History
I purchased my first alpacas over 12 years ago to make what used to be a successful family tobacco farm self-sustainable again. I did a lot of research before purchasing my first alpaca, trying to find the “perfect” agricultural business for a small farm (which used to be a very large farm in terms of acreage and production). This research led me to many different avenues in alternative agriculture such as raising emu, buffalo, and other livestock. I was not interested in slaughtering my animals, even though I understand why there are industries which must do so. This just wasn’t for me. I also thought about growing shitake mushrooms, ginsing, organic vegetables and herbs, flowers, even “tea”.
The gentle alpaca seemed to fit a perfect mold, as they were easy to handle and didn’t need a lot of fancy equipment to maintain them, or miles of acres like other livestock. (I didn’t have either of these things to begin with!) My alpacas have made my family farm not only self sustainable again, but a very successful and most enjoyable business. Alpacas have allowed me to begin to properly restore a farm which has belonged to my family for over 300 years, as well as to properly restore a large Victorian home built by my great-great grandfather over 140 years ago! Alpacas have been my one and only business and income for the past 12 years.
