Tag: alpacas

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Fiber Arts Friday – Still Spinning

Good day Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday followers.

Now that I have a spinning wheel I just can’t keep my hands off of it.  I spin almost every night after work, my way of winding down for the night. 

I’ve been experimenting with the wheel and the different speeds.  I tried my first single which for a newbie turns out to be pretty hard since I always seem to over twist.  But I think the single came out well.  I also tried one with a really aggressive twist and 2 plied it.  I kind of like it, it feels nifty in my hands.

My latest spinning has a purpose.  I’m all sold out of my alpaca rope reins and I need to spin up strands and get ready to make some more.  I have a hunting/fishing show coming up and was thinking of making some dog leashes for the hunting dogs.  We’ll see if they do well.

Oh, one of the photos is of my $4 lazy kate!  Yup, I found a shadowbox on sale for $3 add another $1 for a dowel, drill some holes and poof!  $4 lazy kate.   

$4 Lazy Kate

 

Over twisted 2 ply - Worsted

 

Single ply - DK
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Alpaca Business – Writing an Alpaca Business Plan

Most alpaca ranchers are not going to go to a bank and attempt to take out a loan to fund their initial alpaca herds.  So the type of alpaca business plan you’ll probably need is not as in depth as what a bank is looking for.  What I use my business plan for is to keep my spending, marketing, breeding, and sales on tract and I use 1 year, 2 year and 5 year goals in my plan. 

The biggest reason you should have an active business plan is in the off chance you are audited by the IRS.  Many alpaca ranchers run the fine line between running a farm for profit (business) and running a farm at a loss (hobby).  Don’t get me wrong, there is technically nothing wrong with running your farm at a loss and most of you will probably be in the red for 3-5 years after your starting your farm until your herd builds up and you are able to make your first sales. The trick is if the IRS audits you to make sure you are seriously running your farm and attempting to make a profit.  Having a business plan is step one in proving you are running a farm as a business.

Writing a business plan is going to take some time and some homework on your end.  However don’t let it scare you.  In the end you’re technically just interviewing yourself. 

Business Plan Outline – for self use not for banks

  • Purpose
    • Brief description of objectives
  • Description
    • Business Form: DBA, Partnership, LLC, Corporation etc
    • Type of Business: Retail, wholesale, manufacturing, service, etc
    • What is your product/service
    • When does your business open/start?
    • What have you learned from other businesses of similar type?
    • Why will your business be profitable?
    • What are your personal and business goals?
  • Product/Service
    • What are you selling? Seed stock, raw fiber, processed fiber, end products, boarding, shearing, training?
    • What benefits are you selling with your product/service
    • What makes your alpacas, products/services different from other farms?
  • Market
    • Who is your customer? Who will buy from you?
    • Is the alpaca market growing, steady or declining?
    • Is your share growing, steady or declining
    • Are you segmenting your markets? How?
    • Are the markets large enough for you to expand?
  • Competition
    • Write down your closest competitors (alpaca, sheep, goat, fiber farms)
    • Who are your indirect competitors  (Walmart, Joann Fabrics, Local yarn stores)
    • What have you learned about your competition’s advertisements?
  • Product Development
    • What products/services are you considering?
      • Huacaya, Suri, Both
      • Produce high quality seed stock or mid range?
      • Boarding, shearing, sorting, training services?
      • What are you going to do with the fiber?
        • Process yourself, mill, co-op, donate
      • Are you going to sell end products?
        • Made by you? Made in USA? Made in Peru?
      • Where are you selling finished products
        • Online, farm store, farm market, craft fairs
  • Marketing
    • How will you attract buyers?
      • If selling alpacas how will you get your name out to others?
        • Show alpacas, AlpacaNation, OpenHerd, AlpacaStreet, Other?
    • Print advertising? Online? eBay? Etsy? Road Sign?
    • What markets do you plan on entering?
    • How do you price your products/services?
      • Location Location Location!
      • Is your farm easy to get to?
      • How far do people have to travel to visit your farm store?
    • What kind of space do you need?
      • Barns, Pastures, Hay storage, Farm Store
      • How is your land zoned?
      • Do you have parking and wide enough driveway to accommodate traffic for a farm store or for trucks with gooseneck trailers for alpaca transport?
    • Other demographic/market shifts in your area
  • Sales Plan
    • Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Sales goals
    • What other checkpoints do you have
      • # of cria born per year
      • If you own a stud # of outside breedings sold
      • How many alpacas do you want to board
      • How many head do you want to shear/sort
  • Personnel/Operations/Management
    • I combine these because chances are you are your only employee
    • What is your background/experience? What skills do you have?
    • What are your strengths and weaknesses?
    • What are your plans for training and education?
    • Clearly define your duties
    • What additional resources do you have? (Day job?)

I’ve tried to incorporate many of the alpaca specific questions you would need to ask yourself when writing up your business plan.  Do not expect to answer all of these questions immediately!  I will be going in to many of the headlines over the next few weeks to give you a better idea of how you go about collecting and computing the information needed in your plan. 

Click Here for the Overview and links to other articles

For more personalized help with your business plan stop by your local chamber of commerce, the business department at your local college or university or http://www.sba.gov

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Human vs. Alpaca Round 1


This past Sunday evening we decided to give the alpacas their monthly Ivermec shot and to trim toenails. Monthly shots are hardly exciting anymore and usually none of the alpacas put up much of a fight. Clipping toenails turned out to be a totally different story.

It turns out alpacas are fully aware of the 80/20 rule. 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your alpacas. I seriously think alpacas can count and do math. 1 out of 5 girls is 20% after all.

We saved the hard ones for last with the false hope that maybe they’ll watch the others and get the idea that no one was being killed. The others did such a good job and stood quietly as I picked up each foot and clipped the long nails off, I was really feeling hopeful. That was until we went to catch the last one.

Giving the shot wasn’t a problem at all and went smoothly. I slowly worked my hand down from the neck to her legs and the first explosion went off. Did you know that alpacas when standing on their hind legs are WAY taller than my 6’2” frame? Thankfully M was with me and the 2 of us got her under control, or so we thought. First it always starts with the spitting but in our case it was more like dodging grape shot. M had been keeping her occupied by feeding her hay stretcher and each time she spat the chunks of stretcher would fly out of her mouth like bird shot. Potentially hazardous, but thankfully no match for Carharts.

M finally got her in a good hold and I managed to clip the first foot and she then went into full wrestling mode with M. After a short tiff, the position I found both alpaca and husband was quite peculiar. M was straddling her, heck stuck out between his legs like a large knight mounted on a really small and fuzzy horse. M seemed as confused as the alpaca on how they ended up that way but she seemed to be comfortable and was still standing. So, I took quick advantage of the situation and managed to trim the other 3 legs.

Mission accomplished M dismounted his trusty steed. His mount seemed to have forgotten the whole event and immediately went back to sniffing out our hands and pockets for treats.
I’m not quite sure how to award this round so I’m going to consider it a tie.

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Crochet Fishnet Scarf

Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday!  I thought I’d give you all a little sneak peak of some of the crochet scarfs I’ve been making this week.  One of my co-workers calls them “Fishnet Scarf.”  Fitting name if you ask me.  

If you’re in the WNY area they will be available for sale the weekend of Sept 26 – 27th for National Alpaca Farm Days! 

Pst! Ladies if you’re hubby really isn’t into the whole alpaca thing but you want to talk to a farm, have I got a surprise for you!  Dutch Hollow Acres will be at the DEC Days in Avon, NY Sept 26th-27th with some of our alpacas! So, you can ask us all the questions you’d like and the hubby can check out all the hunting and fishing manly stuff.  We’ll be chock full of alpaca socks so it’s a great time to show him how warm alpacas can keep his feet this hunting season too!