Why Alpacas?
“You should get some alpacas. They don’t buck, bite, spit, or kick like llamas. ” This was my mother’s reasoning to me when I asked the question, “what is an alpaca?” My response was (of course), “But I wasn’t thinking of getting a llama.” Two years later, I was in the alpaca business.
Why would I do this? There are many reasons, the majority of which come back to return on investment. To start, there are many tax advantages. The US tax code is built for farmers, we seem to have a soft spot in our hearts for the American farmer. Alpacas provide for the ability to convert regular income to capital gains income (lower tax rates). They may also qualify for 100% depreciation in the first year under Section 179.
Other financial aspects are the obvious compounding. Alpacas reproduce themselves (albeit somewhat slowly). What other investments do you have that do that? A single female can yield you an offspring every year for many years.
Due to the slow reproductive rate of alpacas and import restrictions, this is a “breeder’s market”. The current US herd is not large enough to support the current alpaca fiber demand of its own country, let alone exports. So it will likely remain focused on breeding for the next several years.
[A "post in progress". I'll add more later 
]
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