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Southern Alpacas News
We provide a steady stream of news and
information of value to many of our customers
and visitors.
Bookmark this news page and return often to
see our updates.
Below you'll find
Seasonal Hints,
for alpaca
work to be done now.
Pictured: Top Stud ILR Alpine Fiber's Brutus
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Alpaca
Christmas Newsletter
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Season's
Greetings to you. We wish you a great summer with your alpacas.
It has been a season of shows, what with the Alpaca Expo followed by the
Canterbury Show, as well as many A & P Shows. For us it was an
opportunity to catch up with clients and introduce people to alpacas at our
trade stand.
We were
pleased to see our genetics making an impact in the Show ring, in our and
other's entries. Our stud boys are having an impact.
Saintly won Sire's Progeny at Canterbury Show, and Brutus was 2nd and 5th
at Expo and 4th at Canterbury Show. Irraquoy was 6th at Expo. See our
champions
web page for more championship details.
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Our
alpaca focus is on fineness. Our stud boys continue to produce fine cria around
New Zealand, and Brutus is producing as fine cria as any stud in Australasia in
the AGE (Across herd Genetic Evaluation) programme.
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Brutus took
Reserve Champion fleece in his class for fleeces 48 months and over at
Expo. He was a mere 1/2 point behind the champion, which is great for a seven
year old.
Our
finest fleece goes into a quality alpaca merino yarn, and is exported to UK, as
well as USA and Asia. Demand has exceeded our supply, so thanks to those of you
who are contributing fine white and honey coloured light fawn fleece for the
latest batch. |
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Imports and Exports
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As well
as importing alpacas, we are now regularly exporting our alpacas to UK,
along with EP Cambridge alpacas. The Australian alpacas stay with us for six
months until they get their "residency" and can then go on to the UK.
It
gives us an opportunity to get these genetics, both in females that can be
sold here, and also in visiting stud males. We have a new import here now
and some of these will be available in the New Year.
We
always have alpacas for sale, both NZ born and imports from Australia. Our
wide choice of female breeding alpacas includes herd starters at the lower
end of the price scale, to show quality girls who command a higher price.
Alpacas for Sale |
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Education about Alpacas
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We begin
2007 education courses with a workshop on Camelidynamics in
Christchurch on February 10-11 with Vicky Tribe. Saturday will be a one day
course, and Sunday will be refresher and extension for those who have done a
day course before. Let us know if you are interested in attending.
Our
Neo-Natal Workshops continue, with recent ones held in Palmerston
North and Hamilton. The first for 2007 is likely to be Pukekohe in February.
The
workshops are one day and cost $100 +GST, for which you get instruction,
using a cria in an artificial uterus, a workbook, and refreshments including
lunch.
Lifestyle Farmer
will be
running monthly articles on basic alpaca husbandry and Linda and several
breeders will be contributing articles. The first issue is January 2007, out
before Christmas.
Alpaca Education |
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Shearing time is
upon us. Make sure your fleece is long enough, and that it is clean prior to
shearing. The fleece cleaners are great - their electrostatic force flicks the
debris out of the fleece on the alpaca. Take a mid side sample and get your
microns tested. Weigh your total fleece weight, and then remember to fill in the
AGE submission form to get started on breeding values for your alpacas.
We strongly
encourage clients with offspring from our males to register them and their shear
data with AGE. This helps us get our stud male
breeding values more accurate, and give you better advice on who to use for
which female.
We also recommend
that older animals that do not grow enough length for decent use in a 12 month
period, are shorn anyway. This for animal health reasons. The shearers are still
reporting cases of lice in alpacas with 2 year fleeces.
We are finding
that modern day youngsters have fleece perfectly long enough to be shorn at 7
months, and are "over-fleeced" at 10 months. Consider shearing them young. The
second fleece will be far better for it.
Southern
Alpacas is looking to buy in clean, fine, white and light fawn (honey coloured)
fibre to meet our manufacturers demands this year.
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