March 27th, 2008

Well, show season is upon us again.  It’s time to halter train, register, test for BVD and get the vet over for the “Cerificate of Veterinary Inspection” that all alpacas must have in order to attend the show.  We plan on doing one show per year.  This year it will be the California Classic Alpaca Show, in Pleasanton California.  I thought I would provide some insight into the expenses involved in attending the show.

First, the cost of preparing our alpacas to travel.  I will not list the cost of ARI registration or BVD testing as these are costs we would incur anyway.

$35 charge from the vet for his farm visit.
$108 for three large animal exams and a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection.
$300 for two pens. One for us to set up our farm display and one for the alpacas.
$90 for the two of us to attend the Saturday night dinner.
$60 for a quarter page ad in the show program.

$593 so far and we haven’t left the driveway.

OK, now for the travel expenses.

$157- 450 miles roundtrip at 10mpg X $3.50 per gallon.
$135- Wear and tear on vehicle and trailer at $.30 per mile.
$405- Three nights at the discounted “official show hotel”, at $135 per night inc tax.
$300- Meals and beverages(other than the show dinner) for two people for 3 days/nights.
$200- Miscellaneous expenses. Believe me, that’s VERY conservative.

$1197 for this category.  So now we’re up to $1790 and we still haven’t paid anybody to take care of our alpacas here at home while we’re at the show.  Luckily enough we don’t have to pay anyone as our son’s are living at home with us and they are glad to help out.  However, not everyone attending the show is that lucky.  That expense could easily run $300 or more.

So, now we’re home and everything is back to normal, right?  Wrong, we still have to quarantine all three alpacas for 30 days.  Why you ask?  Well, you can pretty much count on at least one of them(and probably all of them) bringing home a bug of some kind.  Hopefully we can treat it without a vet call and contain it to these three alpacas.  This scenario is not farfetched, but probably the rule rather than the exception.

So these fancy ribbons we “won” have actually cost us $597 a piece. Of course there is a lot more to attending an alpaca show than winning ribbons.  There is the social networking that is so important.  There is the increased value of our ribbon winning alpacas.  There is the educational aspect.  There is a great opportunity to learn about our competition, and how they do things.  Heck, we could even sell an alpaca, or a breeding.  Besides, we love alpacas!  We love to watch these gorgeous animals parade through the show ring.   Yes, it’s worth it… every penny.

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