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AlpacaNation Q&A with C R Alpacas, Inc.
Cheryl & Ross Palmentera
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10045 Bainbridge Road, Auburn Township, OH 44023-5445
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440-543-6114
AlpacaNation: Tell us about yourself
C R Alpacas, Inc.: My husband, Ross, and I were city born and raised. I was a PC Systems Specialist for a multi-billion dollar corporation for over 13 years. Now, we are full-time Alpaca breeders! Ross retired from 20+ years as a crane operator to become a full-time Alpaca Rancher along side me. We love to watch the cria run and pronk. We walk out into the fields, to visit with and love-on our alpacas. We are able to have fellowship with all breeders as we chose to raise both types and all possible colors of alpacas for personal interests, marketing advantages and diversity. Integrity and the Golden Rule are our top priority with values of God first, Family second, and Career third. We strive to set, challenge and meeting our goals and dreams and, more importantly, helping others achieve their dreams through Alpaca breeding.
AlpacaNation: What piqued your interest about the industry? What led to your initial purchase?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Back in 1995, Ross had spinal bone damage and constant pain in his back from working in a poorly counterweighted crane for 20+ years, I suggested he retire or look for a less strenuous career that would allow him to rest his back when needed. By 1998, he was going stir crazy and had mentioned wanting to farm, but "what" was the question. While waiting for Ross in the back doctor's reception room, I was browsing through a Good-Housekeeping magazine and noticed a very small black and white article in the bottom left corner from the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. Curious as to "what an alpaca was", I wrote down their web address. Later that night I went to the website and fell instantly in love with their photos and wanted to see them in person and continued to learn more about them. Upon request, AOBA referred us to farms in our area, therefore, beginning our research. While visiting the farms, my husband fell in love as well...the rest is history.
AlpacaNation: What sets your farm and herd apart from others in the industry?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: C R Alpacas, Inc. is located on 18.5 acres and currently maintain an average of about 30 in our herd. We believe in a well-rounded herd and that "specializing" in one color or one type limits your prospect's choice and your sale potential. Therefore, our strong points are that we strive to maintain all possible colors in both huacayas and suris with champion bloodlines for our clients to choose from.
We hold two FREE seminars per year. One in the spring and one in the fall covering, husbandry, shearing, processing, breeding, birthing, marketing, showing, starting an alpaca products gift shop and much more! We take customer service very seriously and have been known to go above and beyond the call of duty to assist and educate our clients and all who are interested in learning about alpacas.
AlpacaNation: How did you decide on your farm name? Is there a special meaning behind the name?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Our farm name has two meanings that influenced our decision. The "C" stood for Cheryl, the "R" stood for Ross and the “Alpacas” was to denote our type of business. The order was also for an acronym meaning "See Our Alpacas" which has been caught by several people including the younger generation resulting in more interest in the Alpaca business as a future lifestyle for them as well.
AlpacaNation: How long have you been in the alpaca business?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We began our research in the fall of 1998 but did not purchase our first alpacas until January of 1999 whereby establishing and incorporating our business to the success it is today!
AlpacaNation: What is your greatest achievement or favorite memory since you started your herd?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Equinox was our first and only entry in the 1999 AOBA Nationals. He took FIRST PLACE for conformation as well as FIRST PLACE and the only CHAMPIONSHIP for the Handcrafter’s Spin-off against several hundred entries and to have received such high praise from the judge was very exciting! He scored 84.5 out of 85! As the judge stated that "no alpaca is perfect"! We were given a CHAMPIONSHIP shadow box trophy consisting of a photo of Equinox, with samples of the fleece spun and woven displayed inside. We display it very proudly at all our events and our showroom. Now, we train other breeders on how to prepare their fleece entries with much success and joy.
Our first cria born on our "own" farm was our next greatest joy! Also, attending any birth is still like our first as well as voicing congratulatory shouts of glee for our client's first cria, sharing & seeing the same joy in their eyes!
AlpacaNation: Are there concerns you have regarding selectively breeding with a limited gene pool?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We believe in selectively breeding! However there is a concern for the emphasis on "Peruvian" vs. "Chilean" or "Bolivian". Chileans were free range bred and purchased from the Quechua Indian Tribe, the Peruvians were purchased from Peru's Co-Op and the Bolivians were purchased from Bolivia's Co-Op. However, the Bolivian Co-Op harvested all their alpacas from the Peruvian Co-Op thereby making them also Peruvian alpacas!
We have found excellent quality alpacas in ALL orgins. We need to put a stop to the marketing "segregation" of the origins and look more at what a particular alpaca and their offspring produce rather than where they were "harvested” during the importation period. After all, any cria born in the USA is truly an "American" alpaca. We believe that we must select our best and breed for top quality alpacas so our fiber to be the best in the world and that is our ultimate goal for the American alpaca!
AlpacaNation: Do you have a favorite Alpaca? Why is it your favorite?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Our favorite is Equinox. He was our first male purchased, our first Champion stud and has the best disposition. Even a two-year-old child has walked him on a lead and he will go with them without any hesitation or just stand still for them. He accepts food very gently with his lips from your hand, which make many children laugh from the tickle. My husband has offered a piece of an apple to Equinox with it sticking out of his own mouth and Equinox gently uses his lips to retrieve it and enjoys the delicious treat. He has yielded us as much as 10-14 pounds of fleece annually! All his offspring, thusfar, have been either Champions and/or first place winners when entered in the ring.
We have another favorite, CR Peruvian Sir Spartacus! He is just as sweet and had the opportunity to attend more shows than Equinox. So far he has earned EIGHT FIRST Places, two SECOND Places, one RESERVE CHAMPIONSHIP and two COLOR CHAMPIONSHIPS!
But, really, all are our favorites!
AlpacaNation: What tools (Internet, mailings, shows, etc.) have been successful and what have not?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We have advertised in the American Livestock Magazine, Alpaca Magazine, our own web site (www.c-r-alpacas.com), AlpacaNation, AOBA, OABA, ARI, GLAA, MAPACA, the Yellow Pages, Verizon Web Super Pages, local newspapers, theaters and many more. We advertise at every show and County Fair we attend by sponsorship and distributing our fliers to every booth. When we decided to no longer agist and purchase our own farm, we had our first debut open house on June 23, 2001. We mailed our invitations and had several signs at all freeway exits and street corners pointing people to our farm in a 3-mile radius. We feel the best advertisement is holding an open house with FREE seminars and FREE group farm tours to give it that personal touch.
AlpacaNation: Describe your first alpaca purchase... would you do anything differently today?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We originally picked out over 22 alpacas to purchase but by the time we finished our research and liquidated our stocks, all but three were sold! Therefore, our first purchase was a "package deal" where we purchased two pregnant females and one female cria at the side. Later that year, we purchased Equinox and Napoleon (as his companion) to save on future breeding fees and gain show experience. The advantage of this type of purchase would be to keep the two dams and the cria as foundation females and sell the other two future offspring to help pay for the initial investment. We have been very pleased with our initial purchase and would recommend the same type of deal, as it is affordable for a beginning farm with a tight budget. However, with the recent passing of new tax laws, we would recommend purchasing as many as fiscally possible to take advantage of the newer tax breaks.
AlpacaNation: What has been your biggest lesson learned in terms of breeding?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: If you breed for the female, you may be disappointed if you are expecting a female and it turns out to be a male and what if it isn’t top show and breeding quality? However, if you breed for the quality male, then you will never be disappointed!
We recommend you watch what shows the alpaca won their ribbons at and how many. Just one ribbon at one show is not good enough for a true evaluation of a top quality alpaca. We discovered that just because they won "herdsire of the year" does not mean that they are the best herdsire! You must still evaluate that alpaca in person as you may then end up not getting what you expected in the end losing valuable time and money, as you will have to begin all over again! Gestation can be as long a year and it will take another two years or more before that cria can reproduce and/or be sold!
AlpacaNation: How do you see the industry developing as the U.S. market grows rapidly?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We look forward to a very exciting future for the "American" fiber industry and to be known worldwide as the “best” fiber producers in the world! Currently we have about 100,000 registered alpacas in the nation. Therefore rapid growth is a plus that will free us from our dependence upon other countries to process our high-end textile wool. Now, we have begun to process our wool here in the United States through our Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America (AFCNA)! Therefore, we will be providing more jobs for Americans and help increase our clothing economy. Due to our selective breeding programs to produce the best of the best, we now have other countries coming to the USA to purchase our alpacas!
AlpacaNation: What steps did you take to prepare for raising an alpaca herd?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: In all honesty, since we had fallen in love with the alpacas at first site, we jumped in with both feet! However, we did do some research and saw how easy they were to care for, how accommodating, what low maintenance they were and how supportive a network of alpaca breeders were available to assist us; we felt we didn't have to worry about learning "everything" before buying. Like our own children, raising alpacas is a never-ending learning process. We have not regretted diving right in, as we were able to build our herd faster than our peers, which contributed to our success today.
AlpacaNation: How do you see your farm and alpaca business growing over the next 5 to 10 years?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: We have completed eight years in the alpaca business where we have either met or exceeded many of our goals! The first three years were spent on purchasing and breeding in order to build our herd quickly. With larger farms being in the business for more than twenty years, we needed to grow fast in order to compete. On our third year, we began selling in the fall and sold 3 that year. Our fourth year, we went from a total of 50 down to a foundation herd of only 15 resulting in sales of over $315,000 that year alone!
Our top goal is to rebuild our current farmhouse with a bigger gift shop. Our next goal is to start up the Northeastern Ohio Camelid Hospital to service the northeastern Ohio region and surrounding states. Once established, we plan build another in the northwest, southwest and southeastern regions of Ohio to service those surrounding states to help with the overflow at the Ohio State Veterinary Clinic.
AlpacaNation: What do you tell prospective buyers who look at the small profit the alpaca fiber produces compared to the daunting prices of alpacas?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Since there are only about 100,000 registered alpacas in the USA, this is nowhere near enough to produce the raw material needed for our large mills to justify the cost of re-gauging their mills to accommodate our fine fiber.
Therefore, an American fiber co-op was born. Which harvests and currently produces wonderful finished products that we not only earn credit for our fiber but also completes the circle by providing the ability to purchase the finished products at wholesale and sell them in our farm gift shops resulting in an additional source of income.
Now that we have begun to produce enough wool, we have stopped exporting our fiber for processing. It is the American Alpaca Breeder’s goal to raise the best alpacas, process the best wool in the United States and produce the best quality fiber industry for our people to be proud to manufacture and sell not only to the USA but worldwide.
AlpacaNation: What has been the most helpful advice you have received from your veterinarian?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Alpacas are built to protect themselves from the 363 days out of a year's sunshine exposure in the mountains of Peru. However, here in the north, we are lucky to have half that much sunshine. Many of the best alpacas have such dense fleece that what sun we do get is unable to penetrate enough to provide the much needed vitamins to maintain strong and straight legs. Therefore, the most helpful advise our veterinarian gave us was on how to obtain and/or maintain those straight legs during our winter when there is little or no sun to provide the needed vitamins for for their health and the best conformation in the show ring. We pass this information on to our clients during their orientation and training.
AlpacaNation: What advice would you give to those just getting started in the industry?
C R Alpacas, Inc.: Our advise is to educate yourself by visiting more than one farm, ask questions, go to as many free seminars and shows as possible especially the AOBA National Show before you buy your first pair or package of Alpacas. We care about our "children", as we call them, and would not like to see them go to a new owner that was not trained in alpaca husbandry. Therefore, make sure you are going to be "mentored" well by the farm you purchase from. We do not wish to have a "rescue program” for alpacas. Nor do we wish anyone to be disillusioned. You either love Alpacas or you don't. They will teach you love & patience and have been know to be the best stress reliever you could never get without a prescription!
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