Made By Alpaca People For Alpaca People
There's always a story to go with it PART 2
Now we are getting the names of farms and why but How in the world did you get started raising alpacas??? It always seems that is the most popular question we get when people find out we raise alpacas!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maryann Marsh on -
We used to do horses and at times, with certain horses, i was always worried about my husband. We call him the "goodie man" and he would go out and give carrots to all the horses. Well there is a fine line between repecting a horse and fearing a horse and well......my husband had neither. So many times a couple of these nasty ones would come in kicking and screaming to get the first carrots and my husband would be in the middle of it all! I had to find him something he could give goodies to and not be afraid of finding him crushed in the pasture. Well i found our Rose. I had her and her gelded mate delivered 3 days before Christmas as a gift. Another long story from there (another day) but here we are 5 years later, moved to another place for more room and the greatest herd to give carrots to! My husband adores them and even when he is running a bit late or has to go into work early, he never gives up his breakfast duty. His time is feeding in the morning before he is off for the day and god forbid if any of our clients had any left over carrots in the frig., he is out there in the evening with carrots. Our kids love the waffle cut carrots and its easy on us since we dont have to cut them up and they are nice and thin, easy to break into small pieces and a 4 month old is the youngest to start eating them! Even animals that come in that have never had them before soon realize they are missing out! LOLOL Thats our story!
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Permalink Reply by Terrie Reynolds on -
we started raising alpacas because my LGD dog, Posa, needed a job (: True story! When Greg got transferred to Winchester, I had been working as a disaster housing inspector & traveling all over the country, often in very rough neighborhoods & Posa traveled everywhere with me as my body guard. When we moved onto our little farm, I quit traveling & Posa no longer had a job. Greg also said that Posa didn't need to be in the house with as big a yard as we had. I couldn't bear the thought of him being alone outside & said if he couldn't come in the house we had to find him company & a job. One night we were watching the weather channel & saw the I love alpacas.com commercial & I immediately went to the computer to locate a place to buy one of them for Posa. When he saw the prices the breeders were asking, Greg said no way in **** are we spending that kind of money for a dog toy...but i kept doing homework & working on him & eventually got him to a farm to see them. He said that he watched my face when I was walking up to the fence to see them & that as soon as i saw one he got out his wallet & here we are! He says in hindsight it'd have been much cheaper to have let the dog in the house!
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Permalink Reply by Dena Kotka-Holtz on -
That is so cute and funny Terrie!
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Permalink Reply by Chris Arnold ~Good Shepherd Farm on -
What a great subject! It's great to see the story behind the story.
I remember seeing the alpaca commercials years ago and for some reason that always stuck in the back of my mind. After having two kids and getting them in school, my wife wanted to find a way to make some income while staying at home. Rebecca, in her previously life, was a hair stylist, and didn’t want to return to that after the kids started school. We looked at several ideas but nothing really made a mark. For a time, we were looking at a dog kennel, home inspection; I had a taxidermy business for a couple of years, etc. etc. We talked to some of Rebecca's family about livestock on the family farm property that had been setting vacant for several years and they didn’t have any problems. We looked at cattle & horses but decided that we didn’t want to name animals and them have them butchered or worry about someone getting injured. Not having any livestock experience at all, we had these worries. When we said we were going to raise alpacas, they first thought, "What the heck is an alpaca?" and I’m sure the translation for that was, "these guys are nuts!" We got the silly questions about "Is that like an Emu?" "Do they lay eggs?” and the ever popular "Can you eat them?" LOL
After doing all the research we could until we saw alpacas in our sleep and every conversation either began or ended in alpaca, by Dec. 2005 we had our small herd of 4. Its funny how after 3 years and caring for 20+ alpacas, all our conversations still end and begin in alpaca, and yes, we still see them in our sleep. Anyway that’s basically our story. I don’t know what we did before our farm and I would not change a thing. We love this lifestyle! We enjoy raising our kids in a farm environment and teaching them respect and responsibility. We also enjoy talking with other owners and have met so many wonderful people and families. God has truly blessed us!
Chris
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Permalink Reply by Mada Vemi Alpacas on -
I grew up in a house that raised dogs and got married in a house that raised birds. I've always loved animals and alpacas didn't seem a huge stretch with me even though I didn't have livestock experience. I originally fell in love with alpacas at a local fair and my research began. My hubby had no interest what so ever. He wanted a Harley not a "chow chow with a long neck". :) I had a little money in the stock market and watched it drop down each year until I finally said, "I'd rather watch my investment jump up and down in my back yard." My hubby said, "I'd rather have my investment in my garage. SO... I bought two female alpacas and my hubby bought his Harley.
The following year, we moved to our current property, my herd grew, and I made my first sale which got me all of my initial investment back. My hubby was astounded when the check arrived and it was for more money than the cost of his Harley! The look on his face was priceless. From that day on he's had a whole new outlook on these "chow chows with long necks". Suddenly he saw them as if they were a potential HERD of Harleys!
Here we are going in our 5th year and I can't imagine not owning alpacas. My hubby still has his Harley and it's value has held out pretty good BUT the return on MY initial investment in two alpacas is worth so much more than I started with! Over the years we've grown, sold, traded, and currently have 17 alpacas- Most of which are each worth much more than Mark's Harley. He may be able to ride his investment but MY investment can pay the bills!
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Permalink Reply by Dena Kotka-Holtz on
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Ha, ha, ha! I love this story. My husband and I both had Harley's before we got alpacas. We haven't made any sales yet, but you give us hope. God Bless.
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Permalink Reply by Janet Tapply on -
Part of our initial investment in the "getting into alpacas" was trading two Harley's! Funny how all of this ties together one way or another for many of us!
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Permalink Reply by Janet Tapply on
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We bought some land in Texas (13 acres) that needed to have "something" grazing on it so we could use the land as "ag" - my husband had a suit coat with "alpaca" and not knowing what the heck they were, he started doing some research. We visited a few farms and went to a few seminars only to learn that the "cute factor" of these little critters were something we both though of as a good investment, a good tax advantage, not something we had to eat (or kill)and a good way for me to work from home (we currently raise our 5 year old grandson, so being at home is a good thing!) I love what I do and do not miss the corporate lifestyle. My husband still gets to play that part while I get to take care of the farm chores and animals. I couldn't imagine not doing it! We have made some great friends which has been the added bonus to it all! Of course, when we moved to Colorado 5 years ago, we had a small herd and it came along with us as well as our LSG dogs. Great place to be.....(in life that is!)
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Permalink Reply by Dena Kotka-Holtz on
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Glad to hear that your in Colorado. I hope to run into you sometime at the shows.
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Permalink Reply by Janet Tapply on
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We would love yo meet you! I see you live in Wellington... come on down for a visit! You are just up the road...
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Permalink Reply by Margie Phipps on -
In 2001 I met and began dating my husband Paul. In our conversations he always spoke of someday being somewhat "self sufficient" and working for himself, although he really wasn't sure HOW. He also spoke of wanting to get a large piece of land in the country, preferably in Kentucky where his aging parents lived. In 2004 we married, in 2005 we began the serious search to find the perfect place... and we did. At that time neither one of us knew exactly what we could or would do with this 60 secluded acres... but we would find something !!!
I dont remember exactly, but I think my daughter and I saw the commercial one evening while watching TV in late 2006. A few days later I did some internet searches. Paul came home from work and I announced... "I know what we are going to do with the farm... Alpaca's." I told him of all the research I had done, the fleece, the cute gentle animals, no slaughter and all those things. As usual he said..." OK Hun, that sounds great, someday we'll look into it further. "
Well, not being one to sit on my laurels when it comes to new discovery... I started doing more research and found that MaryAnn's farm was practically "right down the street"... OH MY GOSH... There are some right here in my neighborhood !!! " So... I sent off a quick email to Maryann and asked if I could come by for a visit. The next day I took my granddaughter to the farm and we had a wonderful chat with Maryann and we met all her animals. That day when Paul got home he was very surprised with my answer to the usualy question .... "How was your day ?" A few days later I took him over to Maryann's ... and he was hooked too !
We attended our first show in Jacksonville in Feb. 2007. Our two week spring vacation was totally planned around the Kentucky Classic in March with many visits to farms in Kentucky. We had a wonderful time meeting everyone at the show and on thier farms. We saw some absolutely awesome animals and collected a lot of reading material. We took the plunge in May with the signing of a contract to purchase two white females, one of which was pregnant, from Canada that were on one of the farms in Kentucky. On July 21, 2007 we had our first cria, Americano's Dreamweaver.
Today we have 4 Alpacas with our second male cria born on May 10 this year. I am now in residence at our new house on the farm property in Kentucky while Paul is still in Florida working at the Space Center and trying to sell our home there. The "kids" are agisting at the farm where we bought them and I make visits whenever I can. We still have A TON of work ahead of us.
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Permalink Reply by Liz Werner on -
I was recently divorced, not able to work, taking too much out of the IRA and it was losing value in the market. I could see where that was headed. I'm 60. So, I tossed around--what could I do with what I had? I already breed dogs so animals easily came to mind and I have a few acres. I grew up with goats so I was used to livestock. Yes, those old commercials came to mind. So, I started doing research. And I ended up with a buyout with equipment from someone selling due to health problems. I believe I got an excellent deal. And the daily work is much needed exercize to boot!!! I love the animals--don't we all??
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