Laid-back lifestyle
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| Above, Last Rose is part of the La Buena Vida alpaca herd that can be visited free. (Vanessa Monsisvais / El Paso Times) |
ANTHONY, N.M. -- Some might call it sheer genius. Others might say it's stable acumen.
About 12 years ago, the Beatty family decided to chuck city life for a five-acre alpaca farm in Southern New Mexico. Now Bruce and Jeri Beatty are opening their doors to locals and visitors to the El Paso area who are staying through New Year's weekend.
Bruce Beatty, once a senior vice president for Chase Bank and a West El Paso resident, decided with his wife, Jeri, to start the ranch after she read an article about the furry creatures in a magazine in 1997.
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| Jeri and Bruce Beatty pose with Rudy, an alpaca affectionately named because of his nose. (Vanessa Monsisvais / El Paso Times) |
She made her husband a cocktail one night and gave him her pitch to open the small ranch, alpacas and all. After a little research, the Beattys bought a small ranch at 1090 S. Highway 28, now called La Buena Vida Alpacas.
"This is a lifestyle I always wanted to live, even though I never lived it, really. I wanted to live out in the country," Jeri Beatty said while touring her ranch. "Until I found this animal, I never found one that could support this kind of lifestyle."
During a little more than a decade, their ranch has grown from the three alpacas they initially bought to about 65. They're making money by selling the alpaca fleeces and by breeding alpacas for other ranchers.
Jeri and Bruce share the work on their ranch and leave some of the chores to a ranch hand. They also have a small retail shop on their property that sells hand-woven alpaca scarves, hats and other items.
The Beattys say alpaca fleece is softer than cashmere, as strong as wool and hypoallergenic. They can sheer their alpacas year after year.
"One of our criteria was we weren't going to raise anything for slaughter," Bruce Beatty said.
The couple said running an alpaca ranch is something almost anybody can do, and they're hoping visitors to El Paso stop by to visit, feel an alpaca coat and get a better sense of the business.
"Hell, if this corporate, three-piece-suit banker can do it, anybody can do it," Bruce Beatty said.
Bruce Beatty, who also is president of Alpaca Registry Inc., estimates that about 4,500 alpaca breeders are operating in the United States. In North America, about 175,000 alpacas are registered.
Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.