If you like animals, You will Love Alpacas.

This smart, friendly animal will just steal your heart!

For century's South America has protected this animal from Export to protect their monopoly on the fiber market.  It was not until 1983 that South America started to export these animals to other countries to keep them from becoming endangered.

Alpaca ownership is a very rewarding lifestyle. The demand for this animal is still high and since they have only one cria a year, the supply of alpacas grows slowly.  This is animal that is personally and environmentally friendly. Unlike other livestock they are quiet, clean, and can be managed easily by just one person. And the use of a communal dung pile makes for easy clean up. This is an animal easily raised on just a few acres. An acre can support an average of 10 alpacas, You can double that with supplemental feedings. This is a back to basic lifestyle that can include the whole family.

Our farm is on 5 acres and after seven years, most of the 80 new homes that have replaced the farm across from us never knew that we had over twenty animals in the back yard.

Many people own alpacas strictly for the investment benefits. They let the farm they board with manage the animal, sales, and marketing. But alpacas are addicting and many people that start like this end up investing in a few acres or more and managing their own farm. Others board their animals and let the farm care for the animals but have their own company and run their  farms from home computers. Most farms that board alpacas will let you be as involved as you want in caring for your animals. Of course the best tax advantages go to the owner with the property on which to personally raise the animals, because the shelters, fencing, equipment (tractors, fertilizers, seed, and computers) and anything else used in the business can be depreciated and expensed against income.

 An investment that is safer than almost anything else in your portfolio.

You make money selling breeding stock and fiber or expand on that and sell alpaca yarns and clothing. All of this can be done online or you can set up a small farm store on your property.

How & Why Does This Work?

This is as safe an investment as one can get. When you put alpacas in your portfolio, you insure it for it's full value, (usual cost is 3% of value.) And alpacas, being livestock, are depreciable..  Anything you buy for the business is deductible. Your female alpaca will give you one baby a year (inventory). And you can build your inventory or sell the baby and still have your original investment. How many stocks do you know of can be insured, give you a large profit every year and let you still keep or sell the original investment. Of course if you sell a animal that you bought and depreciated you will have to pay capital gains on any profit from that animal. Your tax advisor should be consulted before entering the business

 (SEE I.R.S. TAX GUIDE 225 FOR FARMERS-2008)

The world population of alpaca, is very small ( less than 3 million. ) The alpacas in the United States now average around 50,000 and none have been brought into the country since 1998 when the registry books closed. With selective breeding owners are building up the supply of animals for the fiber Industry. The major profit for the past twenty years and for many years to come is selling breeding stock. But the high value of this fabulous fiber puts the alpaca owner directly into the fiber industry, which has unlimited potential.

The Alpaca Owners and breeders Assoc. (AOBA) Started in 1988 with 87 members and has grown to over 4,000.

Alpacas were brought into the United States from 1984 until 1998 when the registry books closed. Alpaca prices have stayed stable for all of the twenty two years they have been in this country.

 This site was last updated 03/15/08

 Carol L. Keehan.
 Copyright © 2004[Alpacas of Royal Crest Farm]. All rights reserved.
 Revised: 03/15/08