Alpaca Vista Ranch is owned by Gregg and Marci Milius yet we are a family ranch. Our entire family has worked to make this a successful business. We have three children and all of them have worked in various capacities at the farm, from cleaning pens, training to walk on a halter, to building fences, to show the alpacas in the show ring, to help market the alpacas. Now we have grandchildren and when they come over to the house they have to see the pacas. I cannot wait until they can participate in the sub-junior performance class. What would be cuter than twin girls walking an alpaca through an obstacle course?
One of the first questions that Gregg and I get is how did we get started in this business – and the answer depends on if Gregg or I am answering. Gregg would say that is was my midlife crisis! My answer is that I have always loved animals and wanted more than dogs or cats but could not eat my animals so the alpacas were an excellent fit.
It all started one day relaxing on the deck of our newly completed renovated home and reading the Denver Post. There was an article in the Lifestyle section about alpacas I thought hum – this could be something that I would like to do. I thought about it for a few days, and did a little research. A few days later Gregg and I were sitting on the deck and a very loud motorcycle drove by and I said we ought to sell everything and become alpaca breeders. His first question was “What the heck is an alpaca?” So I told him about the article in the paper and about how this is an investment, and how the IRS views this as a business, and the other research that I had done and a few days later we were visiting an alpaca ranch.
In all honesty the first visit I was questioning if this was really something that we wanted to do. Now you need to keep in mind that we needed to sell our house, our cars – well almost everything to get into this business. We were taking a ride in the country to see what homes would sell for and ran across a different alpaca ranch. We stopped the car and the owners were out working on a fence and we asked if these were alpacas? One thing about breeders is that they are always up for talking about alpacas! They invited us to see their alpacas and there was one male that came up to me and I had a friend so now I am hooked!
It took a several months for us to find a suitable property for our family and our new venture. It was very important that who we bought our first alpacas from would support us with any and all questions that we had. I tell people in talks that I give at shows that it is almost more important who you buy from than what you buy. At Alpaca Vista Ranch we support the alpaca community by answering questions about alpacas whether you bought animals from us or not. With over 11 years in the business we have a lot of experience and are willing to share that with you.
We have seen the industry changed in the last eleven years; firstly it has grown by several hundred thousand alpacas! The quality of the animals have increased by leaps and bounds, what would have been an outstanding alpaca 11 years ago would now be considered very low quality. When we first got into the business there was a saying that: a Peruvian alpaca was akin to a Porsche; a Bolivian alpaca was akin to a Buick; and a Chilean was akin to a Chevy. Not so anymore. In 2000 you could look at an alpaca and see if it was a Peruvian, Bolivian or Chilean, now I would be very hard pressed to tell you the ancestry of alpaca by looking at it. Another change that we have seen is full Peruvians are not only white. When alpacas were imported from Peru they were white because in Peru if the alpacas was not white it was culled from the herd. It took awhile but the North American herd now has full Peruvian alpacas in all colors.
