Saturday, April 17, 2004

A Runaway Success: Area Breeders Say Alpacas More Than a Business Opportunity

By Adrienne Martini
Contributing Writer

    Peru, Bolivia and Chile are invading New York. This conquering herd, however, isn't made up of people. It is composed of llama-like mammals whose soft fur makes them a valuable commodity. But their worth goes well beyond the fiber they provide.
   Alpacas offer local farm owners a chance at preserving the land they have grown to love, as well as an opportunity to join a strong network of other alpaca lovers.
   "We call them 'alpacaholics,'" says Scott Young, owner of southern Delaware County's Hilltop Alpacas and president of the statewide Empire Alpaca Association. "New York is definitely the hottest state in the country. We lead the country 2-to-1 in number of farms. Three years ago, locally, there were probably only three farms. Now there are 10 members of Southern Tier Alpacas alone.
   "Spring is always a hot time of year — but I've never seen anything like this right now," Young adds. "We're just so stinking excited."
   While alpacas may be more popular than hotcakes right now, they are still a mystery to many.  For the uninitiated, an alpaca looks like a very small camel and is about the same height at the top of the back as your average 8-year-old. Most alpacas have big brown eyes, donkey-like ears and soft noses. Their legs looks too spindly to support the weight of their torsos.  Once you touch the animal's wool, however, you realize that bulky body is made up of light, lofty fur.
   Hand-spinners played a huge role in kicking off this burgeoning alpaca revolution.
At first, a few of the animals were imported from South America to the West Coast. Soon, word spread about the warmth and luxury of alpaca garments. They feel like cashmere — but at a fraction of the cost and care.
   Folks who spin their own yarns aren't solely responsible for fueling the alpaca craze. The number of alpacas in the United States has grown from a few animals first imported in 1983 to more than 50,000 as of the end of last year.
   What has caused the stampede?
   "One reason is that the stock market has not had a great return recently," Young says. "People are looking for an alternate place to have an investment. The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association advertises a 27 percent annual return on alpaca. The huge drawback is that it's not like if you buy a cow, you can milk it. With alpaca, it takes awhile to build a herd and trust. It's a five-year window before you start seeing a return."
   AOBA estimates that potential alpaca farmers can start a business with a $40,000 investment. Most alpaca income is generated by selling the animals to other breeders, most of whom are always looking to improve the color or texture of their herd's fiber, officials said.
   There are two types of alpacas from which to choose. The more-common Huacaya, whose fur is crimped and sheep-like, can sell for $10,000 to $15,000. The Suri, whose uncrimped fur looks like dreadlocks, is far more rare and can earn accordingly.
   The fiber itself, which naturally comes in 22 different colors, sells for $4 per ounce on average. A seven-pound fleece can fetch $448.
   John Jacobus owns one of the area's first alpaca farms, Ideuma Creek Alpacas, which was started seven years ago and is near Unadilla.
   He agrees with Young, who, with his family, also runs a summer camp on the farm, called Camp Hilltop. The camp employs 75 adults and holds 250 kids.
   "It' s really easy to start a business and to take advantage of the tax codes. With dairy farming and beef cattle, it's really hard to make money. Even the sheep market in the U.S. is low," he says. "Alpacas have a lot of pluses that traditional farming doesn't have — especially for people who also have to work. It's not like there are many full-time farmers anymore."
   One of the biggest advantages of alpacas is that they are easy to care for, which makes a small herd attractive to people who would like to raise animals on their land but don't have endless amounts of time.
   Jacobus, an alternative education/GED teacher for the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego Board of Cooperative Educational Services at the Robert W. Harrold campus near Masonville, is not alone in his alpaca adventure. His wife, Denise, who teaches eighth-grade English at Sidney Central School, is his partner in the Ideuma Creek farm.
   "I get up between 4 and 4:30. I do chores in the morning — 20 minutes to half an hour before school. Then, after school, again 20 minutes to half an hour putting out hay, cleaning and filling water buckets," she says. "Once or twice a week we clean the barn really good, and that takes a couple of hours. But it's nothing like it would be with cows."
   "These guys eat a bale of hay a week, as opposed to cattle farming where it's a bale a day, Plus, what goes in comes out, so there's that much less clean up," John Jacobus says with a laugh.
   For the Jacobuses, the alpacas also enable them to preserve their land — as well as to spread their good fortune to the farms near them. Near Jacobus' property are some hay fields, which had been used by a dairy farmer, who had to abandon them when he switched to just raising heifers.
   "They now don't have the need for all of the hay," John Jacobus explains. "We'll ultimately wind up paying that farmer, who still has all of the equipment, to harvest it for us. It's nice to be able to take money that people pay you for animals and be able to reinvest in not only your own business and the land, but the people around you."
   The alpaca life is also attracting retirees and families. Young is boarding alpacas for would-be New York City farmers who plan to get into the business after they leave the city.
   And Young's business, which he and his wife started in 1998, is a family affair.
   Young's father taking care of the feeding. Young, his mom and wife take care of the breeding choices. Their kids, who are 2 and 4, walk the animals and are thrilled to go to shows, where they can hang out with the kids from other alpaca families, Young says.
   "For me, the best thing about alpacas is just the people that you meet and the places you go-and the time you get to spend at home with your family doing it," Young says of his 40-animal herd. "The worst thing is picking up poop, without a doubt. That's it, really, there aren't many negative parts of it."
   For Denise Jacobus, the babies — called "crias" — are the best part of the alpaca business, she says "Cria time is just so exciting. There are color charts and probabilities — but you really never know what you're going to get. There's all of that anticipation. We've had almost 50 crias born on our farm and I never get tired of it," she says.
   Most alpaca farmers schedule the height of the cria season so that it arrives after the spring shearing, which will take place Thursday at Ideuma.
   For Denise, the hardest part of raising alpacas is letting them go to their new homes after they've been weaned, she says.
   "I almost always cry when they leave," she says, "but what's neat is that I'm losing an alpaca but I'm gaining friends."

For info:
Every Columbus Day, 10 alpaca farms in Otsego, Chenango, Tioga, Broome and Delaware counties open their doors for the Southern Tier Autumn Alpaca Tour, a free event that offers hands-on demonstrations and experiences for those who are curious about these animals. Most farms, however, are open to setting up private tours. For more information, contact the farms.

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