Meadowview Alpaca Farm up for sale; owners want buyer to carry on legacy

Robert and Denise Martel, Meadowview Alpaca Farm owners, have put their popular Bruce Mines hobby farm, including the property, buildings, equipment and over 100 alpacas, up for sale as of May 31.

But the Martels, ready to retire, not only want to see the property and animals sold, but also have a strong desire to see the new buyer (whoever that turns out to be) carry on with Meadowview as a hobby farm. 

Meadowview Alpaca Farm is not only a place for visitors to tour and enjoy viewing alpacas, but also a business where the Martels sell alpaca wool.

The farm is modernized, the business including an online, e-commerce presence whereby alpaca wool products can be purchased, the couple told SooToday.

“We’re very well established. There’s a lot of investment and time that went into it. We don’t want to just shut it down. We want somebody to take it, learn the business and make it their own,” Denise said.

The Martels said they are committed to staying around as mentors to whoever buys the farm.

“We sincerely hope that we find somebody out there who falls in love with the alpacas and the business and wants to make it their own.”

“We have a certain amount of responsibility to the people that we employ, so they can continue to have a little bit of revenue coming in,” said Robert, adding the takeover of the property as a farm (not just a property purchase), along with the alpacas, is a condition of sale. 

Denise, a Toronto native, and Robert, who hails from Cornwall, settled in the Sault in the 1980s, both working as educators in the French language school system.

Robert had already retired from the education profession and Denise had four years to go before her own retirement when the couple decided to purchase the farm in 2002.

“The original idea was just to have a little hobby farm. We now call it our ‘hobby farm gone wild,’ because we have over 100 alpacas. We really got into it. When we do something we go full blown,” Denise said.

“I said to him (Richard) this idea of raising animals for meat is not my cup of tea. He had brought home an article about alpacas and I said that’s it, you get your (wool) harvest every year and you get to keep your animals."

“We were both retired, we got into it and we developed it into a business. We invested in the farm, in the property, and now it’s a full fledged business. It runs well. We didn’t want to just shut it down. There’s too much value there,” Denise said. 

Meadowview Alpaca Farm now includes 125 alpacas.

“It’s our legacy,” Robert said.

“We would like someone else to buy it and run with it.”

Alpacas are native to South America, specifically Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile.

Meadowview Alpaca Farm, pre-COVID, was open 12 months a year, a favourite for Sault and area visitors who make return visits to the farm as well as tourists (U.S. tourists especially).

Apart from revenue made through farm tours, the Martels have made a profitable living from shearing the alpacas once a year, gathering the fibre and sending it off to a mill for processing, the wool then returned to Meadowview to be used for making a variety of wool products for sale.

“We redistribute it. Some goes to a Mennonite farmer who uses a knitting machine in the winter, when he’s not farming, and he makes alpaca toques. We also have somebody else who makes alpaca mitts. We do a lot of felting in our studio here (‘felting’ being the process of taking alpaca fibre and turning it into fabric),” Denise said.

“There’s a variety of things that we do. It’s not just selling the wool any more at this point. It’s selling the finished product. We do value-added products.”

Looking back on their time as owners of a popular hobby farm, what aspect of it all do the Martels consider the most rewarding?

“That’s a tough question to answer. It’s so multifaceted. The property itself is beautiful. We have a waterfront. We love living on this property. I would say our animals are the best socialized alpacas you’ll find anywhere. They’re great with people, they’re wonderful with kids,” Denise said.

“The people that are our clients, they all have a story to tell us. We find that very rewarding. We share our story and they share their stories,” Robert said.

“We meet a lot of people. We enjoy working with the kids. We enjoy working with the animals,” Denise said.

Apart from the Martels, the farm employs one other full time employee, two more in the summer, along with students who work at Meadowview on a part-time basis.

“That doesn’t count all the people who do the work for us, the artisans. It’s a cottage industry. We have the people who make the toques, the mitts, our ponchos, shawls and scarves, the felting, there’s a variety of people who take it to the next step,” Denise said.

COVID-19 restrictions, at first, shut Meadowview down for about five months, Robert said, but afterward, the farm became a favourite outdoor spot for visitors in small groups.

While they wait for a buyer to come along, the couple said they look forward to offering tours of the farm for visitors once the current provincial stay at home order lifts.  

“It’s time to really retire (a second time, following their exit from the teaching profession),” Denise said. 

“It’s just time, time for someone else to take it over and run with it,” Robert said.

The Martels say they intend to stay in the Bruce Mines area in the warmer months of the year and travel to warmer climates in winter, such as Florida, Ecuador (home to alpacas) and Australia (where they have family members).