Are Alpacas Safe? Yes, Alpacas are safe, inquisitive and love to be around people, especially children. Although they like our company most would rather not be petted or held. Many children are involved in showing Alpacas at fairs and shows.
How Long do they Live? The average life span of an Alpaca is 20+ years. What do they eat? Alpacas are ruminants – this means they chew cud. They eat hay and pasture grass and their diet is supplemented with grain made especially for Alpacas. This ensures the proper balance of vitamins and minerals. Most Alpacas love to be fed carrots or apples as special treats! Are they difficult to raise? No – not at all! Alpacas are easy to care for as they are relatively small and generally healthy. They are clean animals and utilize community dung piles which makes for easy clean up. They require simple shelter and 4’ fencing. Other than providing fresh water and grain once or twice a day, that’s all there is to it. What about their fleece? Alpaca fleece comes in 22 natural colors. It is warmer and stronger than wool and is free of natural oils and is hypoallergenic. An Alpaca is shorn once a year usually in early spring not only to keep the animal cool during the hot months, but also to turn their magnificent fleece into roving or yarn. Their fiber is softer and lighter than cashmere and is in high demand worldwide. Financial Benefits of Alpaca Ownership What are the Tax Consequences? Raising Alpacas on your own farm can offer very attractive tax advantages. All expenses attributed to the endeavor can be written off against your income. Expenses include not only feed but fertilizer, veterinarian care, travel, farm labor, accounting fees, as well as depreciation of such tangible property as breeding stock, barns and fences. A helpful publication is the Farmers Tax Guide IRS publication 225 (accessible online from the IRS) and the IRS Code Section 179 Deduction. Consult your personal tax expert prior to making any assumptions with regard to the impact on your individual tax situation. What If I Don’t Have a Farm? There are many investors who don’t actually have the property to raise Alpacas. Many owners live in the city and board their animals at an established Alpaca farm. Those investors still benefit from the growth potential of their herd and also the tax advantages of Alpaca ownership. For all investors, owning Alpacas offer a perfect way to diversity their investment portfolio with a commodity that is both rare and in demand worldwide.
What about their babies? A baby Alpaca is known as a “Cria”. A female Alpaca’s gestation period is 11-11.5 months. She gives birth to only one cria at a time as twins are extremely rare and almost always gives birth during daylight hours.
Do I need a large farm to raise Alpacas? No. Ten Alpacas can be raised on one acre of land.
What else can you tell me about Alpacas? Raising Alpacas is an exciting and rewarding lifestyle. Alpacas are a wonderful experience for the entire family. Friendly and trainable, yet hardy and tough, the Alpaca is truly a remarkable and cuddly investment you can hug.
Why Invest in Alpacas? Alpacas are the world’s finest livestock investment. There are essentially two ways to invest in Alpacas - either by purchasing animals and begin raising them yourself or putting your animals in the care of an established breeder. Either way, the major investment benefit of owning Alpacas is based on the concept of compounding. When one opens a savings account, your account earns interest, which if left in the account, adds to the principal. The increased principal earns additional interest, thereby compounding the investor’s return. The interest earned would be currently taxable. When purchasing Alpacas, The Alpaca reproduces almost every year, and about one-half of their babies are females. When you retain the offspring in your herd, they too begin producing other offspring. The concept is “Alpaca Compounding”. As your herd grows, you avoid paying income tax on its increasing value until such time as you begin selling the offspring. Let’s assume you begin with five pregnant females and two males. This initial herd could easily grow to 126 animals in a short ten year period. How many investments appreciate at the same rate?
