Re: [AlpacaTalk] Re: Sent to Alpaca site...held, not posted by site...
Richard,
your post from November 14 is copied in it's entirety below. No where do you offer ideas on what you would believe to be a positive and workable model. In fact after rereading all of your posts to this site I find no examples of your offering any sort of positive feedback. In every posed instance of someone working a successful model you have come back with a negative. There are always folks willing to stand on the sidelines and say "that's impossible" and "that will never work" while others are busy succeeding.
It is obvious you have a formed opinion and your goal is to share that opinion. Fair enough. What I am asking of you is to offer your ideas on a positive model. Now your seeming to not do so could be attributed to the nature of email and tone getting lost in translation. Or you are simply here to criticize and berate.
Most years we have sold our fleeces to hand spinners and the like at a number that has gone on to cover feed and vet bills and expenses for the year. This year we chose to sell our clip at a lower rate to help support a new yarn business's efforts. This was done with an eye to the future. The monies paid for this years fleeces are still significantly higher than the whole sale numbers frequently quoted.
If you are ever in Northern California we'd love to host you for a day to show you how we are working our particular model. There will be steaks on the grill and a bottle of your choice of vino to share.
Bluest Skies
Jennifer
Aero Ranch Suri Alpacas
Browns Valley, CA
Nov 14th you wrote:
Allison, it seems that fiber isn't ever going to be viable on
its own, with its wholesale value limited to only a few $s/lb. Even
assuming everyone could get the fiber processed and sold as their own
yarn, you are looking at perhaps this sort of scenario:
Process 5lbs/head and get 3.3lbs yarn back, output say $85/lb x 3.3
= $280/head less processing 5 x $32 = $160: margin per head (before
other costs)= $120. That wouldn't cover annual keeping costs, let
alone allow for capital costs and overheads.
So some sort of economic model is needed that gives some basic
production value for an alpaca. That is why folk are casting about
for other potential products: perhaps not so much as an alternative
to fiber, but in addition.
I don't know if alpaca meat is going to be an acceptable product in
principle for consumers (and clearly it would be anathema to many
alpaca producers), but if it did ever take off, the requirement would
be for animals no more than about 2 years old: of course the younger
the animal, the better the fiber too. So a possible model to consider
might be one rather more akin to sheep (albeit with a slower
turnaround rate): rearing production animals, that are taken to about
2 years old, for fiber + meat + hide, and sourcing them from
breeding flocks (which could be in the same ownership, or separate
ventures).
The trouble is that if anything along those lines were ever to be
viable, you would have to be looking at sale prices for production
and breeding stock closer to that of sheep as well - the typical
alpaca can't be worth $000s on any rational agricultural basis.
Richard
Maidstone Kent
UK
--- On Sun, 11/23/08, suekodu <humhojl120@hotmail.
From: suekodu <humhojl120@hotmail.
Subject: [AlpacaTalk] Re: Sent to Alpaca site...held, not posted by site...
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogro
Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008, 3:37 AM
--- In AlpacaTalk@yahoogro ups.com, Jennifer J Powers <jpowers@... >
wrote:
>
> Richard,
> Like any other business there are many paths to success. All involve
> dedication and hard work. One only need look a the rate of
attrition in
> any other small business (restaurants spring to mind) to know it
isn't
> easy nor guaranteed. The US is full of successful businesses
fullfilling a niche. My stance is that we ignore the multi million
dollar cottage industry at our peril.
>
> You are obviously comfortable dismissing successful models out of
hand.
> Folks who are selling their fleeces (from whatever species)at
profitable levels. Folks selling high quality alpaca products at a
price point that illustrates that consumers will pay top dollar for
quality... And you obviously have an opinion on a successful model
for the US alpaca industry. We are all ready to read your suggestions
and model for success in the US market.
>
> Please illuminate us.
>
> Blue Skies
> Jennifer Powers
> Aero Ranch Suri Alpacas
> Browns Valley, CA
I think the "comfortable" , "dismissive" and "out of hand" remarks are
unfair. I have questioned the viability of these models in some depth
and included (unchallenged) figures, sourced from within the alpaca
industry itself, in support.
With regards to "illumination" , we are rather going round in circles –
it was my musing on a possible structure for the industry (posted
November 14th), and your response, that started this particular
discussion.
Richard
Maidstone Kent UK
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posted by Chaddo at 11:27 AM
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