Alpaca meat ?

Mike Fronczak

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Saw it advertised on craigslist for sale both young & older animals never heard of it before, has nny one else ? I always thought of Alpacas more as pets with usable coats.
 

marlowmanor

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Technically any animal could be used for meat. Never heard of alpaca meat though. But to each their own. Wonder what it tastes like though? :idunno
 

BrownSheep

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Some people up here do. I hear it tastes a lot like beef.
 

Four Winds Ranch

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I have never ate Alpaca, but I am assuming it would be alot like llama! Llama is very good! One can't hardly tell it from beef except is is leaner! We eat llama all the time, it is cheaper than buying a beef. You can turn around and sell cows for a pretty penny here, but, not llama so we always raise a few to eat!
 

purplequeenvt

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I too have eaten llama. He was a 7 year old gelded male that tried to kill me. The meat is somewhere between venison and beef. We have friends who raise alpacas and I think that they have slaughtered several males. I would imagine the meat is very similar to llama.

Four Winds Ranch - you raise llamas specifically for meat? I hadn't heard of that before.

Eating llamas/alpacas where I am is frowned upon by the majority of breeders/fanciers. My opinion though is that slaughtering the *surplus* animals would drastically reduce the number of neglected lamas and also give the lama industry new life. There are just too many animals on the market. It used to be that you could sell a really nice llama for $10,000 and now you are lucky if you can give him away.
 

ksalvagno

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We have put alpaca in the freezer. The meat is wonderful. The great part is that it doesn't matter how old the alpaca is. The meat is still tender. It is very lean so you have to cook it properly so it doesn't get tough. It is not gamey at all and has a nice mild flavor. It really has its own flavor. Probably closer to beef and it is a red meat. I haven't had llama but I bet it tastes the same as llama. The nice part is that it is the right amount of meat for a small family. DH and I could never go through a whole cow in a year or so.

I used to be one of those alpaca breeders that couldn't imagine putting an alpaca in the freezer. But when the bad economy hit, I had to make some decisions and felt that an alpaca in the freezer was much kinder than an alpaca sold and then neglected/abused. I think the tides are slowly turning with alpaca breeders. I keep hearing undertones of more and more alpaca breeders looking to put some of their pet boys in the freezer.
 

Baymule

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It only makes sense to eat the excess males that are gelded, how many "pets" can you have anyway? Same with lambs or goats. We raise them, we know how they are treated, what they ate, why shouldn't we benefit from our labors rather than sell them for pet price? Get over the cutesy part and fire up the grill!
 

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