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They found a future in fleece
King George County couple raise alpacas
Date published: 8/20/2009
BY CATHY JETT While most people wonder where their savings went in the recession, Sharon and Dan Roberts just have to look out their window. There, grazing contentedly on their 131/2-acre Camillo Valley Alpaca Farm near Dahlgren, is the herd of 34 alpacas they're raising for their fine, silky fleece and as breeding stock. "There's nothing better than sitting on the front porch and watching the animals pronking across the field," said Sharon Roberts, explaining that alpacas pronk, or hop up and down on all four legs, when they're happy. "There's nothing better than watching that joy and knowing you've provided an environment that made that possible." Roberts' mother and three sons, she'll tell you, swear that she got into alpaca farming because she'd hit menopause. But she says she was mesmerized by the animals after staring into the large, curious brown eyes of a mother alpaca at a fall bazaar in Maryland six years ago. "She seemed to be staring into my soul, and I got the distinct impression I passed whatever test she was silently administering," Roberts wrote in an essay on the farm's Web site, camillo valley.com. "I was falling quickly! I came out of my trance to realize my husband was now standing by my side and asking, 'What's that?'" Dan Roberts, then a field technician for United Rentals, pulled her away but agreed to look up alpacas on the Internet when they got home. A few days later, he'd downloaded so much information about the investment potential and tax advantages that it took her several nights to read it all. "That began a ritual. Each night found us in front of the computer 'oohing' and 'ahhing' over the animals and eagerly reading stories of how busy professionals, grandmothers, truck drivers, newlyweds and millionaires had found these animals and started their own alpaca adventures," wrote Roberts, a resource teacher at Maurice J. McDonough High School in Charles County, Md. "The next logical step," she added, "was to go visiting."
Date published: 8/20/2009
Big Bucks
(posted by
observer
, Aug. 20, 2009 9:56 am)
When I visited a Alpaca farm in NC the owner said the bulk of
the revenues comes from breeding and selling young animals.
At that time the market was paying $15K for young animals.
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