Steve and Jayne of Quelvehin Alpacas in Brittany arrive this evening on the ferry from Roscoff to, as Jayne puts it, have a break from poo picking!! Hope thats not the only reason. We’ll no doubt spend tomorrow going through some alpacas but do intend to do some non alpaca things. I think a visit to Eden is on the cards and then maybe a few visits to The Riser at Botus Fleming followed by one of Felicia’s curries. Should be a good weekend. I’ll make sure I have the trusty Nikon handy.

Miranda came back and checked the alpacas that had the tb tests and all were clear which was a relief. The first lot of girls can now go to their new home in Devon on Saturday, the next group aren’t quite ready for scanning yet so they’ll still be here for a couple more weeks. The boys that were castrated are fine, hardly think anything had happened except for all the blue spray around their bums. they remind me of baboons.

Miranda, my favourite vet called by today and we had a pretty busy morning doing some vet checks on some alpacas we have sold. They all passed with flying colours but we now have to sit out the next few days before she returns to check the tb skin tests. We have always been clear in the past but you still sweat a bit. That wasn’t the only reason why I was worrying. We also did some castrations and this always makes me sweat. Miranda was very efficient though and the boys hardly felt a thing. I was very quiet as well, I think she overdid my sedative !!

The results from the Australian Nationals Show are now published and Ambersun just about swept the board by taking the following Championships:

Junior Male Champion

Intermediate Male Champion

Adult Male reserve Champion

Senior Female Champion

Senior Male Champion

Mature Female Reserve Champion

Mature Male Champion

and the big one Supreme Champion Huacaya with Ambersun El Salvador (see previous blog).

Surilana and Kurrawa Alpacas cleaned up in the suri classes with Kurrawa Tari Q ET winning Supreme.

It’s pleasing to see alpacas are still thriving so well in places like Australia where they have being going for so much longer and still fetching such good prices. It gives me hope for the future.

I’ve just been having a look at the Auction results at the Australian Nationals held in Adelaide over the weekend. Top priced was Ambersun el Salvador that fetched $78 000. This male is a Warrior/Auzengate cross which seems to produce Ambersuns best results. His mother is a full sister to our male Verdello. (The rather wet looking cria in the second photo is a Verdello boy out of our Warrior girl Popham Cheyenne. We have called him The Colonel. Lets hope he is as good as Ambersun el Salvador and that we are beginning to see the results we have hoped for from our Ambersun imports). In fact Ambersun sold three alpacas at the auction for a total of $120 000. All three were purchased by Riverport Alpacas in South Australia. Then just to add the icing to their cake, Ambersun held their own auction today and put out 25 lots of which 16 have sold for a tidy sum of $139 500. Not bad for a weekends work.

I couldn’t resist getting the trusty Nikon out while the sun is shining, here are some of the results…

I just love France, the pace of life, the countryside and the food. I’m not a great fan of their wine. Our trip was over in a flash and we’re back in rainy Cornwall. The show was a great success and the organisers, Marie-Geneive and her daughter Gaby of Alpagas Sologne deserve a round of applause. There were breeders from France, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia and us making up the entry number of about 110. Jill Macleod was judging the halter classes on the Saturday. This was followed by a wonderful and very festive french meal at a local restuarant ( four courses for 15 euros including wine) and then the fleeces were judged on the Sunday whilst there was a talk by a local vet on alpaca dentistry. The big huacaya prize was won by the Belgium breeder, Alpacas Flanders with a very smart imported animal from New Zealand. The suri prize was won by French breeder Linda Hitchcock of Utopian Alpacas with their own bred fawn suri male who would take some beating in the UK. Our stud male Popham Columbus won the senior white hucaya class and our suri girl French Lass won her class. French Lad didn’t fair so well. We were very pleased also with an Alamo girl belonging to Jayne and Steve of Quelvehin Alpacas who won the junior white female huacaya. They also did well with their black male Atlas winning the reserve black championship.

I am not so keen on the French fashion of shearing their alpacas with the poodle cut as you will see in some of the pictures.