Low-cost alpacas fit business plan

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Times Correspondent
Published January 14, 2008

Tampa Bay's Cinnamon Girl, foreground, and 16 other alpacas roam the 7-acre spread behind Tom and Beth Berger's New Port Richey home Tuesday evening. Beth's love of the creatures started the project and the transformation of their back yard into a small business called Suncoast Alpacas.
	[Brendan Fitterer | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Brendan Fitterer | Times] Tom Berger feeds alpaca pellets to his herd behind his home Tuesday afternoon. In fewer than three years, Tom and Beth Berger have transformed their 7-acre New Port Richey property into a prospering business called Suncoast Alpacas. [Brendan Fitterer | Times] Alpacas produce a fleece that is warmer than sheep's wool. [Brendan Fitterer | Times] Avianna and her 1-week-old cria (baby) are part of Suncoast Alpacas' 21-member herd. The Bergers are breeding the animals, which are a relative of the camel, to sell.

NEW PORT RICHEY - Tom and Beth Berger found their seven acre farm two-and-a-half years ago while browsing the Internet. At the height of the real-estate boom, the two-story, 1980s fixer-upper appealed to them, as did the prospect of owning a little land in then-booming Pasco County. The oak and cypress ringed swath of property with paddocks, horse barn and adjoining conservation buffer seemed perfect for the Bergers and their four sons.

"We wanted room and something in a good school district," says Beth, 41, who works full-time as a computer software trainer.

As it turned out, the Bergers got all they were looking for - and more.

Their small residential development, which borders Pinellas County one leg over their fence and you're actually in Pinellas, Tom jokes allows residents to raise just about any kind of animal, except pigs.

The prospect of running a modest livestock ranch in the suburbs seemed promising, though horses were definitely out of the question:

"I'm scared of 'em," admits Tom, 44, a computer IT specialist who works in the data storage industry.

So the Bergers set about researching what animals they could raise for profit on a few acres edging a burgeoning metropolitan area.

They settled on alpacas - the small, furry, sweet-tempered members of the camel family - known for their low-maintenance and low-cost lifestyle.

"I knew about them from when I lived in Virginia outside the DC area and saw farms where people were raising them," recalls Beth, who says the only animals she ever owned were dogs and cats.

Tom's research showed that a virtually closed Alpaca trade between South America and the U.S. made the creatures both coveted and prized for breeding. He also learned the Alpacas' silky, fibrous fur is ideal for making garments softer than cashmere.

Alpaca fiber, Tom points out, most definitely is not wool. In fact, it's a non-irritating alternative for people with wool allergies.

More importantly, he was impressed that the average Alpaca could live happily on less than $1 a day, "or even less," he says.

Now, about two dozen Alpacas reside blissfully on the Berger's ranchette. A few have been sold and are waiting for transfer to their new owners. There are babies, too, small, knobby-kneed and soft as lambs. They've named them mostly after places in Florida: Sanibel, Captiva, Cocoa Beach, Ponce de Leon, Anna Maria.

On a cool, January morning, the couple stood in a paddock, drinking coffee and watching as their well-cared for herd peacefully munched from feeding troughs heaped with orchard hay. A few gently hummed (a sound common to alpacas).

"They all might look alike to you but they look different to us and all have their own personalities," Beth explained, adding that sometimes she's sad to see an Alpaca she's sold leave the farm.

In fact, she has to say goodbye pretty often these days.

Their start-up business, Suncoast Alpacas, has prospered, Tom says, reaching the "break-even" point in just two years. Its success has been due in large part to the Berger's successful breeding and sale of the creatures. Alpacas are bred primarily for their excellent, soft-to-the-touch fiber, which comes in 22 colors and is shorn once a year, usually in the spring. Alpaca fiber contains no lanolin and is stronger, more lightweight, yet warmer than wool.

"The goal is to breed them for very soft fiber," Beth says.

The animals, which grow to approximately one-third or one-half the size of llamas, are so self-sufficient that they often give birth unassisted, "you can just come outside, relax and watch," says Tom.

Still, he warns that there can be emergencies.

Once when the couple took a hard-earned vacation "we were on a cruise just outside of Cuba" recalls Beth, they got word that one of the alpacas had gone into labor a month prematurely (the gestation period for alpacas is 11 months). The early labor was most likely brought on by heavy smoke in the area from Florida wildfires, Beth explains.

These days, they're watching their Alpaca business grow to the point that "we hope someday it's our primary source of income" Beth explains. "We're hoping that will happen in the next few years."

For now, though, they're at least enjoying their foray into ranching. They show their alpacas several times a year, hauling them to events in a 36-foot, four stall horse trailer equipped with a 75-gallon water tank (so the alpacas don't have to drink unfamiliar water).

The Berger's Suncoast Farms is one of about 100 serious alpaca breeding operations in the state of Florida.

"You've never met nicer people - people from all walks of life," Tom says. "We really do it for the lifestyle."

[Last modified January 13, 2008, 21:07:06]