New Horizons with Attractive Alpacas

Chardon, Ohio

“What business enables you to be around the cutest animals on earth all day and run a financially viable enterprise?” rhetorically asks Donna Christley, co-owner of Moonlight Meadow Farm in Chardon, Ohio. Her enthusiastic reply: alpacas. “Folks tend to get hooked on alpacas from the first time they look into their big eyes and touch their fluffy fiber and, if you approach things smartly with a business plan in hand from the start, these wondrous animals can bring in a steady income stream, from breeding to fiber to agri-tourism opportunities.”

Located in eastern Ohio about thirty miles from Cleveland, Moonlight Meadow Farm is a shared business between Donna and Debbi Boncha. For years, these two long-time friends would annually attend county fairs together, always lingering in the animal exhibit tents. It was at the Great Geauga County Fair that they first encountered and fell in love with alpacas.

“At first, we wrote off owning alpacas as a pipe dream as we didn’t have any experience or background in this area,” explains Donna, herself a former corporate executive and Debbi a full-time mother of two small children. “But in 1996 we both made the commitment to get serious and make this business a reality.” The two visited alpaca farms, attended shows, asked lots of questions and learned as much as they could. By the end of the year, Moonlight Meadow Farm became a reality, a jointly owned subchapter S corporation with an initial herd of seven Peruvian alpacas.

Today, Moonlight Meadow Farm consists of over thirty alpacas. Donna and Debbie sell about six to ten breeding females annually and earn a winning reputation on the alpaca show circuit, various alpaca events throughout the year where the animals are professionally judged and evaluated. The business supplements the family income, as both Debbi and Donna’s husbands also have full-time off-farm jobs.

Both Donna and Debbi care for these animals on their own farms, two separate farms located a couple of miles apart. Debbi and her family live on a former horse farm with 110 acres and various barns and pastures. Donna, who left her corporate job early to focus full-time on alpacas, resides with her husband on five acres, with three acres fenced in for the animals. “You can readily raise alpacas on small acreage with typically about five to six alpacas per acre of pasture,” Donna comments.

Part of the South American Camelid animal family and originally from Peru, Bolivia and Chili alpacas fall into two kinds, huacaya and suri, both of which Donna and Debbi raise. “Ninety percent of alpacas are huacayas, known for their soft fluffy, crimped fleece and somewhat resembling a sheep in looks,” Donna explains. “Suri have long, spiraled locks and are much more rare, making up the other ten percent of alpacas.” Alpacas typically reach maturity in about two years, averaging thirty-six inches tall and weigh 150 pounds. They have a life span of roughly twenty to twenty-five years.

Alpacas remain a rare breed in high demand, so breeding stock require an initial investment. The ideal start-up situation that Donna recommends is a herd of two pregnant females and one gelded (castrated) male. While alpaca prices vary tremendously based on breed quality and age, a ballpark for a pregnant female is $20,000 and a gelded male between $500 and $1,000. “With this set-up, if both babies are females you could garner full return on your investment within a year or two depending on what age they are when sold,” Donna advises. “Since alpacas should always be in groups of two or more, having the gelded male means when one of the females is taken off the farm for breeding, the other female will not be out of sorts by being alone.” If someone is interested in an alpaca for fiber purposes only, a pair of gelded males is a great way to start.

Breeding investment return tends to be the key reason people start with alpacas, according to Donna and Debbi’s experience. The babies typically sell between six months and two years. Sometimes one may have an exceptional male in the herd that can be used as a breeding stud. Known as a “herdsire,” stud fees for these male studs can average $2,000 a breeding.

Fiber also remains a valuable piece of alpaca businesses. Alpacas are shorn every spring to help keep the animals cool through summer heat. “Alpaca fiber and the finished yarn remain premium luxury products, rivaling cashmere in softness, yet rarer than cashmere in availability,” Donna explains. An average of eight to ten pounds of fiber can be shorn off an alpaca annually, selling for roughly four to seven dollars an ounce for finished yarn. Alpaca fiber comes in twenty-two identified colors. Different from most fiber producing animals, alpaca fiber does not contain lanolin and can thereby be spun directly off the animal and does not have to go through the washing processes. Using a local shearer to shear the animals, Donna hand-spins some of the fiber herself, has yarn spun at a local mill, and sends the rest to the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America (AFCNA), a member-owned cooperative that takes alpaca fiber through to yarn and knit products that Moonlight Meadow Farm then sells.

“In addition to the breeding and fiber side, alpacas provide a range of other income generating opportunities,” explains Donna. Interestingly, Donna and Debbi found that many alpaca owners do not have a farm or property to house the animals so alpaca boarding remains in demand, averaging three to four dollars per day per animal. Growing hay for alpaca feed creates another side business possibility. Alpacas tend to like the softer grasses that typically come from the second grass cutting during a season, with the first, coarser cutting going to horse feed. Moonlight Meadow Farm’s website also offers jewelry for sale, hand-crafted by a friend of Debbi and Donna’s and utilizing alpaca designs. “Alpaca enthusiasts love to buy products with an alpaca on it,” Donna adds with a smile.

After the initial alpaca purchase, these animals remain hardy, low cost and low maintenance. Pasture and hay makes up most of alpaca feed in addition to a grain supplement containing vitamins and minerals. “Alpacas do not challenge fencing, so fencing is moreso to keep predators out,” Donna comments. “In our case, roaming packs of dogs are our biggest problem and we keep electric wire on the top and bottom of our fencing.” Typically, no veterinarian or outside assistance is needed at an alpaca birth, although Donna recommends owners being present at the birth in case any complications arise and to help the babies, called crias, start feeling comfortable around human touch from the start. Outbuildings are designed to provide shelter from the wind and elements and are divided using gate panels rather than wooded stalls and can be a simple three-sided stall in warmer climates. For security reasons, alpacas are blood typed and registered with a national alpaca registry and have been microchipped for identification. Theft remains minimal as if someone would steal them, they couldn’t resell the alpacas or any offspring because they would be unable to register them.

Donna advises folks new to raising alpaca to approach such a venture with thorough research, taking the time to visit other farms and breeders, going to alpaca shows and learning as much as possible before investing in animals. “Understandably, these adorable creatures bat their long eye lashes and people fall hopelessly in love,” explains Donna. “But don’t let emotion prompt things to move so quickly that you don’t have a sound business plan and vision.”