After 8 hours of deliberations, the Federal Jury in the U.S. District Court, Cleveland decided to award $1.6 million to Magical Farms and $30,000 to Majestic Meadows Alpacas.

The Jury opted to use the valuation of approximately $14,000 per head provided by the Land O' Lakes expert witness, the Harvard educated economist, Stephen Buffo.

The two ranches had sought $12.3 million from Land O'Lakes Farmland Feed and its parent company, Land O'Lakes Inc. They based that figure on what they said was the value of the alpacas that were killed and the diminished value of alpacas exposed to the tainted feed that survived.

Land O'Lakes, which admitted the feed was contaminated, had proposed an award of $1.1 million. Which both farms had rejected.

With regard to the alpacas that ate the poisoned feed but did not die the jury awarded no financial damages at all. Which is something of a surprise to me but that's juries for you.

"This was definitely a clean win for the defense," defense attorney Lawrence Sutter said after the verdict was announced.

The three-week trial pivoted on how to determine the fair market value of the animals.

In a blistering closing argument, Sutter pointed to instances in which Magical Farms claimed particular lost alpacas were worth hundreds of thousands apiece, when they had been purchased for much less. One alpaca that Magical Farms said was worth $325,000 had been purchased for $18,000 five years before it died.


Adrian Stewart click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas