Baarrooka Alpacas, Stud Male, Suri, Alpacas, Alpaca Farm, Baby Alpaca, Alpaca Stud, Strathbogie, Australia

Well Colourbration is over for another year and what a great event it was yet again.  And how exhausting! Being on the organising committee, a major sponsor and showing takes its toll, but it is worth it. In my mind it is the best alpaca show in Australia and certainly the most enjoyable.

Baarrooka came away with a nice swag of ribbons; every animal except one got a ribbon – 5 firsts, 3 seconds and one third.  We were awarded 3 Reserve Champions (Med/Dark Fawn Male and  Brown Male and Female) and also 3 Supremes (Light Fawn, Med/Dark Fawn and Brown) with our fleeces.

By Julie Filed under: Colourbration, Events, Fleece, Show Results

Have just gone through the summer/autumn crias and there are some real beauties in there!.  I think this year’s cria are a real jump up on quality and are consistently good across the board. Finally getting it all together!  The standouts are:

• a number of Desert Prince crias from some of my top white girls – great colour and a real improvement in fleece quality;
• the ET group from Winslow and Queen Wilhelmina (3 M, 1 F) from medium fawn to medium/dark brown;
• a stunning SLF female from Rockefeller (sister to Indie Rock);
• some very nice cria (4 M, 1 F) from ILR Snowmass Illumination, especially a SW female from Kim Wilde, Senior female Champion at 2009 National;
• a little black girl from Canchones Totem and Baarrooka Top Deck;
• Eurovision, a SLF female from Baarrooka Dire Straits and Baarrooka Eurythmics – what a dense, dense fleece; and
• a trio of boys by Kurrawa Tariq – Light brown to Queen Wilhelmina and Jupiter Star and a glow-in-the-dark white to Eliza.

Many of these cria will not be old enough to make it to the 2010 National, but I am already imagining their progeny when mated to the new US boys. WOW.

Will try to put up some more photos of these when the weather improves.

By Julie Filed under: ET Program, Our Animals

We haven’t been to Alpacafest for a few years, because we have been travelling at this time of year.  However, this year we put up a small team of young hopefuls, plus, in recognition of the new Mature Suri classes, some older boys.

Results were great! Second and Reserve Champion Junior Male for light fawn Heza Sensation; 1st, Best Brown Male and Premier Brown Suri for junior brown male Wild Card; 1st and 3rd in the Intermediate black female class; 1st and Champion Senior Male with Intensity, 1st and 2nd and Champion and Reserve Champion Mature Male with Dragon and Duran Duran.  In the fleeces, Quizmaster won Premier Fawn/Brown Suri Fleece and the others were awarded 1st or 2nd in their class.

By Julie Filed under: Events, Fleece, Our Animals, Show Results

While we were in New Zealand for the National Last year, Brioude & I came across a couple of ‘big things’ and took some snaps. On our recent holiday, we discovered the New Zealanders are more enamoured of the Big Thing than us Aussies! So, we had to continue the happy snaps. Here’s a selection.

By Julie Filed under: Alpaca Travel

I was asked to give a paper at the New Zealand Alpaca Conference in July on Environmental Management Systems in the Alpaca Industry. This paper is available in the Research section of the website. In addition to a great response to my paper, the conference provided some interesting information from the range of other speakers. It was particularly illuminating to listen to papers from experts in other industries, such as sheep, deer and cattle.

The highlight of the conference, however, was the display of exquisite suri fabric by the Gardners of Thistledown Alpacas. In co-operation with Julienne Gelber of Bumble Hill Alpacas in Australia, the long process of getting suri processed has come to fruition and the results are mind blowing. The quality of the fabric, particularly the fine men’s suiting was outstanding, and has renewed my enthusiasm for this magnificent fibre. To think that in the early days people used to say about suris: ‘they look nice, but you can’t do anything with the fibre”!

The plan is to have a NZ designer manufacture some garments from the fabric. I would like to see Australia’s Governor General, who is the epitome of good taste and elegance, in a suit from this suri fabric! It would also be great for all suri breeders to have the opportunity to purchase a sampler of these fabrics, to allow us to show others what the suri is all about.

For myself, I have returned home to review my white suri herd with the aim of producing ultra fine fleece of the correct length each year. This will mean Spring and Autumn shearing and selective breeding for fleece quality only. Breeding for the show ring is, in my opinion, not conducive to this aim, and even in the fleece classes, the fine, soft and consistent fleeces are not rewarded in the judging. This is something we will have to continue to work on.

By Julie Filed under: Alpaca Travel, Events, Fleece