Archive late-2005

Alpaca EXPO 2005
3-4 December 2005

What a fantastic celebration of the New Zealand alpaca! Superb effort by all the organisers for the AANZ Expo 2005 at Mystery Creek; a number of overseas visitors commented on the quality of the whole event ... great job and a big thanks to everyone involved!

Flagstaff Alpacas celebrated as well. With a number of ribbons for our entries to the craft classes, fleece classes and alpacas themselves our best result came from Toledo (picture top): Mature Huacaya Champion 2005, with the judge commenting on his lustre, density, character and completeness of fleece, and the superb frame Toledo carries that fleece on! And we thoroughly enjoyed meeting a variety of folk that had come to see the New Zealand alpaca industry at its very best!

Alpaca Plasma
November 2005

Thanks to the efforts of several breeders, vets and many un-named experts and favours alpaca plasma is now available in Otago and Southland breeders. Allan Grant at Oamaru, Flagstaff Alpacas and Clutha vets will know where your closest source is. And remember this is not simply to assist a weak cria but also has a spectrum of uses for alpacas under serious medical stress. We have yet to receive all invoices but the important thing is it is now available ... and frozen, at a number of central points. Expect a cost of about $125 per bag - each contains between 200 and 250ml of plasma.

Cria - the real love of alpacas
November 2005

We are in full swing for the favorite part of the year - the arrival of the first cria of the season! No more special time amongst alpaca breeders as we get an insight into our breeding programmes ... and fingers crossed for a few females amongst those arrivals. One of those cria - a young female born 19 November is ... simply ... enormous! And fleece nose-to-toes. If she had been a boy we'd have called her 'Kong'.

Guess we are smiling at seven females to one male (and a nice male at that - you will see 'Tomcord' - chocolate-fawn boy in newsarchive 2005 - in the Autumn 2006 shows ... a Toledo boy) so far but no one counts their blessings just yet! But certainly Toledo, Ammers, Mitch, Ben Elvis, Sea Stallion and Otto will probably be smiling ... as they are busy servicing the open mums and working on next seasons 'arrivals'.

Alpaca Friends
November 2005

We remain keen to encourage links to other local alpaca lovers through our local area. We will be adding a new series of pages soon and this will include these alpaca friends but here are a few who have helped us:

Andy and Denise Reeve are THE premier breeders of Samoyeds through New Zealand - they collect 'Best of Show' ribbons for a hobby - and they also look after twenty or so of our girls as well as an alpaca of their own ... the famous 'ZORRO'; their link: www.lealsamsamoyeds.co.nz. Well worth a visit!

Noelle and Howard are establishing their own alpaca stud in Outram: www.alpacasonthehill.com

Nadine and Craig Soper, in Te Anau, have a progressive group of fawn alpaca, and really know their livestock as experienced farmers.

Jan and Kieran Powers have a young herd of 'pacas at Waitahuna ... and acres of grass ... at PET Alpacas.

And a special thanks to Angela, Dean and family Ruske at Establo Alpacas, our 100% dependable friends always helping with the girls and boys ... and they currently have a wonderful female cria charging around the paddocks!

Canterbury Show 2005
November 2005

Hot ... very, very hot! Lovely series of days to show alpacas at the Canterbury Show and, although we only took a few alpacas, both Trojan and Toledo did well. Even the alpacas went looking for shade and here's hoping all the other competitors got home safe ... and not too burn't!

Fleece Sampling
October 2005

A critical time of the year for understanding your alpaca we have just completed our fleece sampling (top picture) pre-shearing so we know how the herd fleece pedigree is running. As generally expected ... but a few pleasant surprises ... some highlights were:

Stud male Sea Stallion at below 20 micron - mean 19.0 and comfort factor 98%, Ben Elvis, our black stud male - mean 22.8 and comfort factor 92%, a brown girl called Fiona, aged 5, at 19.1 micron, Sea Change aged 5 at 23 micron, Cyprus II, our Upper Clutha Reserve Champ at 21.6 micron, SD 4.3. Most are updated though our site ... fascinating ... honest!

Australian National Alpaca Show 2005
October 2005

Andy attended the Australian Alpaca Association National Show in Bendigo in mid-October, and a few alpaca farms local to the Show afterwards. Very exciting event with plenty to learn (and feel hands-on!) about quality alpacas and the progress of the Australian national herd all under one roof! The Show also includes an auction of selected top alpaca through Australia - sixteen alpaca were offered and one, this year, sold for over NZ$180,000, and six females over NZ$20,000. The industry is in good health! If you wish to quickly build your alpaca knowledge base this is the perfect opportunity ... and perhaps join us for our visit next year!

Weaning time - no spots on us!
September 2005

Thanks to this wonderful spring weather we have weaned a number of our girls and boys ... all aged between 6 and 9 months. The top picture right shows some of the youngsters on our front-lawn for an afternoon snack, although they were more keen to play on the trampoline. Kids!

First Cria of the Season?
September 2005

Wow! So much for our girls delivering late in the spring - we have had two cria's born in late-August to New Zealand-origin girls and about 3-4 weeks early! No signs of clinically premature cria and both are well and charging around the hills full of life! Picture bottom; you can guess Ammers and Toledo were the dad's. Must be this balmy weather ... we love it .... and so do our alpacas.

National Expo and Show 2005
Pending - December 2005

Flagstaff Alpacas are proud sponsors of the AANZ National Show and Expo at Mystery Creek in December 2005. A great advert for the industry it is a excellent chance to meet lots of enthusiastic alpaca breeders like ourselves ... and lots of Wonderful Alpacas. For more details please make contact and see you there!

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