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Why Alpacas?

Easy Care and Low Maintenance. Alpacas are small, gentle, intelligent, quiet, and easy to handle, even by children. They require no special shelter or care. Fences are more for keeping out predators than for keeping in the alpacas. They are disease-resistant, resulting in low veterinary costs. Their care includes regular dewormings, annual vaccinations, occasional toenail trimming, and annual shearing. Alpacas are extremely adaptable, and are being raised from Maine to Florida, from Alaska to Hawaii, and at all points in-between.

Small Acreage Requirements. Alpacas require less pasture than do other farm animals and can, therefore, be raised on small acreage. Five to ten alpacas can comfortably occupy one acre of good pasture.

Earth Friendly. Alpacas do not pull the grass out by the roots as they graze, their padded feet don't damage the terrain, and their community dung piles mean less pasture is smothered out and parasites aren't spread all over the pasture.

Investment Potential. In 1998, alpaca breeders in the United States voted to close the alpaca registry to non-pedigreed alpacas, which basically stopped the importation of alpacas from South America. Thus, the rate of growth of the supply of alpacas decreased dramatically, while the demand has continued to grow at increasing rates. When considering supply and demand, suri alpacas remain the best investment - since they do occasionally produce huacaya offspring (but two huacayas don't produce a suri), suri numbers should always increase at a slower rate than the huacayas.

The supply is further limited by the fact that alpacas reproduce slowly, with a gestation period of 11 months resulting in one offspring. These rare and unique animals continue to demand high prices and garner great interest from investors.

Few investments appreciate at the high rate of alpacas, and it's an insurable investment as well.

Tax Advantages. Alpacas allow the investor tax-deferred compounding of his initial investment - as his herd and its value increase, he defers paying income taxes on his earnings until he sells his alpacas. Other tax advantages of alpaca ownership include expense deductions and depreciation, and the Federal government has recently enacted even more attractive incentives.

Luxurious Soft Fiber. Alpaca could be considered the fiber of the future. As farmlands disappear, the best fiber that can be produced on the least acreage will become the most important. Alpaca fiber is several times stronger and warmer than sheep's wool, while still being very soft and lightweight. Each alpaca produces enough fiber each year for several sweaters. And it comes in more than 20 natural colors!

Lifestyle. Alpacas are raised for profit and enjoyment, while affording their owners a very desirable lifestyle, low in stress and high in rewards. Many people who want to raise their children or live themselves in the country on a farm are drawn to alpacas because of their many attributes and because alpacas are a livestock that can be raised for income without having to slaughter it.

An Active Breed Association and Registry. The alpaca industry is very fortunate to have a breed association that works for the benefit of all its members. AOBA produces a high-end monthly magazine, and it advertises in major publications across the United States and on television, which benefits all breeders. The registry protects the interests of all alpaca breeders by requiring blood typing of all alpacas before they can be registered, thus documenting bloodlines and keeping alpacas pure by preventing them from being crossbred with other camelids.

Come See Alpacas Thriving in the South!

Ridgeview Farm Southern Suris
Bill and Juanita Crake
273 Keith Evans Road
Dawsonville, GA
(706) 265-7328
(706) 265-1006 (FAX)
ridgeviewfarm@windstream.net