Bozedown Alpacas and the Alpaca Stud team up annually to hold the Alpaca Classic, a weekend of Seminars which includes an auction of leading UK alpaca pedigrees, The Star of the show, Lot 1 sold for 17,500 guineas; an exceptional rose grey Champion female suri, bred by Bozedown Alpacas. A great way to start! This set the scene for further spirited bidding, such that all the Bozedown alpacas in this section were sold. Brett Kayson, the ‘bags o’ fun’ multi-talented professor from Colorado, sporting his signature stetson, was our fun auctioneer again. The average sale price of £9761 per female reflects the extremely high quality offered for sale.
Friday evening kicked off with a special Suri presentation from Jude Anderson (a top flight USA alpaca judge and breeder, along with her husband Alan Cousil, Aussie breeders who
moved with their alpacas to Portland, Oregon. They gave us the background to their highly successful Suri breeding programme at Pucara International. They then presented the 2
exciting young suri studs that Bozedown and Alpaca Stud are jointly importing from them, and due to arrive in the Spring. These are TSSS Kahuna’s Jetstream and Pucara Puresuri Tikanui’s Ice King, a son and grandson of that famous genetic powerhouse Pucara Kahuna. Their amazing 2-year-old fleeces were ogled over by the delegates. We are confident that they will take our sur breeding even further forward! Only 30 outside services are being offered to these studs over the next 3 years, of which 25 were already taken up over the Classic weekend.
Our Seminar focus this year was EPDs (estimated progeny differences), which can be a tremendous tool in identifying the best sires and dams for breeding particular traits; in alpacas these traits are fleece fineness, density and uniformity. Dr Shauna Brummet took us through the process and benefits, and then showed how we could to get the system going in the UK alpaca industry.
This year saw a new innovation for us: alongside the live auction we ran a pen, or silent, auction, where bidders could take their time over their decisions. This dual auction approach was appreciated by the buyers, with a phone-in bidder also purchasing 2 lots.
There was a fascinating marketing presentation from Paul Whitty, a former military analyst who has developed a niche market in Natural and ethical bedding using lower grade alpaca fibre; a wonderful way for breeders to get their fleece 2nds and 3rds made into something useful and luxurious, and prove that there really is a very good use for every gram of fibre our alpacas produce. A win-win for all. He told us his success story and, my, did he do his research before setting off on this enterprise! He also took us through the main fields of Research, Marketing, Advertising and PR, and how to get the most out of them.
There were also 2 delegate-led discussion panels with industry experts, including Claire Whitehead of Camelid Vet Services and Steve Tucker from Growell feeds, alongside all the other industry experts visiting from the USA.
There was plenty of time for socialising and/or checking out the sale lots. Plus an all-day bar, along with plenty of good food to keep us going throughout the days and evenings.