To Shear or Not To Shear That is the Gurzornensplatz

With apologies to Steve Allen whether to shear or not isn't up for discussion. Alpaca's fiber needs to be sheared annually or the Alpaca's health will deteriorate. Can you imagine wearing a fur coat during the middle of the summer. Well Alpacas don't want to either. So the question is actually when do you shear.

It's about the end of April and we sheared our Alpacas a week and a half ago. Depending on where you live in the US shearing can begin as early as March. Here in central Virginia we generally shear in mid April. However, this year two of the alpacas that had been sold to a breeder in New York kept their fleece as they were going to be shipped north and the breeder still had snow on the ground! The season here will run through mid-May.

Don't get up Buddy, they'll make you look like that Dweeb behind us.

Shearing day is pay-day for Alpaca farmers. Good alpaca fiber can realize prices close to $50 a pound. On the average an Alpaca will provide three to five pounds of fiber. Unless you have a huge herd you're not going to get rich but with proper breeding and genetics you can get top dollar for your fiber.

Alpaca shearers work hard for their money and generally prefer to shear as many alpacas at one time as possible. So shearing day is sort of like a barn raising used to be back in the day. At our shearing four different farms got together and brought their alpacas to Ashland Alpacas in Ashland, Virginia. Every one pitches in and lends a hand. Some folks worked as Alpaca wranglers and were responsible for getting the alpacas haltered, brought up to the barn and staged for their shearing. Others were responsible for accurately tagging the bags of fleece after the animals were shorn. Still others helped in the shearing area collecting fiber, bagging and clean-up after each shearing. We sheared twenty four alpacas in about four hours. That's one Alpaca every ten minutes, not including a short break to give the shearers time to work the kinks out of their knees and backs since they spend most of the time down on the barn floor. After the shearing everyone sat around and ate potluck that people had brought. Only thing missing was the moonshine!

Most shearers have some rules to follow to make things easier and faster. The first rule is that the animals need to be penned up and ready. Alpaca shearers don't get paid to chase your alpacas around the pasture. In fact if you don't have them penned and ready the shearer is likely to get back in their vehicle and move on to the next farm. The second rule is the alpacas must be clean and dry. Clean doesn't mean spotless but the more large vegetable matter (VM) you can get off before shearing the better off you will be. VM dulls the shears and makes skirting (cleaning after shearing in preparation for milling) that much harder. We use a regular leaf blower to get rid of the VM. The third rule is the shearing must be done in the shade. If you have a barn area that's perfect but you can shear outside under the shade of a tree. If you do shear outside make sure the you place a large tarp on the ground to make bagging easier.


Blowing off VM

 



The shearers will also trim your alpaca hooves and their teeth if needed. This is generally included in the price for shearing although you should check with the shearer when scheduling to make sure there are no last minute surprises.

 

The shearers begin by shearing the blanket which is the fleece on the back, shoulder and flanks of the animal. This is called the first cut. They then shear the legs and neck which are called seconds. These are both bagged separately in large clear plastic bags and labeled with the Alpaca's name and which cut it is. The third cut is taken from the face, top-knot and fetlocks. Some farmers discard this third cut as trash, however, some keep the third cut and sell it to mills to make felt products such as insoles for shoes, and felt rag rugs. The first cut or blanket is the best fiber and is milled to create the best yarns used in clothing such as scarves, jackets, gloves and hats. The second cut is primarily used to make yarn for socks, mittens and other accessories.

Shearing the blanket

Shearing the neck



 After shearing what do you do with all that fleece? Well the first thing that needs to be done is called skirting. Skirting is the process where the blanket is laid out on a large table. The table top is made of wire mesh. You gently shake and lift the blanket to remove as much VM and dust as possible. Then you carefully skirt remove (pull from the blanket) sections of fleece that is different in quality from the blanket (muddy, urine stained, course guard hairs,). Once you have skirted your fleece then most mills will accept it for processing. One of the largest processors is the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America, AFCNA. As a member you can receive payment for your fiber based on the quality and quantity of fleece. You can also purchase semi-finished (yarn) and finished goods (clothing) from the co-op at wholesale prices to retail from your farm store.

Before Shearing

After Shearing

 Shearing day is a lot of fun and camaraderie but it's also a lot of hard work. And it must be done whether your selling the fleece or not. If you're interested in learning more about shearing feel free to contact an Alpaca farmer in your area. Many farms use shearing day as a kind of open house to showcase their animals and the products they provide and educate the public about the raising and care of Alpacas.

 



Buying Bad

No offense intended to Breaking Bad but in the Alpaca business buying bad can be just as dangerous as well as expensive.

A friend of mine recently contacted me to tell me that she was planning a move to Oregon and wanted to buy some alpacas. The phrase that caught my eye was her grand children thought they were so "cute".

I've known more than one alpaca farmer that bought on emotion rather than on good common horse sense or should I say "Alpaca Sense".

Buying on emotion is almost always a sure case for disaster. I'm not saying that emotion shouldn't enter into the transaction. Let's face it, emotion enters into almost every transaction we are involved in whether it's buying a new car, a house, a diamond ring, art work, you name it. Emotion is always in the mix.

But you wouldn't buy a diamond ring with a huge flaw simply because you fell in love with the cut or the size or the color. You wouldn't buy a house with a defective plumbing system simply because you loved the neighborhood or the front yard or the old claw foot tub in the bathroom. And if you did buy these things you would surely be looking for a steep discount off the asking price. Maybe no one would notice the flaw in the diamond and maybe you could spend ten thousand or so to fix the plumbing system but it's a little different when you are buying alpacas or for that matter any livestock.

My wife and I were fortunate in that we came from an agriculture background and both of us had lots of experience working with animals. The first key to buying any animal is conformation. For those of you new to livestock, conformation, very simply, is what the animal looks like. A horse with a sway back isn't a good buy. If an animals ribs show prominently that isn't a good buy. If there is mucus running out of the eye or nose that is not a good buy. These are fairly easy to detect but conformation extends beyond what is readily visible. With Alpacas we look for how the animal stands and walks. We feel the animals bone structure (this requires some experience with alpacas since their "cute" fleece can hide bone defects), check their eyes, particularly the white of the eyes. Look at their teeth and mouth, check their fecal matter (another matter that requires some experience), and if possible any health records the seller has available. Some buyers even go to the expense of having a vet check the animal for problems (something I recommend unless you and the seller have a long standing relationship).

The second key to buying an animal is what do you plan to do with the animal. Are you going to show the animal in halter classes, show their fleece, breed them to animals in your herd only or offer breeding to other farmers? Or are they just going to be a hobby and provide fun and delight for you and your family?

Each one of these plans will require a certain amount of due diligence on your part to make sure the animal you are buying is suited to the task. One of the first animals we bought was an old neutered male. We weren't going to show him and he doesn't have the best fleece but he has a personality and we thought he might make a good PR animal. He's pretty good with people so we thought he might be a good one to take to farmers markets to let the kids pet and feed. We knew in advance what we wanted to do with Paladin (above) and that figured into the negotiations.

However, I've seen alpaca farmers buy on emotion and what the seller (horse trader) told them without seemingly any investigation at all. As an example, early on in our alpaca venture, even before we had purchased any alpacas, we attended a show to get an idea about what alpaca shows were all about. My wife was visiting with a well known and respected alpaca breeder when the breeder was asked to come look at an animal a farmer had just purchased a few weeks before the show. Apparently he had been told that he had a "show quality" animal and was very dismayed since the alpaca had not even placed in the event he entered it in. I was wandering around the show and happened to come upon my wife and the breeder examining the animal. I was probably fifty or sixty feet away when I first noticed them and my first thought was "Oh, I wonder what's wrong with that poor little Alpaca?" Even from that distance I could immediately tell that the animal was extremely small, looked somewhat ragged and just generally didn't have the "conformation" of a healthy animal. Later, the breeder confirmed that this farmer had unfortunately been the victim of an unscrupulous seller and had bought the proverbial "pig in a poke". They bought the sellers pitch hook, line and sinker. Having an experienced breeder examine the animal after the fact only added to the misery when the farmer was told what he didn't want to hear.

So what's the take-away here. Do your homework. Examine the animal. Take what the seller says with a grain of salt. Get an expert in to examine the alpaca BEFORE you spend that hard earned money.

Alpaca Shows

One of the highlights of owning alpacas is the opportunity to show them. There are hundreds of shows across the country where you can show your alpacas and their fleece. Two of the best are celebrated right here in Virginia each year.

The first and one of the earliest each year is the Virginia Classic Llama and Alpaca show held for the past several years at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA. The show is usually held in early March which can mean some cold and sometimes unpredictable weather. This year was to be their twenty-first annual show but they had to cancel the show at the very last minute due to the nasty storm that hit Virginia late last week. It looks like they will probably re-schedule the show but no one is sure right now. We have attended and shown animals at this show and it is one of the best run shows around. The show is a Level II alpaca show. This means that you can expect somewhere between 100 and 299 animals being shown. As indicated by the name it is a joint Llama and Alpaca show.  So not only will there be a couple hundred alpacas attending but you also get to see and experience several hundred Llamas.

The other show we have attended and shown alpacas at is the annual VAOBA Alpaca EXPO. VAOBA is the acronym for the Virginia Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. VAOBA was formed in 2005 to assist the hundreds of Alpaca farms in the state of Virginia with marketing and education about all things alpaca. They held their ninth annual show in December 2014 at a new location, The Meadow Event Park in Doswell, VA. We showed two of our yearling males and came away with several ribbons for fleece and halter classes.

Winning ribbons isn’t the only benefit you derive from showing your animals. We were excited and happy to have come away with some ribbons. But we got so much more out of the show just observing the judging, listening to the judge’s comments after each class, meeting and talking with other alpaca owners and breeders, and attending some of the seminars that are available. It’s really amazing what you can learn from one of these shows. For anyone considering owning and raising alpacas I would emphatically recommend that they attend at least one alpaca show before diving in and starting your farm. Attendance at almost every Alpaca show is free to the general public. In addition to meeting Alpaca owners and farmers you can also meet many alpaca product vendors, such as spinners, knitters, and farm product vendors. All of them will be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions. And I suggest you ask a lot of questions. An alpaca show brings together hundreds of people with a vast range of experience. Most of them have had the opportunity of learning by doing so they can relate the mistakes and errors they made before you go out and make them yourself.

Showing alpacas can be a fairly expensive proposition. In addition to the entry fee (Halter Fee) there are generally fees for stalls and fees to enter the fleece also. Besides the show fees you will probably incur expenses for vet fees for providing a CVI (Certificate of Veterinary Inspection) health certificate, hay and feed, transportation, motel/hotel, dining out, and assorted costs you would incur on any trip. The cost for a trailer to haul alpacas in is something you will have to consider before you even begin to show. Some folks will tell you that you can transport an alpaca in a utility van or regular passenger van. And I’ve actually met folks that did that. But it was usually a situation where they absolutely had to move the animal from point A to point B and had no other means of moving them. You would be hard pressed to bring a couple of Alpacas along with all their feed and tack to a show in a Dodge or Chrysler Town & Country passenger van.

Why Alpacas

Good Question!

Why Alpacas?

There are probably hundreds of reasons. They're cute. Their fiber has many wonderful qualities. They're relatively easy to care for. You can make big money.

You can make big money? Well that depends. Yes, there are breeders out there that make big money. But like any thing else you have to work real hard.

When we began looking into Alpacas a lot of the sellers we talked to at the time were touting the fantastic tax benefits and the huge market for Alpacas. And of course they all had animals for sale and at some pretty astonishing prices. But if you are getting into the Alpaca industry because you believe there is big money to be made quickly you are in for a real big disappointment.

To make the big money you have to spend some big money. Unless you are a high earner in the mid six figure range or you've just won the lottery you won't be making big money anytime soon. What you will be doing is spending some money. I'm not going to say it's big money but you have to be prepared to "invest" in the business. The old saw "It takes money to make money" is very applicable when it comes to Alpaca farming or any other venture for that matter. If you don't invest the money and time ( I'll write more about the time you will have to invest later) you won't make any money.

Now that's fine for some folks. For them Alpaca farming is more of a hobby. And the IRS will treat it like a hobby if you cannot prove that you actively participate in the operation of your farm (more on that later too). But if you want to become a viable Alpaca farming operation it is going to take a fairly large investment to become operational.

When we began we had a plan (a business plan is essential to any venture including Alpaca farming) but as most everyone knows the best laid plans of mice and men... Anyway, our plan has changed several times over the few years we have been Alpaca farmers. But the plan should include a reasonable estimate of the expenses you will incur owning and operating an Alpaca farm.

Before you even consider purchasing alpacas you should invest in many things. First and foremost would be property. You can raise alpacas in your back yard if the zoning allowed it but an alpaca generally needs at least one tenth to one fifth of an acre. Given that, you can raise a herd of five to ten alpacas on one acre of land. In our area of Virginia that acre would cost you around $10,000. Most farms are at least four acres so with a house and four acres now you're looking at between $140,000 and $200,000 in this part of Virginia.

Then you will need to have a fence. The material cost for fencing on our four acres ran a little over $6,500. That probably seems a bit high but you are not just fencing the perimeter of the property. You need separate areas for your females and males. You'll need another fenced area for your new mothers and their crias until they are weaned. And it wouldn't hurt to have a quarantine area fenced off for when you bring a new alpaca to the farm and want to make sure they are healthy before introducing them to the herd. A short word about the fencing before I go on; the fence isn't really to keep the alpacas in, they are by nature herd animals and if one gets outside of the fence they rarely if ever wander away. The fence, especially the perimeter, is to protect the Alpacas from predators, in particular, canines. Dogs are the alpacas most natural predator and you need a sturdy and, I recommend, electrified perimeter fence to prevent predators gaining entry.

Your next expense would be for shelter. Alpacas require approximately twenty to thirty square feet of space in their shelter. A simple three sided run in or lean-to will suffice but you will need at least one per pasture so your males, females and mothers and crias all have shelter. You will also need some kind of a building/barn for storing tack, your scale (it's important to have an adequate scale for weighing your alpacas), veterinary supplies and feed. A shelter/hay barn is also recommended but in a pinch you can jerry-rig some pallets and a large tarp to protect the hay. Shelters can be pre-fabricated or site built and be as simple as one of those steel frame carports (modified of course) or as elaborate as you can afford.

So where are we on the expenses so far. Lets take a look. I'll be optimistic and err on the conservative side because that is what most folks will do anyway.

Property: House on four acres $140,000
Fence material: $6,500
Fence labor: I can do it myself (yeah, sure you can)
Shelter: Three Shelter Logic Vinyl Run-ins @ $280 = $840
Tack Room: Pre-fab metal shed 8' x 10' $429
Hay Barn: Jerry-rigged pallets and tarp $200
Alpacas: That all depends on negotiations

OK you already own the property. You still need almost $8,000 before you even buy your first Alpaca. And this doesn't even cover things like feed pails, water buckets, hay feeders, Alpaca poop rakes, (yes they do make Alpaca poop rakes), a scale, halters, leads, vet supplies, and a host of other incidentals you will discover you need.

I'm not trying to discourage people from entering the Alpaca farming business. What I'm trying to do is present as realistic a picture as I can about the necessary (and I do mean necessary) expenses involved in getting an alpaca farm up and running. Alpaca farming is like any other business. It's hard work and it can be expensive, especially the initial outlay. As I mentioned in my first blog, the only real return on investment for an Alpaca farmer is the alpaca fiber. Yes, money can be made from breeding and selling Alpacas but that doesn't build a viable model. The very nature of farming is to produce a product. In Alpaca farming the product is fiber. Anything else is just a big Ponzi scheme because the breeding and sales of alpacas relies on a continuing supply of people willing to purchase alpacas. Eventually the market hits a peak as it did in the middle of the first decade of the 2000's and the customer base dries up. What's left is the true alpaca farmer trying to develop the breed to produce a quality product that can be sold world-wide and is in constant demand.

An Alpaca Blog; Who Knew?

OK I'll admit it. I didn't know that there were so many Alpaca blogs out there. There are alpaca farm blogs, alpaca knitting blogs, alpaca care blogs, alpaca whispering blogs, alpaca picture blogs, alpaca organization blogs, alpaca blogs from all over the world. Google "Alpaca Blogs" and you get 708,000 results. The top two are Debbie's Alpaca Blog in Otterburn, Northumberland, England and Alpaca Overview in Bozeman, Montana, USA. Both of them are outgrowths of rather large Alpaca farms. At least from my viewpoint. Anyone running a herd larger than 25 should be considered a large farm but these folks run hundreds of animals. Rather large seems almost an understatement.

So why does the world need another Alpaca blog? Well a lot of people would say it doesn't. But after four years of trying to educate ourselves about raising Alpacas we discovered that there were limits to almost every website, book and farm owner we consulted. Each author/farmer has their own opinions about raising Alpaca's, some good, some bad, some helpful and some not so helpful. Some people's strong suit is genetics, some are strong in care and feeding, some have strengths in veterinary practices, some know everything there is to know about shearing, fiber milling, weaving and knitting. I'm not saying that this blog will answer every alpaca question with the correct and most proper answer but I will try and provide the best acceptable and most up to date practice when it comes to raising, caring and breeding alpacas. In addition I'll try and be as honest as I can about our experiences, both good and bad, in the Alpaca industry.

We began our search for information on Alpacas quite by accident. Andrea, my dear bride, and I both came from the rural part of the Central Valley in California. I was raised on a working farm and Andrea while not a "farm girl" was an accomplished equestrian at a very early age. We both had experience with livestock and as our retirement years approached we began to look for something that would get us back to our roots. We tossed around ideas about raising vegetables or fruit, even considered mushrooms. But we both loved animals and as I kept steering the conversation back to animals it became quite clear that, while I had raised two pigs that I named Lunch and Dinner, Andrea wasn't about to go for that type of farm. In late summer of 2010 we were at a farmers market in Goochland, Virginia looking for fresh vegetables for the week ahead. As we rounded a booth we came upon a wonderful sight. There in a small pen was an Alpaca and her baby, or cria as we later learned. While I have to  admit they were too cute for color TV Andrea fell in love.

The next several months were spent visiting various farms, farmer markets, and anywhere else we could find alpacas being displayed. We talked with alpaca farmers, read books, checked out websites and tried to find out as much as we could about Alpacas. Unfortunately at that time, the Alpaca industry was riding high and mighty. It seemed like everyone we talked to wanted to sell us an alpaca. and it wasn't a soft-sell. It was the used car dealers sell, the standard question being "What can I do to put you into an Alpaca today?" And back then while the recession was just starting it apparently hadn't had any impact on the Alpaca industry. We could not find a decent alpaca or even a not so decent one for less than $10,000 US. And for those of you new to the Alpaca business you can't buy just one Alpaca. They are herd animals and a single Alpaca will pine away for company and eventually die. So it looked like the Alpaca business wasn't for us.

But every cloud carries a silver lining! In 2012 we were still interested and I began to wonder if the recession had any impact on the Alpaca industry. We were in Hanover, VA at the annual Hanover Tomato Festival on a scorching July day when we happened upon a lady selling Alpaca products. We talked with her at length and she invited us to visit her farm. We took her up on the invitation and met with her several times. We went to the VAOBA (Virginia Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association) show that winter and finally decided that we should talk to her about buying some animals. Up until then she had never even mentioned purchasing her animals. Well to make a long story short we now have an eight animal herd with another cria due next April/May and we did it for under $10,000.

Yes, there are still $10,000 animals out there, even more expensive. But you can get into this business with good quality animals at a reasonable cost. The days of $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 animals may come back but that shouldn't be the goal for the industry. The goal should be raising quality fiber animals and the outlook for the industry should be the long range development of the breed. The fast talking, high flying, breeder is still out there but for someone to invest that kind of money in Alpacas when the only real commodity available to the Alpaca farmer is their fiber is bordering on the insane. Those prices were for the ultra-rich looking for a tax break. If you calculate the ROI those prices just don't make any sense. Alpaca raising isn't about a get rich quick scheme or even about a tax break deal. It's about developing an ecologically friendly industry with a valuable product that can be harvested annually and provide a farmer with a reasonable income.