Ultra fine fleece Bale-Alpaca

The main reason we farm alpacas is for their fleece, with most alpaca breeders aim is to breed as fine and consistant throughout the body of the alpaca. The above fleece shot, is our finest tested to date, atr 12.6 micron. We are very proud of our boy, and we have a few morewith absolutely beautiful fine fleeces, but consistant throughout the body of the alpaca.

Mariah Hill Alpacas have always bred fine, without sacrificing the style, handle, density, coverage, but with increased Lustre, increasing the frequency of crimp, and heavy staples, preferring the matchstick style staples.

With Australia's Ultra Fine fleece bale in Mind, a great detail has been taken this year to prepare all the fleeces, and although the alpacas had previouslt been sorted out in the colours and microns prior to shearing.

The rain, gale and storms we had this weekend, proved that all the alpacas had to put together as a herd for protection from the winds and rain.

Elyse though had made detailed planning on how she was going to manage the shearing shed.

She had studied shearing shed managment at her wool classing courses at Deakin University in Geelong. Elyse has also assisted in fleece sorting at AAFl, which has given her a great understanding of fleeces, and how it is expected the fleeces to be handed in.

We are also very lucky at this farm, that are fleeces keep considerably clean from debris. they can be dusty though, especially over the past couple of years, after almost 10 years of drought, our land like others is drying out.

and although we do get good rainfall, this year is the first time, i have seen dust come off our alpacas, even just after a rain storm.

this video is of Adele', who is on her way to Canada, although the pictrure may not be overly clear, as i took this with my mobile phone, you can still identify the high lustre her fleece holds.

super soft handle, and superb high frequency, even crimp style. I hope you enjoy the video.

The shearer is Mike Snow, my husband ROb, and a friend and fellow alpaca breeder Ed, also assisted in handling the alpacas, placing on tables, and feeding the alpacas to the shearer.

You can see here, that Mike is shearing with two tables, so as one is being shorn, the other table, the shorn alpacas is unloaded off the table, and the the next one is placed on the table.

We were lucky today to Have also a fellow alpaca breeder Rose Thorougood helping us, that was fantastic, as it was her birthday. Sam was not feeling well, but she was really wanting to come and help, thanks Sam, we really appreciate that you have a great heart, and wanted to help us.

And of course, if it was not for elyse, what can i say, she is the heart beat of our alpaca ranch, both Rob and I are so grateful to have such a gorgeous daughter that is always there for us both.

Been A while

We have been to many shows over the past few weeks, all seem to be a minimum of 3 days.

We had three vet students here for two weeks, and a hectic time.

This is a friend who took an alpaca into the show ring at the Royal Melbourne Show. English Rose has arrived in Belgium, at Yvonne Steinlet, from ALPACALANDGOED.
I have seen pictures from her farm, and she has a beautiful farm, (right), her farm looks like parkland. Both Yvonne and I have just found out that Primera has had a white Female girl, we are both pleased, and glad that it is a girl. This means that Primera can now start her testing, and hopefully both Primera and cria will be in Belgium very soon. Yvonne is looking forward to seeing them both. I hear Lady Titicata is doing well in Uk, and will be mated to CZAR who is on ANZAC alpaca stud in the UK. Dominic Lane owns ANZAC alpaca stud, and loves it in England. His farm has oodles of feed, and is not that far from London.We have been busy with Quarntines, one for New Zealand, and still the Canadian Quarantine is doing well. As the weather is warming up for us, we are starting to hand trim the alpacas for Canada. We have had a very cold winter, and so it has not been disreable to shear the alpacas earlier. But i hear they will be going to snow, and most likely temperatures of -20 degrees, which we never experience here. We have been advised to leave leags, underbelly, head and tail fleece on, as this will help them keep wamr, and are the most exposed places when they are kushing in the snow. We need to bring their fleece back a bit, as these alpacas mainly coming from NSW, have over 12 months fleece on them. In NSW, they will have most of their alpacas shorn by now, in fact they shear more likely before the end of August, where in Melbourne, we will shear more like November, and still we will have days we have to watch the alpacas do not get too cold, with the sudden cold change, brought on by heavy rains. We need to trim the fleece down to approx 2 inches long, this way, we have enough fleece on them to help them keep warm when they arrive in Vancouver, before their 3 day long journey to Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba. But they will have also less fleece for when they go into the shipping crates, and they will be more comfortable. I hear that there is much excitement for the alpacas to arrive in Canada. The picture above is of Elyse trimming one of the alpacas, and you can see how much fleece we have trimmed off. This fleece that we are trimming is too short now for processing. This is a picture of the fleece of one of the alpacas. I trimmed one of the larger alpacas, which took 4 hours, and now i have blisters over my fingers from th scissors, so i have to rest them while the blisters hear before i can trim again. ELyse also has some blisters on her hands, she has now trimmed 6 alpacas, a few more to go. We have also completed screening for the uk, of 9 alpacas. this procedure was over a two day period. This week proves a hectic week also. I am still completing the paperwork for both shipments, working around plane flights etc. There is a lot of planning when organising shipments, and it has to be just right. I take pride in our exports.

Before i go, I wish Yvonne and her husband, from ALPACALANDGOED Alpaca Stud in Belgium, lots of luck with her alpacas, now 4 female alpacas, and look forard to a long and happy business relationship.

export for canada approved

Well, i have been working hard on a new protocol for exporting alpacas to Canada.

which is a first in something like 14 years.

A new marketplace, and i am just so pleased to be able to open this marketplace up.

It was a battle to get canda opened, but i had some good advice on how to go about opening up protocols.

There are alot of enquiries at the moment for many countries.

I gave a large quote yesterday for a plane load of alpacas to china, keep our fingers crossed, i hope it comes off.

Another two quotes today given out for China, for a tourist trade, and i am working on a protocol for Taiwan at the moment.

New market places, whilst still trying to work on new marketplaces in Europe.

I have been communicating with a lovely lady from Belguim.

Alpacas do make this world a small world.

I am so wrapped to have got this protocol through, as i was told that i had buckleys, but i followed my instinct.

I know this protocol is needed for Australian alpaca, and for Canadian alpaca breeders.

I have not heard back yet from my Canadian, but i am sure she is celebrating.

I hope the effort means it is the first of many shipments to come.