Alpaca's should be sheared approximately once a year, to maintain the quality of the fibre and to keep them from overheating. They need their toenails trimmed every few months (a job that can be mastered very quickly), They are fairly disease resistant but should be dewormed at least twice yearly, once worms have been found in the herd. And the manure should be removed from the pasture regularly. This last task is made easier by the fact that they have only a few communal manure piles that are used.
Alpacas have proven to be a good investment over the 10 + years they have been raised in North America and should continue to be in the future. Both the ARI (American Registry) and CLAA (Canadian Registry) are closed to foundation stock imports. Which means the growth in animal numbers in these registries is restricted to natural reproduction of the current herds. On farm sales account for most animal sales and average prices range between $5 000-$25 000 for Males to $10 000-25 000 for females with some animals going for considerably higher. The fleece market is still in its infancy, but the demand is strong and prices for high quality raw fibre can run between $20- $40/lb
There are basically two types of Alpacas Suri and Huacaya. The Huacaya has dense fleece that grows straight out from the body. And the Suri has fleece that hangs down from the body in locks. Alpacas are small animals with adults around 36 inches high at the withers and between 110 and 200 pounds. They are not normally aggressive, although like any herd animal they squabble among themselves for dominance within the herd. Alpacas are relatively easy to keep. They eat grass and hay and chew the cud. They are very efficient feeders (when feeding 14 animals in winter we were only using 1 small square bale of grass hay every 2 days) They are slow breeders with an 11 month gestation period, almost always giving birth to a single cria without help and during daylight hours.