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Featured Article from the Richmond Times Dispatch - January 5th, 2004
BUILDING AN INDUSTRY ; FARMERS TRYING TO CREATE
MARKET FOR ALPACA WOOL:
 [City
Edition]
Greg Edwards, * Contact Greg Edwards at (804) 649-6390 or gedwards@timesdispatch.com.
Richmond Times - Dispatch. Richmond, Va.: Jan 5, 2004. pg. D.12
Copyright Richmond Newspapers, Incorporated Jan 5, 2004
COVER STORY
Scampering around a small eastern Henrico County farm is a woolly
deer-size animal with a neck as long as its legs and the face of an
Ewok, the huggable "Star Wars" movie character.
Crosswinds Farm LLC, which sits close by the Charles City County line,
is one of a growing number of Virginia farms that has welcomed a South
American transplant, the alpaca. Mendy Royster, a real estate broker,
and husband Tommy, a custom home builder, own the 80-acre farm. They
bought their first alpacas three years ago when they were looking for
an investment opportunity as an alternative to the then-faltering
stock market.
The friendly, furry critter is not a cheap investment.
A single animal can range from $10,000 for an unbred female to $50,000
for a breeding male. The alpaca is a native to the Andes Mountains of
Bolivia, Chile and Peru. It is a member of the camelidae family and is
related to African and Asian camels and South American vicunas,
guanacos and the llama, a close alpaca cousin. Alpacas and other
camelids are grass-eating, cud-chewing ruminants with three-chambered
stomachs. They have padded feet with splayed toes that bear pointed
nails. According to an alpaca industry Web site, the Peruvian people
had developed an economy based in part on alpacas thousands of years
before the golden age of ancient Greece. Ancestors of the Inca
measured their wealth by the numbers of alpacas they owned. But with
the coming of the conquistadors to South America in the 16th century,
great alpaca herds of the Andes were eliminated to make way for
Spanish sheep. Today's alpacas are the ancestors of those that were
taken to the highest mountain reaches by Indians in search of refuge
from the European invaders. Today, as in ancient times, alpacas are
prized for their soft, luxurious fleece that is warmer, stronger and
lighter than sheep's wool. Because the fleece market is underdeveloped
in the United States, the primary value in the fledgling industry at
this point is in breeding.
The first alpacas were imported into the United States
in 1983, and today this country has roughly 50,000 of the animals,
placing it fourth in the world in alpaca numbers (behind Peru, Bolivia
and Chile and just ahead of Australia.) Virginia has roughly three
dozen farms that raise alpacas, with the farms ranging in size from
four or five animals to large operations in Tidewater and Northern
Virginia with up to 150. Among the other alpaca operations in eastern
Virginia is Clearview Farm near Williamsburg. Owners Richard and
Sandra Carter got into the alpaca business a few months earlier than
their friends the Roysters. The Roysters bought nine alpacas to begin
with and boarded them on the Carters' farm until they got ready to
accommodate their own animals. "It was a learning experience for all
of us," recalls Tommy Royster, who along with his wife now owns a herd
of 72 animals.
The Roysters' plan was to build their herd for the
first two years through breeding and additional purchases before
selling their first animals. They made that first sale to a buyer in
New Jersey last year. The idea, Royster said, was to build a pool of
prime breeding stock so that when the first animal was sold, they
wouldn't be selling the only animal they owned of that bloodline. They
always breed up so the offspring is of a higher quality than the
female that was bred, he said.
Breeders assocation
created
 The Alpaca
Breeders and Owners Association, based in Estes Park, Colo., was
created to represent the interest of alpaca owners in the United
States, and its membership stands at roughly 4,000. An independently
operated animal registry is open only to DNA-verified alpacas born of
registered parents. You can no longer import an alpaca and register it
with the Alpaca Registry. The closed registry is intended to protect
the value of the alpacas owned by association members and to speed
improvements of the breed.
Protecting the breed is important to alpaca farmers
because breeding will remain the primary source of income until a
domestic alpaca textile industry develops. Small-scale spinners
constitute the current U.S. market for alpaca fleece. The fleece is
valued not only for its luxurious softness but for its ease of
processing - it doesn't contain the guard hair and lanolin found in
fleece from other animals. Alpaca farming provides some big tax
advantages that are best learned by talking with a professional tax
adviser. IRS Publication 225, the Farmers Tax Guide, may also prove
useful. Generally, however, the tax advantages include such things as
capital-assets depreciation, capital-gains treatment and the benefit
of offsetting other income with farm losses. Additionally, gains in
the value of your alpaca herd through breeding are tax-deferred until
offspring are actually sold.
Mendy Royster explained that before she and her husband turned to
alpacas as an investment, the only thing they had raised on their
beautiful rolling acres in eastern Henrico were their cats and dogs
and the occasional wild bird or animal that passed through. Tommy,
however, grew up on a tobacco and beef farm in Amelia County and was
no stranger to the farming life. Now, three years into their
investment, Mendy talks with authority about the alpaca business. And
she talks with affection about her cuddly animal herd. Alpacas have
the curiosity of cattle but are nowhere near as
skittish. You can walk right up to an alpaca and pet it or put your
arm around its neck.
The Roysters' 72 alpacas carry names such as Fabian, Andean Fire,
Gigolo, Dream Maker, Gabriel, Ariana and Drambuie's Gold, and Mendy
knows them all by name. Alpacas are hardy animals, and if they get
ill, they tend not to show it until they are very sick, she said. The
Roysters use Gary Doxtater, a veterinarian from Williamsburg, for
their routine needs and will take an animal to North Carolina State
University if veterinary hospital care is required. Doxtater, a
large-animal veterinarian, said alpacas have fewer health problems
than horses. "If somebody had this many horses, they'd be seeing me a
lot more," he said as he wound up a recent visit to the Royster farm.
On a farm tour, Mendy Royster pointed out some of the peculiarities of
the alpaca, including its tendency to have a common area for
defecation. That makes for easy pasture cleanup, she noted. Alpaca
mothers, she said, also have a singular ability to communicate with
their offspring. Communication, by the way, is sometimes accomplished
through a gentle humming noise.
 Mendy explained
that alpacas are herd animals and that a single alpaca will die of
heartbreak if left alone. For that reason, she said, she will not sell
a single animal and recommends that a person have at least three.
Artificial insemination is not used in alpaca breeding, Mendy said.
The gestation period for a bred female is 11 months, and she must wait
less than a month before being bred again. The goal of breeding, Mendy
said, is to accomplish a diversity of color and genetics. The Roysters
also operate a shop out of an old house on the farm where they feature
sweaters, dresses, scarves and other garments made from alpaca wool.
The Roysters shear wool from their own alpacas in April and hire an
itinerant New Zealand shearer to do the job. The animals from Peru
have a denser fiber and heavier leg wool, Mendy said. Generally, the
alpacas have a good disposition and are easy to handle. Problems
mostly occur when a new animal is brought into the herd, Tommy Royster
said. He noted that an animal can let loose with a broad spray of spit
when frustrated. During the winter, Tommy said, the alpacas can be
particularly entertaining when they bounce around the pasture with all
four feet off the ground. They are warming up their bodies to get
through the cold of night.
A house builder since 1977, Tommy was looking for something else to do
that he would enjoy and would allow him to stay around the farm.
That's when he ran across alpacas. Tommy has grandchildren, little
toddlers, through a previous marriage and feels they are safe around
the alpacas. "I've never seen one of these knock a child down," he
said.
ALPACA FACTS
 Alpacas,
members of the camel family, and close cousins to the llama, come from
the Altaplano region of South America in the Andes Mountains of Chile,
Bolivia and Peru. Valued for their fine wool, they have become a
popular alternative farm animal in the United States since they were
first imported in 1983.
* Lifespan: 15 to 25 years.
* Size: Adults weigh about 150 pounds and stand about 3 feet tall at
the withers.
* Fleece: Grows roughly 5 inches per year and from a single animal can
weigh 5 to 8 pounds, enough for four to six sweaters.
* Colors: Fleece comes in nearly two dozen natural shades from white
to black.
* Gestation period: 11 months, with healthy females producing one
offspring per year.
* Cost: Alpacas can range in price from $10,000 to $50,000.
Credit: Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
*Richmond Times Dispatch
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Tommy & Mendy
Royster
