A good time was had by all….
Kicking off the 5th annual Alpaca Classic event with a great start on Friday evening, Brett Kaysen gave a talk ‘How EBV’s have led to progression in the cattle industry”, drawing in his audience in his inimitable style, and really making us think about how this would help advance alpacas.
There was a fantastic atmosphere all weekend as delegates swarmed around the pens containing the Bozedown alpaca lots on offer. Alongside the UK breeders were breeders from Belgium, Finland and Sweden taking a keen interest in the very high standard on view.
Across the rostrum auction and pen sale, the very high end females sold by Bozedown Alpacas averaged 10,270 guineas, securing some highly desired genetics for their purchasers. The highest price paid, 13,100 guineas, was for the Bozedown Breeders Selection Lot “Sweet Sixteen”. Our sincere congratulations go to Barbara Hetherington of Beck Brow Alpacas, who selected the yearling huacaya female Bozedown Delphi, whose pedigree not only includes her terrific Sire Bozedown Achilles, but also the wonderful Bozedown Galaxy and Bozedown Olympus on her dam’s side; a great choice! The barn was fairly buzzing after the rostrum auction, when the Charity auction ‘Slaves for a Day’ raised a terrific £12,000 for the Peruvian Quechua Benefit charity – a wonderful result, with the top price £3,000 paid for the final lot ‘A dance with the Cowboy in the Hat’. The purchaser playfully donated the Lot to all the ladies, so Brett was kept very busy during ‘Party Time’!
There were plenty of other great Lots on offer in the charity auction: Bozedown and Alpaca Stud jointly donated a stud service to Nyetimber: Nick Harrington-Smith of Alpaca Stud further donated a half day of his expertise (anything non-manual, as he’s not getting any younger…) and his stockman donated a full day as a slave: Bozedown’s Iain Smith and Ewan donated 30 cria shearings – purchased by one of the Swedish contingent! Jo Bridge of Hilly Ridge Alpacas offered to shear 10 alpacas: East Anglia Mill offered to spin an entire fleece into DK yarn: Julia Corrigan-Stuart of CS Alpacas offered halter-training tuition: Claire Whitehead of Camelid Vet Services offered processing and expert evaluation of 8 fecal samples: Alpaca World Magazine donated a baby alpaca shrug: UK Alpaca donated 2 lots – a beautiful alpaca bronze, and a pack of 4 UK Alpaca Posh Socks. On behalf of Quechua Benefit, our heartfelt thanks to all who gave their services, and to all who purchased them, to enable children from the high altiplano in Peru to receive an education.
Amelia, Mary-Jo’s 9-year-old daughter, kept herself busy all weekend. She seemed to be everywhere: cutting up fruit and mixing Pimms, topping-up glasses, replenishing biscuits, clearing tables and generally looking after everybody such that you’d have thought there must be several Amelias: what a star!
Dancing went on until way after midnight on Saturday, as everyone continued to enjoy the party atmosphere. Steve, who provided the excellent catering over the weekend, even made sure that Mary-Jo and Iain got something to eat, as they always seemed to be busy, making sure everything else was running smoothly, at meal times.
On Saturday morning Sarah Riley of Inspired Camping offered ideas on Glamping as farm Diversification.Then there was a choice of 5 varied and interesting workshops repeated across the weekend, but mainly on Sunday; such varied topics as Photography for marketing, by Harvey Brown: Form & Functionality in alpacas, by Brett Kaysen: Fleece appraisal by Mary-Jo Smith: Avoiding single trait selection in breeding decisions, by Nick Harrington-Smith: and Simple advice for spotting sick alpacas, by Camelid specialist vet Claire Whitehead.
As usual we presented the event along with Alpaca Stud but, instead of it being at Bozedown as in the previous 4 years, this year it was held on their new base in Buckinghamshire, where they have lots of barn space.
A weekend to remember…..