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The Age
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
More than a good yarn: How prize-winning alpaca fleece sparked romance
'I love it,' Taryan says. The couple could show off and advertise their flock, and buy and sell alpacas. They could rate the quality of their herd against some of the nation's best stock. 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.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
More than a good yarn: How prize-winning alpaca fleece sparked romance
'I love it,' Taryan says. The couple could show off and advertise their flock, and buy and sell alpacas. They could rate the quality of their herd against some of the nation's best stock. 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.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Fashion week for Australia's fluffiest and silkiest alpacas, where ‘we're all hoping for a good hair day'
It's a scant 12C in Bendigo, but scores of fans whirr through the showground's pavilion. The stars of this weekend's proceedings hope to shine, but it's important they don't sweat too much before their time in the limelight. 'They need to keep their hair nice and well done,' says Lee Sadler, vice-president of the Australian Alpaca Association. 'We're all hoping for a good hair day.' The Australian Alpaca National Show is fashion week for local camelids. Throughout the pavilion, pens filled with straw, feed and fans are set up to house the fluffiest, silkiest and shaggiest of the nation's herd. Some alpacas have made the trip to rural Victoria from as far as Western Australia, and some farmers have travelled from Germany to see the best of Australia's young but thriving alpaca industry over the three days. It's an important event: a good hair day here can mean a blue ribbon, a trophy, a business advantage. 'When you participate, you take the best of your herd,' says Sadler. At the end of the weekend, the most outstanding of all the classes is crowned Supreme Champion. It's hard not to be enchanted by the alpacas, with their fluffy coats, long necks, big eyes and eyelashes that would make a supermodel jealous. Not to be confused with their llama cousins, alpacas are smaller, have longer, softer hair, and are generally less spitty and stubborn – though some of the animals strutting their stuff in the ring at Bendigo might give the bossiest llama a run for its money. Friday's competitive circuit features six- to 12-month-old juniors – alpacas, not handlers – and 12- to -18-month-old intermediates. Pressing closely up to each competitor, one after another, are the judges, identifiable by their white armbands (against which they inspect the details of sample hairs) and that they're wearing coloured jackets and ties while everyone else is rugged up in black puffers. The details of a good fleece are only visible up close: things like staple length and fineness, sheen and lustre, even distribution across the animal. A videographer follows the judges and zooms in, the footage livestreamed to a huge screen behind the trophy table so the audience can see what the judges do. Some alpacas loop the ring and pose calmly. Others are recalcitrant, pulling at their halters, refusing to be led in any direction, leaping about – even launching themselves on to their handlers, who try desperately to settle them, acutely conscious that there is no dignified way to wrestle an alpaca. There are two distinct types of alpaca: most of those in Australia are Huacaya, which look like fluffy long-necked teddy bears; between 10% and 20% are the longer-haired Suri. Suri look shaggier but their fleece is finer, shinier and sought after in couture and high-fashion suiting. There are about 350,000 alpacas in Australia, though numbers may be higher after a baby boom a couple of years ago. Australia has the largest herd outside South America – no mean feat for a species that was only introduced here 35 years ago. A 2021 Agrifutures report estimated that more than two-thirds of alpacas were used to produce fibre for sale, and surmised the industry to be worth $19.5m at the time. Ron Condon was one of Australia's first alpaca farmers, and he's still going. A founder of the alpaca association, he was one of a handful of players integral to the importation of about 400 high-quality Peruvian alpacas between 2000 and 2005, a project that involved not insignificant political manoeuvring, altitude sickness and a particularly bad case of food poisoning – leading to a significant increase in the quality of fleece produced by Australia's herd. Prior to that, all the alpacas in Australia had come from Chile. '[The Peruvian breeder] said to me in Spanish, 'You can have anything but my soul,' Condon says. 'We had access to his best animals … We were very lucky.' Show convener Jonathon Provis-Vincent has been shearing alpacas for 12 years and breeding them for 10. He met his partner Maddy Bissels through alpacas, and the couple have a herd of about 80 at their farm in Ararat, about 180km west of Melbourne. 'They actually do have personality. They each have their own character and little social hierarchy,' Provis-Vincent says. He has fond memories of one of his first alpacas, a female named Galaxy, who he says helped him fall in love with the breed. 'You could just walk up to her and hold her and she'd actually lean into you for pats,' he says. 'And then if you're standing there holding her, if you look at her, she then moves her nose up to like give you kisses.' Every farmer has an alpaca they remember, though farm stories are always flavoured with a particular kind of humour. Ros Davis, from Elimbari Alpacas outside Canberra, tells me about a naughty alpaca named Monet that had a penchant for escaping – an unacceptable hazard for both alpaca and human. 'We found him out on the road one night,' Davis says. 'We ate him after that.' Soon after Monet had been taken to the butcher, however, she and her husband went into Canberra only to find the town bedecked with banners advertising an exhibition of works by the great (human) artist and their late alpaca's namesake. 'We felt so awful!' she says. 'We'd just put him in the freezer!' Most alpaca farmers have only smallish herds, and often have a second income source. That's changing, though, as the industry ages and some farms become intergenerational. Max Mathews, for example, works at the alpaca farm started by his grandparents. His grandmother, Fay Wilson, holds the halter of his animals in waiting as he and his partner Taryn lead each competitor into the ring. The fashion, arts and crafts community is becoming an increasing presence at the show, as for most alpaca farmers these days, the focus is on breeding for fibre quality rather than stud stock. The market for alpaca meat in Australia is only very niche and limited by infrastructure – namely a scarcity of abattoirs with credentials to work with camelids. Alpaca yarn behaves differently to sheep's wool, which can take some crafters by surprise, especially if they're familiar with the bounce and elasticity of merino or corriedale. While the alpaca craft show is modest in size compared to the vast multi-shed spread of Bendigo's annual Australian Sheep and Wool Show, interest here has also grown. Conveners of the craft competition say they received just 15 entries a few years ago, but had 130 this year. It took some work for alpacas to be seen as a legitimate, viable livestock industry the eyes of big ag, Sadler says, but she believes they have finally made space for themselves at the table. 'We're not a hobby. This is not a fancy kennel club. We are a sustainable, viable fibre industry.' She is a deep enthusiast for alpaca fibre. 'Alpaca is the most insulating natural fibre in the world. It's light and warm and comfortable. It's very comforting to wear and it's difficult to convey that until people actually put it on and they go, 'oh, it feels so nice'.'
Perth Now
02-05-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
No llama drama, as Australian alpacas pack a punch
Forget cake, Marie Antoinette is perfectly content grazing pasture. She's a queen among the herd of 150 alpacas at Forestglen Alpaca Stud on the picturesque plains of Millthorpe in central western NSW. Nearby is Goodness Gracious, a newborn named for the surprising splashes of chocolate brown and white on her fleece. Remy roams with Rock 'n' Roll, Momo and Antarctica, while Talk To Me has just given birth to a snowy white girl called Rumour Has It. The curious creatures appear to kiss their young and affectionately nuzzle each other on their long necks while quietly feeding in the afternoon sun. The stud, managed by Jennie Carey and her daughter Alexandra Staples, was established in the early 1990s, soon after Australia's first flocks of alpacas were imported from South America. Ms Carey's mother Maureen began alpaca showing and breeding after spotting the exotic animals at a field day. She was besotted with their "big beautiful eyes" and adorable babies, Ms Carey told AAP. "It was love at first sight and the love affair has never really finished," she said. The Australian Alpaca Association, which represents more than 1000 breeders, is hoping the nation's consumers will be wooed by the woolly animals too. The industry is celebrating its 35th year with National Alpaca Week from May 10, complete with a campaign encouraging people to buy products made from the unique fleece. The association's president Brett Fallon, who operates a stud in Albany, WA, said alpaca fibre has many appealing qualities. "It's very warm ... it has a silky feel to it and a natural lustre that is hard to replicate," Mr Fallon said. Australia's alpaca industry was identified by research and development body AgriFutures as an emerging market in 2023. With demand for quality and luxurious fibres here and overseas, the industry has enormous potential to grow, its report said. The association is working to educate and support small-scale farmers to harvest fleece in a bid to bolster the market. Some farmers may only keep a few alpacas - sometimes as pets or as guard animals for other stock - but there is still money to be made in the fibre. "When it starts to scale up, that's when you start to get better returns," Mr Fallon said. Bags of fleece line the shed walls at Forestglen, along with racks of show ribbons. The stud's fleece has won supreme champion at the Sydney Royal Easter Show eight times. "Because it lacks the lanolin that sheep wool has, it has a magical feel," Ms Carey said. It's not just the fleece that's magic. Alpacas are known to be easier on the land than cattle and sheep, allowing pastures to bounce back from grazing and drought. And with their hooting call, they can expertly ward off foxes trying to prey on new lambs. Forestglen has sold about 900 alpacas to farmers who use them as guardians. Ms Carey trains the alpacas to respond to clapping, which also helps farmers herd sheep. "They're the leaders, they're the bosses, they must be obeyed," she said. But ignore the stereotypes about spitting, cranky alpacas. They are, after all, "great big puffballs", Ms Carey said. "I find them to be quite gentle."
