Services

Services offered by Glacial Ridge Alpacas

Agisting(boarding) Sales Stud Services Consulting

There are several ways to invest in alpacas. One of course is to raise alpacas on your own farm, but there are a couple of other options where you can board (called "agisting") your alpacas. Typically the agisting farm provides daily care and maintenance, health management. Care such as breeding, birthing and marketing your alpacas would be charged seperately and spelled out in contracts.. The advantages of agisting are several. One does not have the expense of building a barn and fencing etc. or have to provide daily care. One disadvantage is your alpacas are not in your back yard.

One can invest "passively" as you would any other financial investment, that is purchase alpacas that are bred, raised and marketed by the farm where they are boarded. With this method you do not participate in the day to day care of the animals. All or most of the decisions concerning herd management are left to the agisting farm. For Tax purposes the IRS considers the investor as "passive" and any tax deductions can only offset profits made in your alpaca business.

Then you have the "active" investment where you board your alpacas but play an active roll directly in all decision making processes. That is, you are actively involved in important decisions such as breeding, showing, sales and marketing. You must document your involvement via phone logs, e-mail, travel mileage etc. In this case the IRS considers you an active breeder and you are entitled to all of the tax deductions for expenses and depreciation with one great advantage. The deductions can offset earned income from any other source such as salaries and commissions.

We have several customers who agist their alpacas on our farm, both active and passive. We provide all of the daily care and maintenance, breeding, birthing, marketing and brokering where desired.

One thing you should be aware of tax wise is alpaca breeding stock purchased before the end of the year can qualify for the 179 deduction which is up to $105,000 for tax year 2006. This deduction can offset earned income from other sources and significantly reduce your federal (and in many cases state) tax liability. Always consult with your tax professional for tax advice..

How many alpacas should I start with? When should I buy my first. Should I start looking now or buying now and allow them to stay at a farm until I can be hands on in 3-5 years?

The answer to the last part is probably yes. Alpaca breeding allows for tax-deferred wealth building. An owner can purchase several alpacas and then allow the herd to grow over time without paying income tax on its increased size and value until he or she decides to sell an animal or sell the entire herd. Starting with just two females (one pregnant and one maiden) you can expect your herd to grow to about 13 alpacas (8 female and 5 males) at the end of five years assuming 50/50 male female births and no offspring sold or die during the period. Over a 10 year period with the added assumption of 80% live births your herd would grow to about 52. In my experience a >90% live birth rate is typical so this is a conservative number. Below is a one year cost comparison of raising alpacas on your property vs. agisting. Costs are rough estimates for comparison purposes only. Actual costs may be higher or lower.

	Your Farm	Agisting
Purchase of one pregnant female and one young female	46,000	46,000
Insurance on animals, one year	1,100	1,100
Equipment	1500	0
Barn, water, power, fences, etc.	20,000 +	0
One year's feed	600	0
Veterinarian, miscellaneous and reserve	1,100	1,100
Board	0	1,825
Total	$70,300	$50,025

As you can see the initial cash outlay is lower for agisting. One could use the money saved building barns and fences to purchase additional females and grow your herd faster, When you are ready to bring your alpacas to your property, you will have a well established breeding herd. Agisting is a per month charge that includes basic care for your alpaca, longer term contracts are also available. EMAIL US FOR MORE INFO ON AGISTING

alpacas bought from us are the ONLY alpacas that we agist here for short and/or long term contracts, multiple alpacas receive multiple discounts also. email us for more info...notjustyarns@tds.net

How does a person get involved in selling their fiber? Is there really a market for this?
There are several outlets for alpaca fiber and end products.

1. Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America (AFCNA) is our national co-op where one can send fiber for processing and receive credit or wholesale finished goods.
2. The New England Fiber Pool is a for profit company where one can send fiber for processing/exchange for finished goods
3. Cottage industry folks, hand spinners, weavers knitters etc. i can direct you to spinning guilds in your area.
4. Mini Mills. There are several small mills that process a single fleece for roving or finished yarn. we recommend certain mills and will find you a mill perfect for your needs.
5. Local knitters often available in most areas willing to knit sweaters etc. (for a fee of course, many will trade their services for fiber) .
6. Farm store where one can sell alpaca products to the public. or you can sell wholesale to other farms that have farm stores.
7. Craft shows, County Fairs, and fleece shows and other public events are all good outlets.

How much could one expect to earn yearly say if someone starts off with 3-4 alpacas? (The initial investment seems high-- Do most alpaca farmers get a good return on investment? (ROI)).

This is a difficult question to answer primarily because there are too many variables that can directly affect profitability. As in any business your level of effort, where-with-all and ability are all important. Generally, female offspring raised to breeding age and sold pregnant often sell for as much or more than you paid for the dam, especially since we will recommend using exceptional studs so that your herd improves even more with every generation.. Our main profit centers: we sell both breeding fiber quality alpacas; provide full service board and herd management; sell stud services to other alpaca breeders; provide brokerage services for our customers; sell raw fleece, yarn and finisher goods in our farm store. The Alpaca Breeders and Owners Association (aoba) analysis projects an annual return on investment of 27% during startup years with an increasing ROI later.

Factors that influence individual alpaca prices include color, conformation, fleece quality and quantity, age, and gender. Females sell for more money on average than males, but herd sire quality males have historically commanded the highest individual prices. Breeders often prefer one alpaca color to another, however the parents' color does not necessarily guarantee a cria of the same color. There are many accepted theories regarding alpaca color heritability, and more research is needed to further our understanding of this issue. Of more importance to most breeders is the overall physical soundness, or "conformation" of the animal. In addition to color, fleece, density, uniformity, fineness, luster and staple length will also affect value. Well-conformed alpacas with superior fleece characteristics sell for higher prices.

Many breeders start with several breeding age females and perhaps one male. Other new breeders may elect to start with several young animals or a breeding pair. There is an approach suitable for your level of interest and financial position. Alpacas are much like diamonds. The market pays a premium for the finest examples of the breed, and a beauty is also in the eye of the beholder.

Another benefit of owning alpacas relates to the concept of compounding. Savings accounts earn interest, which if left in the account, adds to the principal. The increased principal earns additional interest, thereby compounding the investor's return. Alpaca breeders also witness the effects of compounding over time. Alpacas reproduce almost every year, and about one-half of their babies are females. When you retain the off-spring in your herd, they begin producing babies. This is referred to as "alpaca compounding."

Tax-deferred wealth building is another "alpaca advantage". As your herd grows, you postpone paying income tax on its increasing value until such time as you begin selling the offspring. Most breeders elect to sell all or some of the annual offspring production for practical reasons, such as recovering their initial cash flow, acreage and building limitations, and time constraints.

Alpacas are also fully insurable against theft and mortality. Insurance can be purchased for your stock regardless of age. Average insurance rates are 3.25% of the value of the animal, or $325 for every $10,000 of insurance* info from www.alpacaowners.com

How do alpacas fit in your life?

First, determine your goals for alpaca ownership. Would you like to own an inexpensive pair of gelding males for fiber production or as pets for you and your family? Are you going to be a full-time or part-time breeder? Will you invest in alpacas for current financial returns or are you going to build a herd toward the goal of being a full-time breeder? Once you've decided on your goal, the path to alpaca ownership will be more easily defined.

If you're interested in acquiring a producing alpaca herd with immediate sales, you may want to consider a larger initial outlay. You would probably buy a number of pregnant females who would deliver a cash crop of crias immediately. This larger expenditure might also encourage you to become more involved in the industry and spend more time marketing your herd. Some breeders with larger herds have full-time ranch managers or hire additional labor to assist them with the day-to-day chores. However you choose to be involved, there is an "Alpaca Approach" suitable for you. The industry is young and innovative strategies abound. Very few assets have the potential to reproduce themselves every year as an alpaca does. Today's smaller breeder can choose to be almost any size in the future. An owner who likes the return alpacas offer, or the lifestyle they provide, can choose any level of ownership.

Sales-

please see our alpacas for sale page here... all our alpacas are sold with contracts and continued customer support and care

Stud Services-

we specialize in superior proven studs with nationally known bloodlines and numerous show ribbons, mobile breedings may be available (our place or yours, ask us!, to find out more about our studs click here.

Consulting-

We spent over 2 years and thousands of hours researching alpacas and alpaca ranching. Then another year and a half deciding which bloodlines and alpacas we wanted to buy for our own herd., then 2 more years getting set up and making everything perfect both for us and for our animals and our neighbors... Let us show you all we've learned about alpacas and alpaca ranching, email us at notjustyarns@tds.net