I am buying a farm with 12 acres and want to get some llamas and maybe an alpaca or two if I find I can afford them. I am not even sure if you can keep them together or not. I now live in the Atlanta Georgia area and nothing is cheap or affordable around here. I wondered if anyone had any suggestions as to where I might go to get these beautiful animals at a price that is affordable. I have a great home for them, this is not just a passing fancy. Thanks, Joyce

-- Joyce S. Woodrum (jnfwoodrum@aol.com), January 17, 2002

Answers

Joyce, I'm not sure what your idea of "affordable" is, and how far you'd be willing to travel, but I just saw an ad for llamas in Lancaster Farming (www.lancasterfarming.com) from someone that was selling all of theirs due to illness $300 - $500 each. I'm not sure of the location, but it's probably somewhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I believe it was in the Mailbox Market or the searchable classifieds. Good luck!

-- Fran (on MD's Eastern Shore) (simpleplesurzfrm@dmv.com), January 17, 2002.

Let it be known in the community or elsewhere that you want these. Someone gave me two young intact males a few years ago and I have seen pretty decent prices here in central Missouri. Here is a site for alpacas www.alpacaoz.com or 417-736-2866 and for llamas email;threea@sofnet.com or (417)466-2309 from the Missouri Ruralist for southern Mo.Good luck, Terry

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), January 17, 2002.

Never doubt, alpacas are for the rich and famous. They are promoted shamelesslly as tax shelters for doctors, lawyers, etc. I made the mistake of inquiring through a website in Martha Stewart Living magazine and got tons of full-color glossy literature. I then began getting invitations to various breeders' sales. Some even mentioned that I could fly in and land at their private airstrip. These are not the next potbellied pig or emu craze. The breeders have figured out how to keep the prices high. Now llamas, that's another story entirely.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.

I have a couple of pet llama's. They are lots of fun. Here are a couple of GA llama groups.

Georgia Llama and Alpaca Social Organization

Contact Liliane Grant at 770.445.2855

Southern States Llama Association

Contact Dr. Wayne Coussens at 912.988.4999 or by email to alohallama@aol.com Website: http://www.ssla.org/

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 17, 2002.

You can usually find llamas for pretty cheap, or sometimes free, if you keep your eyes open in the Nickel ads or similar publication. I actually saw three wethered alpacas in the same paper recently for $500 each or all three for $1000. This seems to me to be about the right price for alpacas, given the value of the fiber. Breeding stock prices on alpacas are still incredibly high. Although I know and really like alpacas, I'll probably buy wethers in a couple of years, and just keep waiting until the breeding stock market is saturated and the prices plummet to the actual fiber production value of the animal. I suppose this will take another five or ten years, but I'm patient, and I am NOT going to pay pyramid prices for livestock. If you're interested in wethers, you might contact some breeders in your area and ask whether they have any non-breeding quality males they'd like to sell for fiber animals. Someone will probably give you a realistic price on these animals.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), January 17, 2002.

Check with your local 4-H or FFA group--they may be able to hook you up with someone who is tired of them, or needs to get rid of them for some other reason.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 17, 2002.

There was a thread on 1/12 about purchasing llamas also that you may want to check out.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), January 18, 2002.