Buying Alpacas - Price

Price: There are pet quality alpacas that can be sold for as little as $400. These have no papers and/or are neutered. There was a recent auction  where a very famous herdsire was sold for over $300,000 but the median price for a herdsire quality male alpaca I would put about $12,000 and a super quality male at about $30,000. Often two or three breeders will purchase a good quality male together and share the burden of the cost as well as the use of the male. This is a good strategy if you can find other breeders with whom you feel comfortable entering into a business arrangement.

Most new breeders buy a few bred females and continue to breed these females out to good quality herdsires until they produce their own herdsire quality male.  This is far cheaper than buying a top quality male and, if you have chosen good quality females and good quality breedings, you should, in time, produce an exellent male - maybe several.

Bred female alpacas or male alpacas who are ready to breed cost more than younger alpacas who may have to be fed for a year or even longer before they reach breeding age. Some breeders may throw in a pet quality alpaca with the purchase of a breeding alpaca, or sell a mother with a cria (baby) at her side so that the two can remain together while the cria is still small. I would put the mid-range price for good quality bred female alpacas somewhere between $10,000 and $16,000, but this varies a great deal.

There are many inferior quality females who can be bought very cheaply, but it is not logical to think that you will get good quality offspring out of such females.    That "great bargain" female won't look like such a bargain when you find that you cannot sell her poor quality offsrping. What about a great looking young female out of two so-so parents? This is when you must remind yourself that phenotype (looks) is not always genotype (the traits that the parent will pass on to their offspring.) It's better to go with a bloodline that has many members who are all of good quality.

One way that you can look for lower priced females but still get good quality is to consider buying an older female who has already produced several cria. Many new breeders want to buy young females because they look so pretty. Whether it is a cat, dog or even a skunk, almost every young animal looks pretty. I think it is far smarter to buy a female who has had at least one cria. She will not look as perfect as her younger sister but she will have proven herself fertile and, if you can see her with her cria, you may be able to figure out if she is a good mother, seems to have plenty of milk and the cria is strong. If her cria is older and already weaned, you could at least see whether this cria is of the quality that you would want in your future herd. It is always a very good idea to ask the breeder the following questions but, bear in mind that some answers may be less than perfectly honest:

Alpacas do have miscarriages, re-absorptions and still births at about the 20 - 25% rate that is normal for all mammals. I would not rule out a female that had one of these problems in her past but has produced a healthy cria after that. Many maiden alpacas (never bred) are somewhat reluctant to go down for the male the first time they are asked to. I would not consider this a big deal as long as she does go down after she is done being chased around for awhile or on her second or third try. If she is younger than 2 years old, she may need to be older to be willing, but I would not buy a female who continues to be a reluctant breeder after she has produced one cria or more. On the other hand if she is a girl who is very firm in saying "No!" when she is not open but drops like a stone when open and ovulating, that's a great thing!

Things to watch out for:

Make sure the alpaca or alpacas you buy are easily handled, but not overly friendly.  Males especially should not follow you around like a dog,  chew your clothing, lift up their tail when you approach or otherwise act submissive.  Do a search in your favorite search engine on "berserk llama syndrome" and you will find out why males should not be too friendly or handled excessively when young.  On the other hand, do not buy an alpaca that the owners themselves have trouble catching, haltering, lifting the legs of to look at the toenails, etc.  Find one that is slighty stand-offish, but not terrified.

Do not get involved in any complicated deals your first time buying alpacas.  Don't be talked into a "package deal" that includes things you did not want to buy like extra males, very young females or alpacas of poorer quality body conformation or fiber than you wanted.  Make up your mind to buy what you want and not what others want or need to sell.  There are herdsire quality males and there are a lot of pet quality males.  A male who does not have a perfect bite, body and good fiber with a strongly dominant personality, strong desire to breed and normal or greater than normal sized testicles,  is NOT herdsire quality.  Do not buy into the gamble of a young "possible herdsire quality" male that you will  have to pay more than pet quality price for and then pay more later if he turns out good and you want the papers to be able to breed him. 

"Popular Herdsire Phenomenon" - Anyone thinking of going into the animal breeding business should be aware that there are serious negative consequences to a situation where too many breeders all choose the same sire or a handful of sires to breed their females. Accoyos, for example, are already the products of linebreeding and, when they are bred exclusively to one another, genetic flaws are concentrated along with the positive fleece qualities. Do your genetic homework before you jump on the bandwagon of breeding out a bloodline that is trendy. Many of the biggest name males in the alpaca world were imports about whose background very little is known.

For more specific information about starting out in the alpaca business, you can print out my Alpacas 101 Lecture Notes.

Here is a link to an excellent article on buying alpacas writtten by Antoinette Brewster, reprinted with her permission. Antoinette owns Lanark Farm in Virginia and, for many years, was an expert breeder of alpacas. Alpacas from her bloodlines continue to win in the showring and are in high demand.

Article by Antoinette Brewster