Our quality
Dedication and investment reap rewards. Even though we are two years behind in our breeding programme, due to our move to Spain, our herd is displaying the impressive quality for which we are striving. It is amazing what can be achieved in five years. Our aim is to give the Spanish herd as large a genetic base as we are able, using only the best sires (stud males) available to us. Our dedication to the quality of alpacas in Spain is extremely important. We would like to give Spain a jump start within the European industry without having to go through years of breeding poor stock to create a good alpaca. The quality of the sires used by us is very high. Genetically 50% of the crias’ (babies’) genes come from each parent and 25% of the crias’ genes come from each of the four grandparents and so on. The quality of the dams (mothers) is important too, but other factors have to be taken into account, the most important being ‘is she a good mum?’ This varies as in any other species on the planet and careful selection is required. We are here to help you with this. We have put ourselves in an incredibly responsible position here in Spain, as pioneers in the breeding of registered, traceable stock with a sound genetic background which increases the predictability of future generations. Our investment, financially, has been large to say the least. Stud fees for the quality of animals we use range from €1,000 to €2,100, not figures to be sneezed at. All in all we are very proud of our quality and are looking forward to sharing it with new and existing owners. The time is ripe – come and see us now. Details of some of the sires we have used including those with cria due here in 2008 can be found in the ‘Hall of Fame’; also some of our prize winning females, including details of their show successes. Our vision
Moving to Spain in 2005 was a real challenge. We had lived in the UK for all our lives and like a marriage, did not really know what to expect. We knew we wanted to develop alpaca ownership in Spain and we were keen to have a new adventure in the sun! Over several months in the summer of 2005 we scoured Andalucia and discovered the area we most liked (Ronda) and then found a suitable property with water and land for the alpacas. That was fine, and we re-built the ruin into a comfortable country house. But then we realised that as the alpaca business was going to succeed, we needed more land for the expected 80 or so that we will have by the end of 2008. We have now moved nearer to Ronda, near Arriate. We are firmly committed to ensuring that the alpacas in Spain will be good quality animals. It is too easy to buy and sell the poorer quality that so marked the beginning of the industry in the UK and other European countries. We want to avoid making that mistake, so giving the industry in Spain a good foothold in the EU. This is quite a responsibility but we have been lucky with our dealings with other alpaca breeders worldwide. Link to quality animals When we started owning alpacas we sought the best animals from Australia and South America. We ended up with five lovely animals. We entered one each year in the Bath and West show, the largest alpaca show in Europe at the time and we came away with Reserve Champion on both occasions – 2004 and 2005. We achieved Reserve Champion at the inaugural British Futurity Show in 2006. More recently we won the Spanish Champion with Godswell Ella, at the Ronda Feria in May 2008.
Key to our success was the quality of our girls and buying into a syndicate owning some of the best males in the Europe. They were prize winners at various shows and we had the pick of males that could deliver even better quality than we had. |
