Alpacas: the money is the breeding stock

By James Pascual and Darren Matte

HAMMOND-- Réjean Leonard is leaving the alpaca business as a winner.
The 66-year-old farmer says his back hurts when he shears the wool and it’s time for more golf and travel. He leaves behind him a trail of ribbons for his champion alpacas, and a whack of cash, for which he confesses was not hard-earned because alpacas are inexpensive to feed, easy to handle and good breeding stock fetches big bucks. He sold one of his champion breeding males two years ago for more than $20,000, he said.
He has grossed about $100,000 in a year, netting about $45,000, with a 45-head herd. For him, the money is all in having the best breeding stock. Sales from wool simply covers his costs. Other alpaca farmers turn the fibre into clothing to generate their revenue from finished products.
Leonard focuses on winning animals, not products and marketing. He has competed at the Ontario Alpaca Show, earning grand championships every year for males or females from 2004 to 2007. It’s difficult to find a place to sit down in his house without having to move award ribbons. “Winning awards at shows is so important. Since the alpaca market is limited in sellers, winning puts you on the map,” Léonard said. “Everybody knows you.” He spends little on advertising and his marketing skills are put to use in answering e-mails and coordinating sales.
But this year, “I’m on the way out.” He’s sold most of his 45-head. He’s hanging on to one young male because he hopes it will earn Supreme champion honours at the Ontario Alpaca Show in Orangeville in April. The young animal was the judge’s favourite last year but Leonard was told the judge wouldn’t give top honours to a six-month-old. If Leonard’s charge wins this year, he figures he can then sell him for “at least $12,000, maybe more.”
He’s heard of champion male breeding stock selling for $225,000. Three or four farms will buy one male with hopes that the about 50 females from each heard will bear breeding offspring that will sell for up to $5,000 each. Those who don’t make the grade, often become pet alpacas that sell for $800 to $1,000.
The wool gets sent to a co-op in Alberta. Léonard also makes the occasional farm gate sale, often from someone searching for a unique Christmas gift. “We just sell yarn and socks. Some Alpaca farms will have full stores but we cater to the local market, people who hear about us from word of mouth.”
Leonard had been a beef farmer since the 1960s but when he retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1994, he switched to a relatively new species in North America. The South American Alpaca arrived in Canada in 1988 so breeding stock has yet to reach the saturation point, he said. Leonard was only the second alpaca farmer in the province and said that it was the best decision he made. “An alpaca to me then had four legs and a long neck, that’s it.” In time, he owned one of the best herds in the country.
He recommends that new breeders spend at least $50,000 to start with one good breeding male (about $12,000) and three or four females ($10,000 each). You can rent out a good male, charging $2,000 to $2,400 for breeding. Females have one offspring a year, a reason to have patience built into the business plan. “The first thing I tell people is to think of it as a hobby.”
Léonard made money with beef but he worked his hands to the bone. Alpacas brought in the same amount of profit in half the time and were a pleasure to work with. He only spends about an hour a day in the barn. Feeding costs are minimal. One bale of hay, supplemented with a half-cup of grain a day, will last one alpaca all winter, he said.
“There’s no animal more fun than an alpaca.” They’re curious and treat you as one of their own, running straight up to you they’ll literally get nose-to-nose. “They’ll talk to you,” he said. “They have a humming noise. They are the most gentle creatures you’ll ever meet.”
But you do have to watch for what he calls “beserk syndrome”. A male can consider a man as another male alpaca and their claim is that “all these girls are mine. If that happens they can bite or hit you with their front legs. Humans are competition.”
As for the young, “The babies are adorable. When two or three are together just before it gets dark, we call it show time. They jump around, all four legs in the air at the same time.”