So, What Do YOU Do With a Llama?

by Sheila Fugina

Your eyes probably glaze over when you hear, “What do you do with a llama?” for about the umpteenth time. I know mine do. It’s easy to just rattle off the standard list of uses – packing, fiber, pets, showing, cart driving, etc. But, really, what do you do with your llamas? Could you do more? Do you want to do more? Do you want o offer a bigger list of possibilities to potential buyers?

We opened a bed and breakfast when we first got out llamas and were living in a 110-year-old brick farmhouse with five bedrooms. It was perfect spot for metro area folks who needed a break from the rat race – a breath of country close to the city, promised on our brochure. The llamas and bed and breakfast were a great combination.

It set us apart form other B and Bs in the region, and it also provided us a unique spot in the llama community. Our guests had the option of eating in the dining room or having their breakfast packed on one of our llamas so they could head to the pond in our woods for a private, peaceful start to their day.

Many guests simply wanted to take the llamas for a walk, shooting lots of photos along the way. That led to other requests for short hikes for special occasions (one romantic soul wanted to propose marriage to his intended while strolling with a llama). Several guilds and clubs asked to hold their meetings on our big front porch, arranging for me to serve refreshments and then provide a tour and presentation about the llamas. Countless groups – from preschoolers to senior citizens – booked field trips to our llama farm. It got so that when the llamas heard a big bus lumbering up the road, they all ran to the fence along our driveway to see which group it was this time. When we moved we sold our breakfast toting llamas to another B and B in the area, and they continued to attract new guests.

Depending on where you live and what you’re willing to do, at least some o those options might work for you. You need to set a fee schedule that takes into account the time involved and what you provide (food, souvenirs, etc.) I also had a small gift shot set up on the porch of our bed and breakfast where guest of groups could browse. Though I wasn’t taking advantage of my llamas’ fiber then as I am now, you could offer everything from raw fiber and roving to felting kits and items made of llama and alpaca fiber. Llama note cards, small stuffed llama toys, anything even vaguely llama related would be appropriate. It’s also a great opportunity to market your handmade items.

If you have some other potential tourist attraction in your gene4ral area, such as a cheese factory, antique store, winery, etc., you might think about putting together a day – tour your llama farm, another attraction or two, and a stop at a local restaurant for lunch. Talk to your local tourist bureau or convention center to find out who offers bus tours in your area. Some are geared for senior citizens and others for spouses of those attending conventions or business meetings in the region. You can be paid either a flat fee per tour or on a per person basis. Think about what you could offer – a general presentation on llamas, a chance for questions and answers, and a tour of your farm (as well as that gift shop you already set up.)

My husband’s cousin asked to bring a bunchy of city kids to our farm for her daughter’s birthday party (and pay me!) so we planned some fun llama related games and activities, and I put together goodie bags for each guest to take home, I included llama candy, fiber and instructions for making felt balls, llama coloring sheets or work puzzles (depending on the ages of the guests), and some general llama information. Thus was born my llama birthday party business. Parties were held outdoors when possible and usually included taking llamas through a simple obstacle course, or at least on a short walk. We also had a small barn used for mothers and crias there was perfect for seating guests on straw bales and playing games and making crafts inside if it was windy or cold. I set a base price for six children and then charged a set fee for each additional child. (You also want groups to bring an adult for every three or four children.)

Though we no longer operate a bed and breakfast at our new location, I still offer a variety of tours and field trips, and I donate an occasional llama birthday party to a school raffle or other fund raising activity. We have gotten much more into public relations activities and provide a llama or two for special events throughout the year, usually for businesses but also for private gatherings. Someone read the notice about our recent llama farm open house, for example, and topped by specifically to see if we would bring a llama to the grand opening of their new business . . . At that same open house we sold two of our PR boys to a couple who want to use them in therapy work. They were impressed that the boys had been inside buildings and that they traveled so well in a mini an. Though we certainly don’t trail all our llamas to go on outing in a mini van, we always make sure we have some PR animals on hand.

I don’t do any cart driving myself, but I have several friends who do. One of them hires out his cart and team to drive grand marshals and local celebrities in parades. Sometimes a business hires him to carry their advertising on his cart, and he has driven numerous wedding couples from church to the reception in a beautifully decorated buggy with a matched team decked out in shiny harnesses and feathery plumes.

An older gentleman who has boarded a gelding here for seven years (a llama that he bought from me) now wants to buy and board one of my young half-Argentinean males born this past spring. He will never move out of the city and simply enjoys owning llamas and taking drives to our farm to visit them. I think there is a large, untapped market for selling llamas to city folds along with a boarding agreement. You need to live within a reasonable distance of your buyers, probably not more than an hour or so, and you need to be clear on terms and visiting arrangements. In the event that they should ever move to a location where they would want their llama with them, your contract should be clear that they need to have a second llama as a companion. (And then have several to offer them if the time ever comes.) People buy and board houses all the time. I don’t know why it can’t work just as well with llamas. If they join a llama organization, and you keep them aware of various llama events in your area, maybe they’ll decide to get into showing, packing, nursing home visits, and other activities with their llamas.

Llamas are capable of doing so many things. I heard of a tree farm owner who trained his llamas to pull evergreens out of the woods on a plastic sled once families have found and cut the perfect Christmas tree. Apple orchards and wineries, too, could benefit from resident llamas, and they could probably write them off in their advertising budgets. I knew a professional clown who used one of her llamas in her clowning jobs, and the llama had his own clown suit and identity. What we do with llamas is not so much limited by the llamas as by our own imaginations. The next time someone asks what you can do with a llama, see if you can come up with some new answers. You might even try some of them.

Reprinted from the ORVLA Newsletter, Topline, May 2005, Vol. 19, No. 2 who reprinted it from the LANA newsletter, Winter 2004.