More than a good yarn: How prize-winning alpaca fleece sparked romance
They also enjoy socialising with other graziers who came from far and wide.
Fellow grazier Brett Fallon spent about $5000 to drive 14 of his best alpacas 3200km to Bendigo in a large float, from his farm near Albany, in southern Western Australia.
The four-day drive was 'completely worth it', he said, and his sale of five of them at Bendigo more than paid for the trip.
While there are no cash prizes for winning a category at the show, there are flow-on benefits.
Fallon said a winner of the top Supreme Champion prize at the nationals one year sold for $80,000 and another year's champion sold for $50,000. He said this year's most highly rated alpacas could sell for $20,000 or more.
Fallon is also president of the Australian Alpaca Association and the grandson of dairy farmers. But 24 years ago, at age 16, he bought his first two alpacas — two pregnant females — and now has a flock of 350.
He says alpacas require less grazing land than beef cattle or sheep, and need less tending.
As well as being a grazier, and heading the industry association, Fallon works full-time as a farm business consultant and mortgage broker.
Graziers Janelle and Byron Jago, from Orielton, near Hobart, brought 14 alpacas to the mainland on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry and drove to the show at Bendigo from the dock at Corio.
Janelle said she was 'a little overwhelmed' that her eight-month-old alpaca Toffeemont Cranakan — named after Toffeemont, their stud, and inspired by cranachan, a Scottish sweet — won champion junior male and best fawn coloured alpaca at the show.
A breeder from Germany has already asked to lease the animal and take it to Europe for a breeding season.
Other alpacas of Jago's were awarded three seconds and one third place. 'It's absolutely the best show we've had in 20 years of showing,' she said.
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West Australian
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This master filmmaker realised his work was meaningless. So he made more art
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