Llamas and alpacas

RichZ · May 29, 2001

In the continuing effort to make our little farm a working farm, we are considering raising llamas and/or alpacas, to sell the wool, and young ones to other farms and for pets. Anyone in TBN have any experience with this?
Thanks,
Rich

Richard · May 29, 2001

I have no experience, though I have had a face/face confrontation with Mother Llama while trying to take close up photo of baby Llama while I was visiting Machu Picchu.

None the less, I DO have a neighbor that evidently raises them and if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to stop by and present said questions to them on your behalf.

Richard

RichZ · May 29, 2001

Thanks, Richard. That's a real nice offer, I'll keep that in mind.
Rich

cowboydoc · May 29, 2001

Rich,
I have several neighbors that have them and they would never do it again. They are hard on fences, not good pets, if you breed them when they are not together they make this awful sound and pace the fences like no tomorrow, and they are nasty smelling and spit alot. I had it out with one neighbor who basically destroyed a fence I had put up on the property line in a little less than three years. They have no grass on their side so they tore the fence down getting to my side. The wool is not worth much at all and it's alot, and I mean alot, of work to shear them. Most of the people around here did it once or twice and that was it. The one guy I know now actually has a guy come in that he pays to do it and the guy keeps the wool. If you're looking to make money there's alot better ways to do it with animals. He can't even get a hundred bucks for the babies now and usually winds up giving them away.

RichZ · May 30, 2001

Thanks for the info, Richard! You're the first person to give me a negative side of these critters, and I need to know all aspects if we're going to consider this. We're going to some llama and alpaca farms this weekend, and now I'm going to ask alot more questions!
Thanks, again!
Rich

cowboydoc · May 30, 2001

I don't know about out there Rich but if you decide you want them and want to drive out here there are three or four guys I know would sell you some cheap!

Monte · May 31, 2001

My wife has 4 llamas. She broke her leg 10 weeks ago, so I guess I have them right now

. From our research and experience, they make easy and cheap pets. I don't know how to make money with them. All four required just 20 bales of hay this winter (central Ohio) and eat a bag of oat in 6 months. We have females, only, and we have never had one spit at a human.

A wild dog chased one through a wood fence that had me VERY worried (laying in the ditch, barely breathing and bleeding on the poison ivy), but the vet chuckled (5:30 AM!) and in 5 days, you couldn't tell anything had happened. They are more personable when constantly handled and there is a group that teaches some "wholistic" approach my wife likes. She still plans to take them to schools and nursing homes when she recovers. Each one has it's own distinct personality and we are very glad we have them. They are unbelievable good with physically and mentally challenged children (our own experience).

Mixing males and females, or keeping one in isolation leads to unhappy llamas. They are very social, but don't even need another llama... Someone near us has a field with one cow, two burros, one llama and another something I haven't figured out what it is (always lying in the grass and since I'm the driver, I don't get a good look... maybe it's a "tired" goat).

Monte

Anonymous Poster · May 31, 2001

Richz,
Llamas are fun animals and you can make money off them. I would advise you to check on your market for llama wool before you make an investment. What types of wool are they looking for. You can figure about 3-5lbs of wool off each adult llama depending on how you shear them, Full cut vs barrel cut. You can make some money in breeding llamas, but local experienced competition may limit your profits. Aside from the animal you dont have a large investment in shelter. a 3 sided barn is fine. You do need someway to keep them cool in hot or humid weather. A box fan or two will do. As monte pointed out they are not big eaters nor do they make a mess in the stalls that require daily cleaining. A Communal dung pile makes cleanup a breese.

Monte, Where you at in central Ohio? I am about 20 miles north of deleware.

Monte · Jun 1, 2001

I'm just northeast of Newark... looking for someone to help shear "the girls" for us this year...

Monte

RichZ · Jun 4, 2001

Thanks for all the advice, guys. As usual, Richard has some sage advice. We went to several llama and alpaca farms in our area this weekend. It seems they were all run by people who were just interested in keeping neat animals. (And they are neat!) When I asked what their market for the wool was, none of them, but one, had any. And that farm had 60 llamas, and made $3000 a year off the wool. First I thought that was great, until they clarified that it was $3000 for the whole herd and not per llama./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Oh, well, we may eventually get a pair as pets, but as a profitable venture, it doesn't seem to work, at least in upstate NY./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
Thanks for all the advice!
Rich