done very well in the show rings, their prices have been reduced significantly. But you won't get their registration papers at those prices. 

Pro's with alpacas? They're gentle creatures, even the males. My daughter used to play with them in their pasture and I never worried about her with them. They don't pull the grass up but instead chomp off the grass at ground level, so their pastures don't get torn up. They also don't have hooves to kick up divits. They're easy on fences. They don't push them over like our cows nor find an itty bitty hole and make it big enough to get through like our goats and pigs. They don't jump like our goats. They can't bite like a horse because they only have teeth on the bottom and a gum plate on the top, so the best they can do is give you a good pinch, unless you get your body part far enough in their mouth to reach their 'fighting' teeth or molars. The pads on their feet can't do much more than give you a bruise in the off chance you do get kicked. They don't charge like the bull or cows that are feeling their oats. They don't butt like our billy or ram. They halter train easily and can be led by children. They don't make a lot of noise unless doing their bugle allert. Their poo can be applied directly to plants without hurting/burning them. We shear ours once a year on a table, so no bending over like shearing our sheep. The fiber is wonderfully soft without the grease of sheep wool. People that are alergic to sheep wool may find they are not alergic to alpaca. People pay more for the alpaca fiber than they do for our wool. They're fun to watch in the pastures. Don't require any special diet other than broad grasses and a bit of grass hay. We feed ours pelleted food in the winter time to make sure they get their vitamins and minerals, but not necessary all year long. 

Con's: If they get fed too lush of a feed their fiber will 'blow' or get coarse. Sometimes if fed too well, their teeth will need to be trimmed as they don't wear down, much like a rabbits will if fed all pellets without something to knaw on. 

Ours still pay their way here because we sell their fiber or finished products with their fiber enough to pay for their keep. And we'll let you know about their taste as we'll be butchering one this spring once the fiber grows to the length we want. So we'll have meat and a pelt.


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

rootsandwings said:


> last night mine charged the critter sniffing around his fence (ok, it was a really big possum) drove it off, then rounded up his goats and brought them into the working pen under the barn light. It was pretty awesome. I'd never seen him in action before.


One of ours went after a friend's little Jack Russel, and it was something to see! If he wouldn't have left the pasture, he would have been trompled. That dog won't step foot in any of our pastures now :heh:


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Jo, I would definetly like to hear about how it is to eat.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

My llamas did that to my friend's Akita. She (the dog) was in the habit of chasing my horses around, never meant harm just fun to her. Then one day she came visiting. I think it had been about a year or more since she had been there. She ran out to the pasture to chase the horses and these new things, they looked fun too. Well the Llamas cornered her and started to trample her with their feet and legs. If she hadn't got up and out of there I'm not sure what would have happened.


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