Herd growth has many facets:
How many alpacas do you want?
How many are you planning on breeding every year?
How many will you keep?
How many will you sell?
What is your expected production rate?
What is the ideal number of alpacas for your farm? This could be the maximun number the land will support or the number of females necessary to produce the amount of alpacas you want to sell or the number of fiber boys you need to make product.
I first figured out how many alpacas I could reasonably support on the land. From that number, I worked on the number of females and males that would be ideal for my sales goals. Remember goals are just that, goals, so have a fall back plan if you don't make the sales you were expecting.
Northwest alpacas has a great herd growth calculator. You type in the number of alpacas you have now and it estimates the number you will have in future years.
You can see that the cria add up faster than you think. So have a plan in place to sell as you are growing. This does two things, it puts you in the marketplace and makes you practice marketing and selling. You learn what works and what doesn't before you find yourself in a position of having to make a sale. It also brings in new bloodlines if you buy to replace what you sell. If you don't plan on that, then it puts money in the farm budget.
Now is the time to think about what to do with the boys you will be getting. Will you show them, sell them as fiber boys, or keep a fiber herd? Just something to think about.
I would like a herd of 10 breeding females. If I get 50% boys, then I will need to sell 5 boys a year. I also need to sell 5 females to keep the herd at the ideal size. The females sold could be yearlings, pregnant maidens, and/or the production females. I also have some older females, so am planning on when they will retire to have a replacement in place.
As I am growing to that size, I am selling the females that don't fit my business plan and most of the boys. The number can't be written in stone because while statistics say there will be a 50/50 spilt, I have had years with all girls and ones with all boys. It works out in the long run, but to plan year to year for it is tricky.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
An update on the crias at HomeSpun Alpacas
Tank is our middle child. He has been putting on about a pound a day and is a strapping male. Tank is 4 weeks old in this picture.
Teddy was very ill and had to go to the hospital. They inserted an IV - I got to help - and after he came home we took it out too. This is the result. A happy, healthy cria. Thank you Puget Sound Veterinary Group! Drs Scott and Jackie worked hard on stopping this little guy's diarrhea. Everyone there was very patient with me calling and wanting updates.
This is the newest cria. He does not have a name yet, but we are working on it! He is a cutie too.
Teddy was very ill and had to go to the hospital. They inserted an IV - I got to help - and after he came home we took it out too. This is the result. A happy, healthy cria. Thank you Puget Sound Veterinary Group! Drs Scott and Jackie worked hard on stopping this little guy's diarrhea. Everyone there was very patient with me calling and wanting updates.
This is the newest cria. He does not have a name yet, but we are working on it! He is a cutie too.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Alpaca Business Plan Part 5 - Business Products & Services
The business products and services section is where you talk about what you are going to sell. First identify what your products and services are going to be. This may be repeated in the section on marketing, but it is a different slant than what we are focusing on here. Are you in the business to sell and promote fiber boys, fiber products, raw fiber, breeding females, herdsire services, or future herdsires? Huacayas or Suris?
Tell about your criteria for each one. What do you consider a herdsire? What would you consider to be prime blanket? Not all blankets are created equal, the 17 micron fleece will bring more per pound than the 35 micron fleece. What are your standards for an acceptable X?
Address anything unique about your services or products. Think of the people who raise organic vegetables, they detail what is unique about their product and show how it fits into a healthy lifestle.
The following is what I put down as my business products and services:
HomeSpun Alpacas will sell huacaya alpacas for the breeding market. We will also sell fiber and products made from their fiber such as yarn and blankets. We will focus on black.
Our fiber goals for fineness are detailed in the long term goal section.
Breeding Females
Breeding females should be the ones with fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They have easy births and plenty of milk. Their crias are healthy and strong.
Breeding Males
The breeding male alpacas also have the fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They produce crias that are consistently better than the dam and themselves. They come from a line of alpacas that produce healthy crias. Their fiber stays fine even with the onset of breeding and age.
Fiber Products
The fiber that the alpacas produce is warmer than sheep wool and generally considered stronger. It has been marketed as rivaling cashmere, and the truly fine fleeces do with a micron under 20. There is a wide range of fiber produced by an alpaca. The blanket is the prime and the most marketable. The neck is second. The leg and belly are thirds. Each of these kinds of fibers has their use in the market place.
Tell about your criteria for each one. What do you consider a herdsire? What would you consider to be prime blanket? Not all blankets are created equal, the 17 micron fleece will bring more per pound than the 35 micron fleece. What are your standards for an acceptable X?
Address anything unique about your services or products. Think of the people who raise organic vegetables, they detail what is unique about their product and show how it fits into a healthy lifestle.
The following is what I put down as my business products and services:
HomeSpun Alpacas will sell huacaya alpacas for the breeding market. We will also sell fiber and products made from their fiber such as yarn and blankets. We will focus on black.
Our fiber goals for fineness are detailed in the long term goal section.
Breeding Females
Breeding females should be the ones with fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They have easy births and plenty of milk. Their crias are healthy and strong.
Breeding Males
The breeding male alpacas also have the fine crimpy fiber and correct conformation. They produce crias that are consistently better than the dam and themselves. They come from a line of alpacas that produce healthy crias. Their fiber stays fine even with the onset of breeding and age.
Fiber Products
The fiber that the alpacas produce is warmer than sheep wool and generally considered stronger. It has been marketed as rivaling cashmere, and the truly fine fleeces do with a micron under 20. There is a wide range of fiber produced by an alpaca. The blanket is the prime and the most marketable. The neck is second. The leg and belly are thirds. Each of these kinds of fibers has their use in the market place.
- Prime The prime fiber is used for blankets, sweaters, scarves and hats. It is soft and able to be worn next to the skin.
- Seconds This fiber is used for socks and things that are not worn next to the skin. It is also used as felt.
- Thirds Thirds are used for rugs, insulation, and as weed barrier.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Alpaca Business Plan Part 4 - Goals
Short term goals are goals you want to achieve in a short period of time. I usually choose a year for this, but choose a time period that makes sense to you and your business.
What are you going to do this year to bring your alpaca business forward? Outside breedings, buy a herdsire, sell females or fiber boys, make business agreements with others for trading are just a few ideas. What do you need or want to avoid?
What do you want to achieve with your alpacas? Lower micron, higher shear weight, easy births, milk production, crimp style, color are examples. Also include things you would like to get rid of.
What marketing are you planning? Will it help you achieve your goals? Is marketing one of your goals? What do you want marketing to do for you?
What profits would you like to see? How might you go about producing a profit?
Brainstorm and see what comes up. Don't worry about reality just yet. Dream.
Goals are your destination, worry about getting there after you figure out where you want to go!
Now take all of your great ideas and write them up in a couple of paragraphs. It can help to make concrete, active statements like "We are selling three alpacas in 2010" rather than "We plan to sell three alpacas next year."
Long term goals just take that information a bit farther. Think 5 or 10 years down the line.
What would you like to see then?
What steps do you need to take to get there? What do you need to focus on?
HomeSpun Alpacas Short Term Goals
The initial business focus will be on quality (fleece and conformation) tame, halter trained alpacas. During the first two to three years, we will strive to improve the herd’s fiber.
During this time, we will also be breeding for black. To complement this objective, we will search out the most appropriate black herdsires to breed to our black females. We will also use finely fleeced and crimpy alpacas to bring down the micron and compliment the crimp in our brown females. They will be bred to the most appropriate male, regardless of color.
We will use males that dramatically improve upon the female’s crimp and decrease any guardhair.
Long Term Goals
It is the intent of the owners of HomeSpun Alpacas to build a fiber business selling yarn and products made from our own alpacas as well as building the herd of females to around 10 head.
Our breeding goals are:
Age Micron
Up to 12 months 16
1 - 2 years 18
2 - 3 years 20
3 - 4 years 21
4 - 6 years 22
6 - 8 years 23
8 - 14 years 26
To achieve our goals we need to:
What are you going to do this year to bring your alpaca business forward? Outside breedings, buy a herdsire, sell females or fiber boys, make business agreements with others for trading are just a few ideas. What do you need or want to avoid?
What do you want to achieve with your alpacas? Lower micron, higher shear weight, easy births, milk production, crimp style, color are examples. Also include things you would like to get rid of.
What marketing are you planning? Will it help you achieve your goals? Is marketing one of your goals? What do you want marketing to do for you?
What profits would you like to see? How might you go about producing a profit?
Brainstorm and see what comes up. Don't worry about reality just yet. Dream.
Goals are your destination, worry about getting there after you figure out where you want to go!
Now take all of your great ideas and write them up in a couple of paragraphs. It can help to make concrete, active statements like "We are selling three alpacas in 2010" rather than "We plan to sell three alpacas next year."
Long term goals just take that information a bit farther. Think 5 or 10 years down the line.
What would you like to see then?
What steps do you need to take to get there? What do you need to focus on?
HomeSpun Alpacas Short Term Goals
The initial business focus will be on quality (fleece and conformation) tame, halter trained alpacas. During the first two to three years, we will strive to improve the herd’s fiber.
During this time, we will also be breeding for black. To complement this objective, we will search out the most appropriate black herdsires to breed to our black females. We will also use finely fleeced and crimpy alpacas to bring down the micron and compliment the crimp in our brown females. They will be bred to the most appropriate male, regardless of color.
We will use males that dramatically improve upon the female’s crimp and decrease any guardhair.
Long Term Goals
It is the intent of the owners of HomeSpun Alpacas to build a fiber business selling yarn and products made from our own alpacas as well as building the herd of females to around 10 head.
Our breeding goals are:
- Soundness of body and limb
- Uniformity of fineness and extension of blanket fiber throughout the brisket, shoulder,
- hip, head, neck, and leg.
- Lack of medulation (low percentage over 30 microns)
- Luster or brightness
- Staple length (minimum of 3 inches a year, preferably 4 to 6 inches)
- Volume (the more finer fiber the better)
- Crimp
- Easy births and plentiful milk supply
- Good mothers (females)
- Settles females quickly (males)
- Mellow temperament
Age Micron
Up to 12 months 16
1 - 2 years 18
2 - 3 years 20
3 - 4 years 21
4 - 6 years 22
6 - 8 years 23
8 - 14 years 26
To achieve our goals we need to:
- Make smart breeding decisions to produce the high quality fiber that is most marketable.
- The males chosen for breeding will have cria on the ground that are an improvement over either parent. The conformation will be correct and the crias will have the same correct conformation and be healthy.
- For the strong fiber, we will find a salable product to produce. Rugs, felt pads, and teddy bears are one of the options on the table as are quilt batts.
- Raise the herd numbers to be able to produce a quantity of fiber that can be made into enough product to not only support the alpacas, but make a profit.
- Refine a product line that will sell on the high end market. Currently focus is on yarn kits, blankets, shawls, and vests.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
To be continued
I am sick, but will get the short term goals piece done soon. We did have a cria this morning! Light fawn male. Pictures to come.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Alpaca Business Plan Part 3 - Mission Statement
A mission statement is a concise statement about your business' reason for being. Why did you start raising alpacas? What made you think that raising alpacas would be a good business to get into? What are you doing differently from the other farms? What makes your alpacas the "ones"? What are the values or beliefs that guide you raising alpacas? What kind of relationship do you want with your customers and alpacas?
Answer any, all or none of these questions as it suits you.
It should be short and memorable. If you can spell it out in that infamous elevator speech, then you have done well. If you can print it on the back of your business cards, you get the gold star.
Think of it as a tag line with some explanation. Leave out buzz words and fluff. State your goal and what makes you unique. Tell the world why they should do business with you.
I have listed some websites that have good ideas on how to write mission statements if you are stuck.
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm
http://www.tgci.com/magazine/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Mission%20Statement.pdf
http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/businessstrategies/article65230.html
Here is the first draft of my mission statement. I think it lacks some pizazz, so will be working on it as we go through the other steps
HomeSpun Alpacas provides well-rounded support to its customers, from herd health to shearing to business plans, we are there for the customer. Our goal is to breed healthy, quality alpacas and develop a practical program of alpaca education.
For Thursday, think about your short term goals and next Tuesday we will work on long term goals.
Answer any, all or none of these questions as it suits you.
It should be short and memorable. If you can spell it out in that infamous elevator speech, then you have done well. If you can print it on the back of your business cards, you get the gold star.
Think of it as a tag line with some explanation. Leave out buzz words and fluff. State your goal and what makes you unique. Tell the world why they should do business with you.
I have listed some websites that have good ideas on how to write mission statements if you are stuck.
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm
http://www.tgci.com/magazine/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Mission%20Statement.pdf
http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/businessstrategies/article65230.html
Here is the first draft of my mission statement. I think it lacks some pizazz, so will be working on it as we go through the other steps
HomeSpun Alpacas' Mission Statement
HomeSpun Alpacas provides well-rounded support to its customers, from herd health to shearing to business plans, we are there for the customer. Our goal is to breed healthy, quality alpacas and develop a practical program of alpaca education.
For Thursday, think about your short term goals and next Tuesday we will work on long term goals.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Alpaca Business Plan Part 2- Farm Overview
Having taught Freshman English, I know starting is the hard part for most. So today we will start in the middle with the easy part: Your farm overview. This is a snapshot in time of what you own and where you are in the business. We will later put this information in the main body of the document and in the assets portion. It feeds into the financials too, but don't worry about any of that yet, that will be a later topic.
The first step is to list the resources you dedicate to alpacas, assuming you are raising alpacas on your own land. If you aren't, but would like to, skip to the next paragraph. If you plan to continue agisting, there are still some manner of alpaca accessories you own--these are important too. If you would like to go down the jungle trail, please turn to page 394. To the point: How many acres do you have total? How many are fenced for the alpacas? Do you have room to expand? What buildings are you using for the alpacas? If you are storing alpaca stuff in your garage, list that too.
Next, let's do a little prognostication. Are the land and pasture adequate for the present and next year? If not, what do you need to accomplish to make it so? If they are fine now, how about in 5 years? What would you like to see on your property in 5 years? More alpacas, a bigger barn, somewhere to put the hay - make a list. This is not a list of to-do items, but things you would like in an ideal world.
What alpaca accessories do you own? Halters, buckets, chute, scale - make a list of this too, with how much you paid for it. These are assets.
How many alpacas do you own? Do not include the upcoming cria in this section. Alpacas are also assets, so put a price on each one.
This information can be in list form or in a nice narrative. Remember, this is your business plan, make it work for you. Only include that information that helps you make decisions. Everything else is noise.
Next time, we'll talk about mission statements.
Note: As I work on the whole, I will be editing all sections. When this is finished, I will put the whole thing together in a PDF for anyone interested.
In the meantime, here is what I have come up with for my Farm Overview section:
Property
Our current property is just over 5 acres. The alpacas have 3 pastures consisting of about 1.5 acres. We are in the process of fencing another acre to bring the total to 2.5 acres available for the alpacas. Each pasture has a shelter, water and a hay bin. There are interconnecting gates between the pastures which enables us to increase pasture size as needed.
One third of the garage is used to store alpaca items and hay.
Current Operations
I have been raising alpacas for 9 years. Over that span I have sold 12 alpacas, plus 5 consignment alpacas. We have 9 females and 5 males with 2 cria expected this year.
halters
leads
buckets
shelters
hay bins
chute
shearing table
shearing equipment
tooth-a-matic
emergency kit
horse trailer
trailer hitch (mine is special - worthy of its own blog post)
herdease software
camera
photo printer
Green panel pen w/creep gate
heated buckets
Cappuccino Chip
Millennium Jubilee
Cinnamon Kiss
Mary Pitcher (Mollie)
Raven
Rheia
Andante
Andantina
Sweetart
Bond James Bond
Ink Jet
Apollo
Heart's Afire
Baby - unnamed cria by Mollie
Improvements Needed
The current capacity is ~20. Our fields are very productive and we supplement with hay/pellets. The existing facilities (including the new pastures) will keep up with herd growth as long as the projected sales happen.
The first step is to list the resources you dedicate to alpacas, assuming you are raising alpacas on your own land. If you aren't, but would like to, skip to the next paragraph. If you plan to continue agisting, there are still some manner of alpaca accessories you own--these are important too. If you would like to go down the jungle trail, please turn to page 394. To the point: How many acres do you have total? How many are fenced for the alpacas? Do you have room to expand? What buildings are you using for the alpacas? If you are storing alpaca stuff in your garage, list that too.
Next, let's do a little prognostication. Are the land and pasture adequate for the present and next year? If not, what do you need to accomplish to make it so? If they are fine now, how about in 5 years? What would you like to see on your property in 5 years? More alpacas, a bigger barn, somewhere to put the hay - make a list. This is not a list of to-do items, but things you would like in an ideal world.
What alpaca accessories do you own? Halters, buckets, chute, scale - make a list of this too, with how much you paid for it. These are assets.
How many alpacas do you own? Do not include the upcoming cria in this section. Alpacas are also assets, so put a price on each one.
This information can be in list form or in a nice narrative. Remember, this is your business plan, make it work for you. Only include that information that helps you make decisions. Everything else is noise.
Next time, we'll talk about mission statements.
Note: As I work on the whole, I will be editing all sections. When this is finished, I will put the whole thing together in a PDF for anyone interested.
In the meantime, here is what I have come up with for my Farm Overview section:
Farm Overview
Property
Our current property is just over 5 acres. The alpacas have 3 pastures consisting of about 1.5 acres. We are in the process of fencing another acre to bring the total to 2.5 acres available for the alpacas. Each pasture has a shelter, water and a hay bin. There are interconnecting gates between the pastures which enables us to increase pasture size as needed.
One third of the garage is used to store alpaca items and hay.
Current Operations
I have been raising alpacas for 9 years. Over that span I have sold 12 alpacas, plus 5 consignment alpacas. We have 9 females and 5 males with 2 cria expected this year.
halters
leads
buckets
shelters
hay bins
chute
shearing table
shearing equipment
tooth-a-matic
emergency kit
horse trailer
trailer hitch (mine is special - worthy of its own blog post)
herdease software
camera
photo printer
Green panel pen w/creep gate
heated buckets
Cappuccino Chip
Millennium Jubilee
Cinnamon Kiss
Mary Pitcher (Mollie)
Raven
Rheia
Andante
Andantina
Sweetart
Bond James Bond
Ink Jet
Apollo
Heart's Afire
Baby - unnamed cria by Mollie
Improvements Needed
The current capacity is ~20. Our fields are very productive and we supplement with hay/pellets. The existing facilities (including the new pastures) will keep up with herd growth as long as the projected sales happen.
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