Starting Right If there is one thing that I have learned in life it's "do it right the first time". This has special meaning when considering an investment in alpacas. All too many do not see the whole picture when first starting out in alpacas. They soon find their first years to be a "learning it the hard way" experience. Understanding and paying attention to 3 critical areas can be the difference between floundering and early success. Quality alpacas, quality warranties and quality support; these are the 3 keys to starting right. Quality alpacas: This is obvious to everyone. You certainly want quality livestock to start with. But how do you define that quality? Of course you can have breeders show you the aspects of conformation and fleece. Take this with a grain of salt if they are trying to sell you animals. Especially beware if you hear the word "perfect" spoken repeatedly. There is literature available that will do a good job of explaining body conformation and fleece quality. This is the knowledge most people start out in the business with. Of course the "that one has the most beautiful eyes" or "this one nuzzles me" are quite often important aspects of purchasing one's first alpaca. But there is no perfect alpaca. So what areas do you give on and which do you insist on. Did you know that fleece quality is the easiest genetic trait to improve on, or that reproductive problems are among the most difficult to eliminate. There is much more to assessing the quality on an animal than just looking at it. Insist that the breeder you buy from understands these points, and will support you in your learning years. Quality warranties: Understand what warranties can come with your purchase. There can be many differences. Is your female guaranteed to give a live birth or only that she will get pregnant. I know a party who purchased a very nice female for substantial money. After 3 years she has yet to have a baby that lived. The seller is unwilling to do anything for this client. Know alpaca warranties, and how well the breeder helps his client when problems arise. The best breeders will help beyond their warranties. Quality support: Receiving excellent support is much more important than people realize. Too many take this important area for granted. Alpacas are very hardy, carefree critters. Still, for someone just getting started the first two years of support are critical to his or her success. There are many questions and concerns that will come up such as breeding, birthing, nutrition, etc. You will have nothing in writing that you will receive this support, only someone's word. You must background check who you are buying from. It is easy to do. Our alpaca industry is small. You can learn a lot with a few phone calls. Just get on the phone and start calling other alpaca breeders. Building a background check of references will be your best insurance for success. Alpacas can be a fantastic, rewarding life style. To insure your success, be sure to start up right. Know your stuff and do extensive background checks before purchasing. Remember, no matter how nice the promises, wining and dining, blue ribbons, magical moments, etc., your future success really depends on quality support, quality warranties and quality alpacas. Another name for a gelded alpaca is a "fiber male", a non-breeding animal. What value are these boys to an alpaca industry busy breeding for a future textile market? Fiber males have values sometimes overlooked in the rush to produce breeding livestock. First and foremost, the alpaca is a fiber production industry. Gelded males have lower levels of testosterone, so they keep their fleece fineness years longer than intact breeding males. The primary measure of a gelding’s value is the fineness, uniformity and quantity of his fleece. Is that it? We don’t think so. There are many other qualities that make gelding alpacas valuable animals. Perhaps their next greatest quality is their looks; they are just beautiful creatures, in a world where there is never enough beauty. They’re always photogenic, and their soulful eyes speak to the human heart. They’re by nature gentle creatures without much defense, always alert, cautious and shy. By virtue of their size, alpacas are naturally good with human children, as they are with their own. Geldings make the best companions for children, since boys don’t have to look after crias of their own. Well-trained geldings have greater value than those who run when humans come near. Geldings can do the work of interacting with people better than breeding girls. Interacting with humans is hard work for alpacas – we are so much clumsier and louder than they are. It’s stressful for girls and can impact their growing babies, but boys can take the stress better. Geldings are the best candidates for animal therapy; going into hospitals to let patients touch them, meeting with groups of school children, visiting retirement homes, greeting the public in public places. Lots more people would love to see and touch them, and there is great potential for the niche market small business to train and present alpacas, to assist with healing people who have suffered emotional or physical damage. Gelded males can be gentler, and for this purpose gentle alpacas have greater value than fierce ones. Some geldings are naturally more fierce by nature, and will challenge a predator when a threat comes near his herd. These "guard alpacas" have greater courage in the face of danger. In Australia, gelded guard alpacas have helped the sheep ranchers reduce their losses to predators, and have saved ranchers many times more than their cost. But don’t neglect one of the alpacas’ most enduring farm products; manure. Alpaca manure is fantastic fertilizer, either raw for trees and shrubs or as compost for vegetable crops. A local source of wholesome farm nutrients is, or soon will be, a great asset to small-scale sustainable agriculture. Alpacas and llamas could help to revitalize fresh food production near our cities, where people live, reducing our vulnerability to terrorist attack against the food transportation system. Healthy soils are living soils, and alpaca manure can be a key ingredient in recovering soils capable of growing the best medicine for people, healthy food. Put together, what is the value of a gelding? The answer depends on how creative folks are at putting together these many values into an integrated, healthy farm system that includes farmers, children, the infirm and the healthy, with fiber and food production. This could paint a beautiful picture for the future of our society. Reproduced from http://www.alpacas.com with permission of Northwest Alpacas. Copyright © 2003 Northwest Alpacas. What is the Value of a Gelding Alpaca? By Christine Perala Gardiner