Starting An Alpaca Business

There are basically four "revenue events" in the Alpaca industry - Livestock sale, stud/herdsire fees, fiber sales, and product sales. The majority of your income will come from sale of livestock. Alpacas qualify under the Section 179 of the IRS code. The average Alpaca costs $15 - 20,000 which is the same price it cost during the introduction of the species into the United States about 20 years ago. The value has stayed the same because the US herd is still small as the registry of imports was closed and females can have only one baby per year. Gestation period is 11.5 months. Alpacas can be depreciated every year just like any business capital expense. Section 179 currently allows 100 percent deductions of capital expenses up to $100,000. You do not have to have land, etc to get started in Alpacas - many farms will board your animals for you. They are sheared once a year and typically fiber sales can offset the maintenance costs you have each year for that animal. Two to six Alpacas can live comfortably on an acre of land and they eat only a fraction of their body weight, just 2 percent.

Wow, that's great...I'm going to look into that actually. So realistically, how much do you make from each alpaca per year? Do you live in a rural area?

It depends on the quality of the animal, but a baby girl can easily sell for $9,000 or more. Feel free to go to my website as there is a link to a short video on there - my website is under construction right now, so there is only one page and all my animals are not listed yet. www.keonaranchalpacas.com The person I purchased my animals through has package deals available all the time, so feel free to contact me if you need anymore information, contacts, etc.