Latest News
June 2018
The Golden Fleece awards were held in Wanaka this month and
for the first time ever alpaca fleeces were included in the event. We see
this as a great opportunity for the alpaca industry and we felt really honoured
to be able to take part. Big congratulations to Peter and Sarah Busby – winners
of the Golden Fleece award for Huacaya alpaca fleece, and to Rogan and Dynett
Colbourne – winners of the Golden Fleece award for Suri alpaca fleece.
Awatere X Factor’s intermediate fleece came in third place! Very happy with
that and we do hope this becomes an annual event for the alpaca fleeces.
Our girls are now in our big paddock where they will spend the winter. We
have heaps of good grass and good shelter.
April
2018
We always enjoy the MacKenzie show, but this year was even
more special. Our Awatere X Factor excelled herself. Last
year she won the SUPREME fleece award with her Junior fleece.
This year she won it again – her second SUPREME fleece
in a row at MacKenzie, with her intermediate fleece. Love, love, love this
girl. She has the 1. sweetest, gentle nature,
2. good health
3. conformation,
4. the loveliest dense, styley fleece,
5. and is free from colour contamination.
We are Breeding for 5/5 and X Factor ticks
all 5 of our boxes. 5/5. X Factor is now pregnant to our new stud male Gilt
Edge Enforcer and we are really interested to see this next generation.
March
2018
We have a lovely bunch of cria running around the paddocks.
They never fail to delight us with their energy and zest for life, and their
antics. So cute. They are charming our tour guests and providing many good
photos.
All of the cria this year were sired by Hermes and he continues to pass
on his usual traits. Good long fleece length, fineness, lustre and density
coupled with good conformation.
Looking forward to this time next year to the first progeny from his son
Lexington, and our new stud male Enforcer.
December 2017
So that was 2017. It seems to have gone very quickly. We have cria due soon and Christmas is close. To all our alpaca friends we wish you a very happy, safe and joyous Christmas. God Bless you all.
November 2017
Well our big news this month is our lovely girl Awatere X Factor taking out SUPREME fleece at the highly regarded Canterbury show. Her sire Aquaviva Hermes also won this award in 2011.
Our annual shearing has just finished. It is getting easier each year. Fibre
is tested before shearing so each fleece is lightly skirted and then grouped
like with like. We can’t believe our fibre shed this year. It is bare with
all fibre moved on for processing save for a few tufts Robyn snuck out for
use in craft work. We are very happy with the prices which is super exciting
from the perspective of furthering the alpaca fibre industry.
September 2017
Back in the show ring again. Gosh that was quick. It hardly
seems any time since we had the last show for the previous season.
In August, in partnership with Styx River Farm Alpacas, we took delivery of
our new stud male Gilt Edge Enforcer. We have been hunting around for quite
some time for a new stud male to join our herd. Hermes has been such an important
part of the development of our herd but we are now in a position where we
need new blood to go over his many daughters. We are looking forward to the
qualities he will add to our herd. Gilt Edge Enforcer will be available for
outside matings from 2019.
It is unlikely we will show him again but we took him to South Island Colourbration
just to see how he would fare… and we were pleased. He brought home SUPREME
White Huacaya Fleece beating our girl Awatere X Factor by one point. We are
excited to see what the result of their pairing will be.
Also an unexpected addition to our farm this month is this huge ball of apricot coloured energy. Thankfully we had forgotten the joys of puppy training or he may never have come to live with us, but he is a lot of fun and pretty darn cute. We lost our beautiful Casey a couple of years ago and never thought we could love another dog as much as we loved him, but this little guy is working on us.
July 2017
Well what a wet, wet winter we have had so far. We thankfully
escaped flooding by a whisker but sadly, several of our neighbours were not
so lucky. We are hoping this is the ’50 year flood’ that is talked about around
the district, and any repeats are now another 50 years away.
The alpacas are wet but otherwise OK. We have good shelter. The little ones
and mothers are very warm and dry in the barn surrounded by beautiful hay.
We are really appreciating the prospect of spring!
Afterwards …… From this………………….. …………… to this in just a few hours
April 2017
The final two shows for this season were held in April. We don’t normally participate in the North Island Colourbration show but decided to send Lexington’s intermediate fleece this year just to see how if he could compete in a North Island show. We are so pleased we did! He won the big prize, SUPREME White Huacaya Fleece against some stiff competition from the North Island. Very proud.
MacKenzie Highland show – again all the team came home with ribbons. They won ten broad ribbons in breed and fleece including SUPREME fleece for our beautiful Awatere X Factor!!
November 2017
Great results from Temuka Geraldine show and Malvern show this month for our show team. Three Championships and two Reserves. All the team came home with ribbons. See our show results page for full results.
Farm tours and cria arrivals are keeping us busy! The alpacas never fail to charm our guests and there are wonderful photo opportunities aplenty. It is so lovely to hear the delighted laughter and see the huge smiles in the paddocks.
Meet Roxy and Trinny, two of our newest cria. They have real personalities and look pretty good as well. We are pretty happy with the cria this year.
January 2017
We had the loveliest Christmas with almost all our immediate family together in one place. In fact we celebrated Christmas on the 26th this year so our son who arrived that morning could be part of our celebrations. The gorgeous grandchildren were blissfully unaware of the switch as Santa still visited and ‘Elf on the Shelf’ kept them entertained with his antics.
Happy New Year to all. We have a couple of cria on the ground already and are now looking forward to most of our new arrivals in March and April.
We are very proud of our results at the Banks Peninsula fleece show this month. Supreme was awarded to our lovely Awatere Lexington with his full sister Awatere X Factor winning Champion Junior Huacaya Fleece
SUPREME CHAMPION awarded to Awatere Lexington for his Intermediate
Fleece
Champion Junior to Awatere X Factor
Champion Intermediate to Awatere Lexington
Champion Adult to Awatere Tennessee
1st place to Awatere Gold Dust for her Senior Mid/Dark Fawn fleece
Junior White class
1st Awatere X Factor
2nd Awatere Lexington
3rd Awatere Ranger
November 2016
It seems so early to be talking about this – but in case we don’t get back to the keyboard before Christmas –
Have a Very Blessed, Safe and Merry Christmas from us all at Awatere Alpacas!!
We
are now on baby watch. Our much anticipated first cria of the season is
due in a week or so.
Birthing season is early for us this year but we seized the opportunity to mate Awatere Society Lass to Silverstream Landau while we could. Fortunately for Lass it has not been too warm this spring, and she certainly looks ready.
Our main birthing season starts in early January and then we are into full swing. It is always an exciting time of year for us.
October 2016
Awatere Alpacas offered a $250 cash award, for a creative alpaca entry in the ‘For Love of Alpaca’ creative display. The winner was to be decided by public vote, at the National Alpaca show in Christchurch recently, and we love the winning entry. Congratulations to Bronya McInally for her gorgeous, colourful and snug felted Child's Sleeping Bag. The excellent standard and the amazing variety and creativity exhibited in this display using alpaca makes this award extra special.
Awatere X Factor and Awatere Halswell attended Ellesmere show last month. Awatere X factor received Champion Junior Female Huacaya, and Awatere Halswell received 1st place in her Intermediate Fancy Female class.
Both these girls also performed well at the National Alpaca show – Awatere X Factor was placed 3rd in the Junior Female White Huacaya in a lineup of 21 entries, and Awatere Halswell won her class – Intermediate Fancy Pinto Huacaya.
September 2016
Show
season is underway again beginning with the South Island Colourbration show
held this month, and a great start to the season for us. Awatere Lexington
and Awatere Society Dominance won Reserve Champion Junior Male Huacaya Fleece
and Reserve Champion Junior Female Huacaya Fleece respectively, and our
lovely Awatere X Factor won Reserve Champion Junior Female Huacaya in the
Breed section.
Preparations are well underway for the National Alpaca show to be held in Christchurch next month.
Awatere Alpacas is very pleased to offer a $250 cash award for the Creative Alpaca section. Titled ‘For the Love of Alpaca’ there are very few conditions other than the article should contain at least 70% alpaca and the award is decided by public vote. The rumour mill says the standard is very high and the creations are very exciting and inspirational.
July 2016
Without saying it too loudly and making the weather gods cross, it has been a lovely start to winter so far. Time to catch up on a few tasks around the farm – including taking some photos! The young cria are fast growing up.
May 2016
We had a great National Alpaca Day again this year. The weather was kind and our visitors made the most of it. How much we take for granted! We see these gorgeous alpacas every day and sometimes we forget just how much our visitors get out of spending time with them. They really are a very special animal in so many ways. We didn’t manage to take many photos, and we were a little busy! We have a display area of all things alpaca and we did get a photo of the curtains made from some of our broad ribbons.
March 2016
Alpaca
farm life is very busy at this time of the year. Farm tours have kept us
very busy and of course this is peak time for the arrivals of our next generation
of alpaca. We are very happy with the cria so far, with one or two who have
really caught our eye. It is also interesting to see the tangible difference
in fleece styles on the newborn cria from differing sires. This is the exciting
bit where we can begin to see the results of our breeding decisions and
how those fleeces will develop.
January 2016
From shearing to sorting all our fleeces!! We entered several fleeces into the Banks Peninsula show – the largest ‘Fleece Only’ alpaca show in New Zealand. Our fleeces all did well but the highlight for us was reading the results for Junior White Huacaya fleece – our fleeces took 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. The lovely thing about our fleeces is they consistently get 5 out of a possible 5 points for ‘lack of colour contamination’ - one of our primary breeding goals.
December 2015
Shearing is all finished in spite of the threats of major rain on our shearing day. We are now involved in the task of sorting all the fleece for processing. It is really encouraging as there are several choices as to where we would like to sell our fleece all with good returns. It always takes a little bit of adjusting to see the alpacas with their fleece removed.
Even when they are newly shorn our guests still fall in love with the alpacas.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and safe and happy festive season.
November 2015
Awatere Lexington, Awatere Society Dominance, and Awatere
Chico continues to do very well in the show ring with placings at Ellesmere
and Ashburton shows but our real thrill this year comes from the Canterbury
show judged by Australian judge Jenny Jackson. Awatere Lexington won SUPREME
Champion against the toughest of competition. He is the loveliest male with
a gentle nature and we are really keen to watch this lovely male grow out.
Lexington repeated his win at the Southern Canterbury show held at Waimate
and judged by NZ judge Molly Gardner– SUPREME champion.
and our lovely Awatere Halswell at her first ever show took out the top
prize in her section – Premier Fancy Huacaya
October 2015
We spent a most interesting few hours recently being interviewed by a very well informed and inquiring journalist Brittany Mann for an article with Avenues magazine, and again a few days later with photographer Olivia Spencer-Bower. Publication date is to coincide with the Canterbury show. We enjoyed the article and appreciate the insight it gives into life on an alpaca farm. It can be found on this link and also appears in one or two other newspapers. We have also seen it translated into Chinese and posted on a forum in China.
September 2015
The first show of the new season is South Island Colourbration 2015 judged
by Australian judge Kylie Martin.
Awatere had a great day out with our favourite junior male Awatere Lexington
taking first place in his Junior Male White Huacaya class,
Awatere Society Dominance achieved 2nd place in her Junior White Huacaya
Female class and Awatere Dakota was placed 5th in that class.
In fleece
Awatere Gold Dust 1st place Intermediate Medium/Dark Fawn Huacaya Fleece,
Awatere Savannah 3rd place and Awatere Tennessee 5th place in Junior Female
White Huacaya Fleece
Awatere Trix 2nd place and Awatere Rosebud 3rd place in Intermediate Female
White Huacaya Fleece
and Awatere Forebear winning the top prize in his section - Premier Huacaya
Fancy Fleece
June 2015
We have a new look logo. It was time to update it and we are very pleased with the result. Thanks to Jason Pegler of Flicka Design for fast and efficient service and great design. jspegler@gmail.com
April 2015
Birthing is over for this season. Our final two cria for the season, both females, were born on 3rd April . Both girls were from an outside mating and were conceived on the same day and born within half an hour of each other.
March 2015
Birthing
is well underway and we are really liking what we see. Density, brightness,
uniformity, great fleece length and lack of colour contamination in particular.
There are a few there that we are looking forward to taking into the show
ring. Our favourite so far, Awatere Lexington (left), is a gorgeous male
with a lovely nature, nice little conformation and fleece to die for.
We
had a group visiting last week for morning tea and a lovely walk around
the alpacas. Gigi thought this was the perfect time for birthing, and as
the group was about to leave she produced a gorgeous wee girl. Someone from
the group suggested that her name was obvious – their group hales
from Halswell.
February 2015
We are very excited to announce that we are now able to offer Farm Tours to interested visitors. There is no doubt the beautiful alpacas are of great interest to people from all around the globe, and we are always happy to share our love of the animal and their glorious fleece. We are working together with Le Tour Travel Limited as our Authorised Chinese Booking Agent.
January 2015
Premier Fancy Huacaya Fleece award. Banks Peninsula A&P show, January 2015. Our beautiful Appaloosa male Awatere Forebear is still performing superbly with his fourth fleece, against respected competition. Thanks to judge Diane Marks, and the hard working team of fleece stewards and convenors.
Our first cria of the season have arrived. The boy/girl ratio is 50/50 and they are all pretty gorgeous. We are birthing right through to April.
September 2014
The show season seems to have started early this year. We are concentrating on fleece show entries for this season, and we got off to a good start at the first show of the 2014/2015 season – South Island Colourbration on 7 September. Our famous wee Awatere Rosebud won Champion Female White Huacaya, and Awatere Gold Dust took 1st place in the Junior Female Medium/Dark Fawn. Awatere Forebear continues to do well with his fourth fleece taking Reserve Best Fancy Huacaya Male and Awatere Lulu continues to impress with her fifth fleece winning Best Female Fancy Fleece. We were very pleased with them all.
July 2014
Hermes has done it again. The winners of the BAFINZ 2014 awards - Best Alpaca Fleece in New Zealand awards – were announced last weekend in Hamilton. Our stud male Hermes took out the Best White Huacaya Fleece award, and Awatere Alpaca Stud also took 2nd placing in the 'Best Huacaya Fleece Producer' showing the depth of quality within our herd. We are thrilled with the results.
May 2014
NZ Lifestyle Block magazine April 2014 issue ran an article on our alpaca farm as part of their feature for National Alpaca day in May. Page 22 – 24, it is a good, informative article.
We celebrated National Alpaca Day this year as we have for several years now, with open days on both Saturday and Sunday. We were delighted with the interest in our beautiful alpacas as we always enjoy showing them and talking about them, and there was a good mix of visitors. Some were enjoying their first encounter with alpacas, some are owners of alpacas, and still others with an interest in starting their own alpaca herd.
The Christchurch newspaper The Press also paid us a visit to interview us and take a few photos of the alpacas. Thanks to Abbie and John for their enthusiasm while they were here. We think the alpacas worked their magic on them, and they made a few new friends.
April 2014
There has been great excitement around the farm this month and for the many weeks leading up to the happy day. Our only daughter was married this month. The alpacas were not left out and were quite intrigued with the happy event as you can see.
March 2014
We are thrilled again with this year’s cria drop. Birthing finished this month for this season. It is so exciting to see each new generation, and it is always a joy to see watch them racing around the paddock. Without exception each cria is an improvement on their dams and they are fit and healthy, and their fleeces are fabulous. We are looking forward to watching them develop over the coming months.
2 February 2014
Wow. A hat trick. Hermes has won his third SUPREME CHAMPION FLEECE in a row. Even better is that two SUPREME CHAMPIONSHIPS were for his third fleece and the latest, at Banks Peninsula A&P show 2014, was for his fourth fleece. We think that cements his worth. Hermes’ cria also picked up several placings in the junior fleece sections including 1st Junior White Male. Birthing has started and this years’ Hermes cria are looking fabulous.
20 December 2013
Awatere Alpaca stud would like to wish a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year holiday season to all our alpaca friends.
13 December
Today was shearing day much to the relief of all our alpaca’s.
Hermes’ cria were all born with such long fleeces they were especially
glad to be shorn.
Yesterday, the day before shearing, our very clever photographer friend
Jingyi Liang came to take some fabulous photos. We have already shown some
on Facebook and will continue to post a few regularly over the next few
months.
6 December 2013
Royal Manawatu show in Feilding - our stud male Aquaviva
Hermes has won Supreme Champion Huacaya Fleece again – Judge Sarah
Busby. We are so proud. Also 1st placing for Awatere Lulu,
2nd placing for Awatere Chix.
Hermes is available for matings in the New Year. Please contact us alpaca@awatere.co.nz
for any queries about Hermes’ stud services or to negotiate price.
17 November 2013
The first cria of the season has arrived. Buddy was a little earlier than we expected but is very fit and healthy and loves to play with the bigger weanlings.
3 November 2013
Waikato A&P show– Judges : Peter Kennedy & Molly Gardner
Awatere Alpaca Stud's beautiful stud male Aquaviva Hermes
SUPREME CHAMPION HUACAYA FLEECE!!
and CHAMPION WHITE
Intermediate Female Huacaya Fleece Light Fawn - 1st place - Awatere Foreshadow
24 October 2013
Awatere Rosebud and Awatere Rory Mist were a great hit when they visited Anthony Wilding Retirement Village. Not sure who loved them the most - the residents or the staff. They were so well behaved. The camera was not so good.
19 October 2013
19 October was the Ellesmere A&P show day - and our last year as convenors. It was a great day out - a lovely sunny day - such a contrast to last year when it rained and rained and rained and then blew.
Awatere Alpaca Stud had a great day -
Awatere Zambezi took 2nd place in the Junior Male Suri Black class.
Awatere Lone Star won Champion Intermediate Female Suri and Champion Suri
- Mid/Dark Fawn.
Awatere Society Triumph won Reserve Champion Junior Female Huacaya
Awatere Gold Dust took 1st place in the Junior Female Huacaya Mid/Dark Fawn
and
Awatere Forebear took Best Male Fancy Huacaya and Premier Fancy Huacaya
with his special fleece.
5 October 2013
Awatere Alpaca Stud has had a great start to the show season at the South
Island Colourbration. Our black suri male Awatere Zambezi took Champion
Male Black Suri;
Awatere Lone Star won Champion Female Med/Dark Fawn Suri.
Awatere Gold Dust placed 3rd in the Junior Female Huacaya Med/Dark Fawn
class in a very respectable lineup.
1 September 2013
Our big news – we are delighted to introduce Kiwi Farm Alpacas. www.kiwifarmalpacas.co.nz Nine alpaca farms in our region have partnered together to form one of the largest alpaca herds in New Zealand. This gives us a very wide range of genetics and we can now offer our customers an even greater selection of alpacas for sale, stud services and products. We will have a trade stand at the National Expo in Hamilton later this month.
July 2013
There is a great emphasis as the time draws nearer, on
the World Alpaca Conference, to be held at Hamilton in September, in conjunction
with the National Show. This is shaping up to be a great event and is attracting
interest from all around the world. We are responsible for setting up the
Online Herdsire Auction which will kick off the event in early September.
We are looking forward to meeting new breeders and old friends from all
around the alpaca world.
Robyn has finished her term on National Council and is now looking forward
to things slowing down a little. Haha. Her fourth issue as editor of the
NZ Alpaca magazine is just now at the printers.
Awatere Rosebud, our now famous premmie girl is five months old now and
continues to thrive. It is still such a pleasure to bottle feed her. She
is always appreciative then runs off to play with her friends.
April 2013
The show season has finished until September this year. Awatere Alpacas are happy with their successes in the ring. Hermes continues to do well, picking up Champion Senior Male Huacaya at the show in Winchester. Awatere Lulu took out Premier Fancy Huacaya at Sheffield, Awatere Chix won 1st in her intermediate white huacaya class, and our lovely junior medium fawn suri girl won Reserve Champion Intermediate Female Suri. Awatere Lone Star also won Champion Intermediate Female Suri at the Oxford show last month.
Awatere Rosebud, our little premmie girl, continues to
thrive. She is still a little undersized but she is growing well, and is
such a delightful wee personality. Even the vet is pleasantly surprised
with her progress.
Hermes cria have arrived. We are thrilled with the results. Time will tell
but at first glance they are mostly stunning. They have very long fleeces,
great character, lustre and density. We look forward to watching them develop.
We have had a lot of visits from interested students and visiting academics
at Lincoln University this year. It is always a delight to see the joy that
people experience when they meet the alpaca, especially the younger ones,
for the fist time.
February 2013
We hope everyone had a safe and happy festive season.
It is so nice to have cria on the ground after a limited birthing season
last year. The season started with a very nice black suri boy. We were surprised
with a premature birth which we found almost by mistake, doing the rounds
of the paddocks at nightfall. Our beautiful wee Awatere Rosebud was barely
alive, with a birth weight of only 3.4kg. With glucose, then goat colostrum
and a lot of attention she is doing well. So far she seems happy to be alive.
Aquaviva Hermes, our stud continues with the show success. He picked up
Reserve Champion Senior Huacaya Fleece at the Banks Peninsula show against
some stiff competition.
October 2012
Winter has flown by and here we are again at the start
of the ‘show’ season. We are the convenors for the Ellesmere
show alpaca section. This year the weather was the worst it has ever been
for our show. It rained and blew a gale the entire day. It ended up being
a great day for those who braved the elements. The show ring was moved under
canvas and a very intimate show was held. Sarah Busby was our judge, and
this was her first breed judging appointment. She did such a great job in
spite everything that was thrown at her. Even when the marquis tried to
blow away she carried on apparently unruffled.
In July IIn July several of our lovely breeding females were exported to
Taiwan. Their new owners are absolutely delighted with these beautiful animals.
Awatere Alpacas can now be found in Germany, France, Spain, UK and Taiwan.
June 2012
June saw us attending the National Conference in Rotorua. It was a great weekend and the speakers were all first rate. There is still so much to learn about the alpacas and our industry. We also attended the Sold on Suri conference in Akaroa where, as you may have guessed, the emphasis is on all things suri. These events are invaluable in furthering our education and refining our goals.
May 2012
National Alpaca Day was the last of several open days we have held this year. There is always such interest in alpacas and this is a great opportunity for potential new breeders, and also for folk who just want to see them close up, to enjoy them. We never tire of talking about alpacas and are always pleased to be able to show them off to anyone who will listen.
April 2012
This is the first time in many years where we do not have
cria due in autumn. We miss the beautiful cria racing around the paddocks.
We took delivery of a new herdsire Aquaviva Hermes this month. He is a beautiful
white male and has a great list of show credits to his name. Hermes was
put to stud work straight away and seems to be doing well. We are really
looking forward to the results of these matings.
We have had some success in the show ring with the autumn show. Our suri
male Awatere Axel continues to do well and is under serious consideration
for stud duties when he matures.
Robyn has taken on the role of editor of the NZ Alpaca magazine for a short
term. The responsibility is a bit overwhelming but the challenge is great.
First issue is out this month. It is a lot of work, and quite a learning
curve. Thank goodness for a great support team.
March 2012
The highlight of these last few months for us is the birth - not of an alpaca – but WE ARE GRANDPARENTS!!!! Beautiful little Poppy was born in March after a difficult pregnancy. What a wee doll.
December 2011
Well what a crazy busy year this has been. Time has just
flown by, as we guess it has for everyone. Even in the winter months alpaca
activities have dominated our time and energy. Robyn was on the steering
group for the 2011 Alpaca Association NZ conference in Nelson, and is now
the southern region representative on the Alpaca Association NZ National
Council. This leaves Phil at home – doing the work!
We had three open days in November before shearing in early December. People
seem to have shaken winter off and there is renewed ‘spring’
interest in the alpacas. We have sold several alpacas in the last few weeks,
which is also encouraging. Actually they sell themselves, don’t they!!
You never get tired of the sight of these beautiful animals in the paddocks.
We are very fortunate – we can see alpacas from almost every window
in the house.
Alpaca yarn sales are also very constant which is wonderful. We love the
natural yarn, but we also have such fun creating the hand dyed yarns.
Forerunner is now for sale in England at Anzac Alpacas at Buckinghamshire
– with hindsight we wonder if we should have kept him here for another
season. His genetic contribution will be hard to replace. He recently won
a reserve championship senior white male at the UK Spring show.
We wish everyone a very joyous festive season, and an exciting New Year.
November 2011
Our (southern hemisphere) spring has brought much higher
rainfall – probably a little more than we needed but we still haven’t
had to irrigate so far which is a great saving for us. Temperatures are
rising, although as we write this they have dropped again. We seem to have
several beautiful warm, sunny days followed by a couple of horrible days
in between. In the warm days we wished we had booked the shearer earlier,
and on the cooler days we are grateful we scheduled him for December.
We have attended our last show for spring, and then on to fleece only shows
in January, before the shorter fleece shows in autumn. Our Silverstream
Forerunner juniors have done very well so far with their beautiful fine
fleeces, but we are also mindful that Forerunner’s second fleece improved
greatly on his first. We are excited at this prospect.
Awatere Axel, our lovely suri boy has also done really well in the showring.
As the judges have all commented , he is ‘the complete package’
- conformation, lustre, locking, handle - did we mention lustre!! We are
really looking forward to see him growing out – he is showing excellent
potential. The numbers of suri being shown this season has probably doubled
over last year. This is really encouraging, and also adds value to those
ribbons!
October 2011
We had almost a dream winter this year with just enough
rainfall, and just enough cool temperatures to kill those bad bugs. This
is such a relief for us as we were a little overstocked and we would have
been running all winter to keep all the alpacas tended, sheltered and fed
well.
Our farm has a different feel to it this spring – we have no cria
due. It worked out this way for a variety of reasons but it certainly feels
strange.
August 2011
We have a Colourbration show in September and then the
Ellesmere show which we are the convenors for. Ellesmere usually anticipates
180-190 breed entries so it is a reasonable sized show. It is a really pleasant
relaxed show and a nice day out. It is a good chance to catch up with some
of the breeders we haven’t seen much of over the winter period.
Our juniors did well at the shows last year – pictured is Awatere
Ginger Kiss – she picked up a ribbon at every show she was entered
in.
July 2011
We are heavily involved with organising the national conference
this year. It has had some huge challenges but we are really happy now with
the calibre of the speakers and their enthusiasm for the topics –
and the topics in general. Marketing the fibre industry, the alpaca industry
in total are just some of the topics.
We think we may well have more questions than we started with before the
conference, but that means we will have been stimulated and goaded into
moving forward in a united and very positive fashion!
May 2011
Our cria from the recent birthing season are wonderful.
Silverstream Forerunner was our main herd sire and his offspring are drop
dead gorgeous. Density, lustre, crimp style, fineness, conformation –
they are ticking all the boxes.
All the cria are really healthy and fit which is one of the biggest and
most important goals of our farm. It is still a delight after all these
years to watch them run around the paddock at dusk.
April 2011
South Island Field days is a three day show, the largest in the South Island. There was a lot of genuine interest in the alpacas, and a great attendance. We took a site with a group of local breeders and we were all very happy with the outcome. It is a biennial event and we are already planning the next one and what we will do differently.
March 2011
The September 4th earthquake was very big, it was hard
to gauge the reaction of the alpacas as it was 4.34am and very dark. We
did peer over the fence and there was no great sign of panic.
The February earthquake occured in the middle of the day. Phil was in the
paddock with the alpacas when it struck, he watched the girls all rush into
the middle of the paddock together. The paddock was rippling wildly and
the house was jumping!! With the thousands of subsequent aftershocks they
did not even look up from grazing – we made them our barometer –
if the alpacas were not worried – why would we be – bless them.
One of our girls had a still born baby three days after the February earthquake
which we attribute to the earthquake. The baby had been dead for a couple
of days before the birth.
January 2011
Happy new year to everyone. We hope you had a joyous fun
filled Christmas and New Year.
Shearing is over and our fleece results are back, which we feel confirm
our breeding goals and strategies.
Forerunners’s first cria arrived in December 2010. Already they have
a special ‘look’ about them and a magnificent presence. They
are very lively, healthy little fellas tearing around the paddocks.. We
will be birthing right through to April this year.
Last year saw our first exports to Europe and we have some more going in
a few weeks. We have planned for the climatic challenge of going from one
hemisphere to another striking a balance between fleece length – leaving
in our summer and arriving into depths of European winter. Awatere Odine
(white) and Awatere Dream Catcher (medium fawn) are two very attractive
maidens going to Europa Alpacas in France in a few weeks. They will have
a chance to adjust to the changes in season and daylight hours before being
mated in the European spring to Uncontended Royalty and Godswell Monty.
Exporting has been an easy exercise for us - after six weeks in isolation/quarantine
they are on their way to their new home in Europe. The knowledge that they
are travelling accompanied by a quarantine official also gives us great
peace of mind.
We have also been busy replenishing our stocks of hand dyed alpaca fibre
lately. We have been experimenting with different colour combinations and
are really pleased with the results. The possibilities are endless. We have
200 gram hanks of 100% alpaca available in 4ply, 8 ply or boucle (10 ply)
in either natural or dyed.
December 2010
Our first Forerunner cria are on the ground and they are
gorgeous!! Really fit and healthy and full of life. The bulk of our females
are due to birth from February onward but we certainly like what we see
so far. We still haven’t seen any obvious signs or any adverse reactions
that we can attribute to the September earthquake or the aftershocks which
is fantastic.
Have a lovely Christmas and festive season everyone – and take care!!
October 2010
The Ellesmere A & P show is usually the first show of our season here in Christchurch but this year it is the third. We had the inaugural Colourbration show in August and then the Expo also this month, so the season is well and truly under way. We are the convenors for the alpaca section of the Ellesmere show. Ellesmere is a really interesting country show, with a great atmosphere and such a lot to see – well worth the visit. The convenors don’t get to see too much of the rest of the show these days though.
September 2010
I suppose nearly all of you will have heard about the 7.1 earthquake we had here on the 4th September. The earth certainly did move for us, and at 4.30am and still dark it was a bit harrowing. We suffered very little damage in the scale of things but the hundreds of aftershocks are a bit wearying. We have taken great heart however from the alpacas. It was difficult to gauge how the initial quake affected them while it was dark but they did not appear to be panicking. During the aftershocks they do not even bother to look up from grazing. It will be interesting to see if there are any longer term effects.
August 2010
The first New Zealand Colourbration show was held in Christchurch this month. Six shows in one effectively. There was an excellent turnout from both the North and South Islands and it was really well done. I think this show will become a regular feature from now on. We also had Ginny Cobb from Europa Alpacas in France staying with us for a few days. We first met Ginny and Nigel in Spain last year while we were visiting as many alpacas breeders as we could over there. They were all so hospitable. That is one of the great benefits of breeding alpacas – the lovely people we meet from all over the world.
July 2010
Ah yes winter!! It is not our favourite time of year in terms of caring for the alpacas but they are doing really well so far – no signs of any ailments. We have good shelter here and it is interesting to observe how the weather is changing just by watching the alpacas change position in the paddock. We have a really good store of hay grown on farm and they are loving it.
May 2010
This year is already speeding away. Birthing has finished for us for the season and we are really pleased with our new cria. They are a really healthy bunch of lively little ones – and we are really, really pleased with our female : male ratio again. We can’t say too much as we don’t want to break the streak of good fortune!! When we first started out the ratio was unfairly in favour of male cria but since we have been mating and birthing on our own farm that has reversed. We like to think it is our land. Soil tests show unusually high selenium levels for the region. Who knows – but thank you!!
March 2010
We are very excited about the improvements to our website. It has been a long time coming from planning to reality but we are very pleased. Many thanks to the design team. We hope you like it and welcome any thoughts or comments you may have.
February 2010
Birthing is on. We are expecting 25 cria this season but
one of our girls has us scratching our heads. She has just gone over twelve
months pregnant. Every other day we say 'yes, she is pregnant' and every
alternate day we say 'no, she's not pregnant'. Time will tell.
What a gorgeous bunch of cria to date. We used our own Awatere Riley Warrior,
Awatere Snowden and Awatere Taco Warrior last year for several of our matings
and are now seeing the results. Taco and Riley have brought out some colour
in our herd, while Snowden’s offspring are really long fleeced and
very lustrous. They are all really fit and robust, very active cria.
January 2010
Our new stud male Silverstream Forerunner has settled in really well. He began working on his third birthday with great enthusiasm and hasn’t looked back. The girls are spitting off so roll on December to see his offspring. Forerunner is available for outside matings – see our ‘stud male’ page for details.
December 2009
Big news this month. Our new white stud male arrived just before Christmas ready for duty. Silverstream Forerunner is a multiple broad ribbon winning male with impressive genetics and very impressive fleece statistics – see our ‘stud male’ page for details.
November 2009
Our second cria for the season arrived this month – also a girl – wouldn't that be nice if that was the trend!!! Awatere Xena Princess Warrior is very active, pert young cria, and very friendly. It is lovely to have a new mate in the paddock for Mercedes.
September 2009
It's a girl!! Honey Queen gave birth on the 7th to a lovely little suri girl cria – Awatere Mercedes. What a great way to start the season! Of course she has a brown spot on her tail but we love her still. She seemed tiny initially – it has only been a few months since we have had a birth and we have forgotten what they look like! She was about a week earlier than we would have liked but she is full of spunk, tearing up and down the paddock. Honey Queen has a plentiful milk supply and they are both doing well.
August 2009
We brought Honey Queen , our 16 year old pregnant mum into the paddock close to the house today. She is a great mother but hasn’t had a cria for a couple of years. We are looking forward to our first new arrival of the season. We are holding our breath as this winter to date has been pretty OK. We are hoping there is not a backlash at the end of spring. I can’t quite think what we were doing mating Honey Queen at this time last year other than maybe she was keen and she had been empty for a couple of years. Anyway she seems to be very comfortable and happy with her situation at the moment. Looking forward to a trouble free birth for her – and maybe a girl cria. She will be a first cross suri as Honey Queen is mated to Awatere Kendrick. He is throwing some nice suri cria.
