Alpacas - The Lifestyle Investment!  Experience the lifestyle benefits and understand the practicalities of raising these gentle animals, discover the tax advantages of owning a home-based agricultural business, and learn how to more successfully market your alpaca fiber. These seminars are a perfect learning opportunity if you are just curious about the alpaca lifestyle, actively researching the industry, or if you have recently purchased alpacas.

Alpaca Lifestyle Seminars: Saturday 17, November, 2007 - 9.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.
Debrah Stafford, a Certified Public Accountant with a wealth of small business and alpaca accounting experience, presents Alpaca Business Planning and Tax Advantages, an indispensable planning seminar which includes an expert Q&A session, written materials, plus your FREE business plan spreadsheet. Kate Perez of Mount Airy Alpaca Company, who has raised alpacas for 8 years, then presents Alpacas 101, which answers the most frequently asked questions about alpaca ownership. This seminar covers requirements for fencing, shelter, feed, veterinary care and shearing; basic herd management practices plus ideas for marketing your alpacas. Includes a FREE copy of the professionally produced DVD, Alpaca Care for Beginners – We walk you through it, which retails for $80 and covers breeding, birthing, routine neonatal care, worming, shearing and more. After lunch, spend hands-on time with the alpacas, learning about conformation and fiber, haltering, handling and developing a relationship of trust with your herd. At 4.00 p.m., you are invited to an exclusive preview of the quality alpacas available in our Champion Production Sale.

Alpaca Fiber Seminars: Sunday 18, November, 2007 - 10.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
Kate Perez is a Hand Spinning Instructor & Certified Hand Spinning Judge for the Maryland Association of Agricultural Fairs. Using fiber samples and spinning demonstrations, her Introduction to Fiber seminar offers you a practical and tactile appreciation of the unique qualities which make alpaca fiber valuable and marketable. Tom Perez, a perfectionist alpaca shearer, will then answer all your shearing questions! Jane Christie of Thistledown Alpacas, who has raised alpacas for 7 years, and organizes the professional shearing of over 1200 alpacas in Virginia each year, runs a successful fiber business, selling all the prime fiber her alpacas can produce, and then some! Marketing Your Alpaca Fiber offers real world examples and ideas to generate more money for your business from sales of your alpaca fiber. After lunch, you are invited to view the quality alpacas available in our Champion Production sale from 2.00 – 4.30 p.m.

Space in these seminars is limited, so please don’t wait to register! Attendees can save an extra $1000 off any Thistledown alpaca in the sale. All our alpacas are raised with individual attention in an atmosphere of trust, backed by comprehensive live birth and reproductive guarantees, and the support of experienced mentors. You may preview the quality alpacas available on our sales page.

Alpaca LifeStyle Seminars
Saturday 17, November, 2007, 9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Cost: $75 per person or $100 for two from the same farm
Includes one FREE Alpaca Care for Beginners DVD (an $80 value), a FREE business plan spreadsheet, seminar materials, exclusive sneak preview of alpacas for sale, $1000 discount off the price of any Thistledown alpaca in the sale, plus lunch.

Alpaca Fiber Seminars
Sunday 18, November, 2007, 10.00 a.m. – 2.00 p.m.
Cost: $35 per person or $50 for two from the same farm
Includes written materials, $1000 discount off the price of any Thistledown alpaca in the sale, plus lunch.

If you have any questions, please call 804-784-4837 or send an email to info@thistledownalpacas.com. Thank you and we look forward to meeting you soon!

Kate Perez - Mount Airy Alpaca Company, is a Hand Spinning Instructor and Certified Hand Spinning Judge for the Maryland Association of Agricultural Fairs, as well as a Fleece Show Superintendent and member of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival committee (the largest fleece and fiber event in the U.S.) She wears and sells the clothing she makes from her own alpacas. a.k.a. "The Alpaca Blogger", Kate is the webmaster of many alpaca and fiber-related websites, including the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival website. 
Jane Christie - Thistledown Alpacas, is a full-time alpaca breeder with over 7 years experience raising award-winning huacaya alpacas and french angora rabbits. She also owns and operates "The Wool Merchant", a retail fiber business offering unique alpaca and angora fiber products produced exclusively in the US, and mostly from the alpacas raised in her back yard! A legal graduate, who spent 15 years managing a computer software business before discovering alpacas, Jane has never found a more satisfying occupation than the business she currently operates with her family here in Virginia. 
Debrah Stafford, CPA, has over 25 years of accounting, tax, and auditing experience in both the public and private sector.  With a concentration and area of expertise in taxation, she has, over the last decade established her firm within the Alpaca community as an expert on farm start-up and maintenance.  In addition to their farm clients, her firm provides services to a wide range of businesses, from small retail establishments to construction companies to multi-million dollar government contractors.  Her firm provides a complete range of accounting services to include income tax preparation (corporate, partnership, and individual), accounting and write-up service, payroll service, management consulting services, as well as software installation and support.

Click here to preview alpacas for sale!