AIRFREIGHT TO NZ FOR ANY EXPORT, LIVE GOAT, SHEEP ALPACA

WE CAN STILL OFFER THE SAME EXPORT SERVICE, AT THIS STAGE SAME COST AS PREVIOUSLY FOR EXPORT OF THE CATTLE, SHEEP, ALPACA, & GOATS, AT THE SAME PRICE PREVIOUSLY. IF YOU ARE IN NEW ZEALAND, AND STILL WANT TO PURCHASE AUSTRALIAN ALPACAS, GOATS, AND SHEEP, WE CAN STILL OFFER THE SAME SERVICE, (NUMBERS TO BE CONSIDERED), AND NOW WE CAN OFF A FLIGHT THROUGH TO CHRISTCHURCH FOR JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE.
SO DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT RAELENE IF YOU NEED A QUOTE

Flight route travelled by Alpacas.

Alpacas exported from Australia have to spend 6 months in a third country if they are destined for Europe or England.

This is a current arrangement made with the EU, and currently we have no option but to comply.

Once the alpacas have completed 6 months in New Zealand, be it in the North Island or South Island, then they are travelled to Auckland International airport, and then to Luxembourg, with a 1.1/4 hour stopover for refuelling at los angeles.

The alpacas are not offloaded there, they are on the aircraft the whole time, with ventiliation confirmed for all flights with livestock on board.

They then arrive at Luxembourg airport.

The alpacas are then checked, and as there is a night flight arrival, coming in around 10 pm, the alpacas are offloaded to a heated holding covered shed until the next morning, where they are fed and watered.

The next morning the Government vets check the paperwork and load, and then the alpaas are given permission to be dispersed to their owners.

Austar is on his way to Belgium

Austar is on his way now to Belgium, he has to stay for 6 months in NZ, first, and then approx June 2009 He will fly out to Luxenbourg.AUstar has a beautiful lustrous Black fleece, and will be at Alpacalandgoed, for any enquiries

Aailyah

Sire is Vallon De Oro",
He has been putting spectaculat fleeces onthe ground.
The fleece tester last night who is the man that buys the ultra fine bale, said that the consistancy of our fleeces, and stats, would place us one of the top ultra fine /super fine studs in Australia, this guy tests most of the fleeces in Australia.
He especially liked this fleece, (I love her ), as he said when you have a SD 3.2, you know that the whole fleece is consistant in micron, but not only that, it is all over, and she then has the ability to pass this on. Most of our SD are in the 3's some in early 4's. He said most studs are not getting under 4 in the SD. She has outstanding fleece. She still is maturing, and she is spectacular, she is devoping nicely, the dam's offspring have all grown out well.
Aailyah also hs the most gentle, beautiful, sweetest personality.
She has just flown to NZ for her second leg of the Journey, where she will stay for 6 months for residency. Then she is due in Belgium in June 09

Sunrise at Mariah Hill Alpacas

With this unpredictable weather we are having, it is bringing the most startling beautiful sunrises. I hope you think these are as stunning as i do, although there is nothing like the ral thing

it is snowing in Belgium-Alpacas

Yvonne tells me they are receiving their first snow for the season.

Primera and Dakota look s though they have settled in, and enjoying the life in Laakdat, Belgium

But who wouldn't enjoy the fabulous facilities at ALpacalandgoed, in Belgium.

It certainly looks like a winter wonderland.

Yvonne and Olivier, are proud of their alpaca stud, in Belgium,

Black Onyx, is such a georgeous male, although he now knows how to work, he is starting to be a bit of a macho.

One of the finest Black working males icurrently in Australia, Black onyx is now on his way to being another top stud male for the Alpacalandoged in Belgium.

One of the leading Alpaca studs in Belgium, run by Yvonne and Olivier .

Just before he was shorn and has gone into Quarantine for New Zealand first, we took him down to a lake just near our home. He really loves posing for photos, and has the most georgeous personality. He has started working young, and we do have a number of females now pregnant to him, so although he is on his way to Europe, we hope that we will be able to still have a part of him in his future offspring. as i am writing this blog, i have the rainbow lorikeet dancing on my arm, tickling my finger, and smooching up to me, it is a bit difficult to type and have a loriket balanced on your hand.

You can see him in a previous post

Alpacas have arrived in New Zealand, and are enjoying the lush New Zealand pastures

Well the alpacas have passed all their tests, they have now been inspected by AQIS, and the Vet,

(AAV)

And they now have permission to load. A quick call to the airport to confirm that the plane is on time. All the paperwork has been accepted, and satisfied the New Zealand requirements, and now i have been given the health certificates that accompany the plane. It is time, the females are loaded first, a very quick process, as we set up gates, to give them a laneway to walk through and straight into the float.

It is easier to walk the males to their area. These males are halter trained, and near working age, so we have to keep them separate to the females. The females are pregnant and would spit at the males all the way to the airport, anyway. We keep the males separate anyway. The males are eager, as they are loaded into the van. All goes well with the trip to the airport. Both Rob and i are so tied, it has been a long day, since 4.30am, in the morning, with the final clean up for this group. AQIS meets us at the airport along with our freight forwarder. We load the alpacas into the crate, and they are off to New Zealand. Before loading, we check the crate out, and make sure that it is safe, and well constructed, we check the stamps on all timbers to confirm that it has been treated properly to the specificatations of IATA. Then after the alpacas are loaded, we lock the crate up secure. The the crate is lifted to the conveyor belt, and we watch the crate move into position to be loaded onto the plane.

A very smooth and well planned loading, AQIS is very happy with the loading, and there is plenty of space for the alpaca to walk around, and sit if they want to. It is a vey

long day, we had the alpacas at the airport loaded by 730pm, it is almost 10pm by the time we get home. We stopped off at McDonald's on the way home, have a fresh pick me up, before heading off home.

What is involved in the screening process to meet the British (UK) (BAS) screening for Alpacas

The purpose of screening alpacas for the UK marketplace for alpacas, is firstly, to make sure only the best Improved stock is imported into Britain.

There is no use going through the importing process to bring alpacas of the same quality into the country.

Although i live in AUstralia, i am a member of many country's Alpaca associations.

And as a member, i am also very aware of my devotion to the industry be it here in Australia or over in England, France, germany, Canada, or where ever.

As an exporter of Camelids, ALpaca in particular, and as a breeder, i am here to promote our iundustry of the very best.

I am also given the task, of trust, and with this trust i take very seriously, hold high, and will not sacrifice. As a third party in the screening process, when presenting the alpacas for screening, gives the screeners great confidence.

The screeners although they have worked in the industry and still are consultants to the industry, are not part of the industry, and so do not know individual Australian Breeders, or known alpacas.

So when the alpacas are presented to the screeners they are given a brass tag no, dob and that is all they want to know about the alpaca.

They then look at the alpaca objectively, and are not influenced at all by the accolades an alpaca has gained, or the stud name of the breeder.

This is a very important componant to the screening process.

Once a British importer has selected an alpaca they would like to purchase, they then fill out an agreement with the BAS (British Alpaca Society), which nominates where the alpaca is to be screened.

The british importer also then contacts myself, as the quarantine facility they are to go through to start the export chain, and also as i am the Exporter, i give instructions first of all, and most of this information can be seen on our export /quarantine website http://mariahhillalpacaexport.homestead.com/pre_export_quarantin_alpaca.html

this gives you a lot of information, especially the requirements of EU, BAS Screening.

The same screening requirements have also been taken up by other alpaca societies aroud the world.

On this website is also the rejection criteria.

As an exporter i can only accept healthy alpacas to go into quarantine for export, this page will give you a list of my requirements when i accept alpacas for export.

The screeners take their reconition seriously, and as i said before, they are not given any identification of the alpaca other than DOB and Brass tag no.

Not every alpaca that has been screened will pass, % of the ones that do not pass, i could not tell you, maybe 1/3rd of alpacas presented will pass.

Why do they fail, when these alpacas have won sometimes championships of the class.

because the alpacas are tested for things that are not checked at shows.

laxating patellas, for one.

Tails are always checked, teeth, legs, and testicle size are often things alpacas fail on.

But the most common thing they fail on is fleece.

The fleece sample is taken by one of the screeners, and then sent to Yocum Mccoll in USA.

They test on the butt end of the fleece, at the point of growth.

So when alpacas are presented for screening, please be aware that not all pass, and it is an expensive venture if an alpaca failed.

I hope this has helped people understand a little bit more about the BAS screening regime.

The bottom picture we are checking legs and weighing the alpaca

Remeber screening has been devloped to protect the purchaser, to ensure the alpaca being exported is of a high standard, and carrying no known genetic faults.

It is also a protection for the British alpaca Industry, so ensure again, that they will not compromise for anything else but quality.

Canadian Alpaca Import departure date set

Final arrangements are now being vonfirmed.

Plane is now booked.

19th November...16 alpacas will board Air Canada Plane and fly to Canada, a 14 hour flight, and they will arrive in Vancouver, Canada on the 19th November, yes they cross the international date line, and they loose a day.

What a wonderful transport trailer for the alpacas.

Tannis will move the alpacas still in quarantine in this trailer especially designed, and purpose built, so that she can feed and water the alpacas during their road jouney.

Everyone in canada are anxiously waiting for the arrival of these alpacas.

hair cuts

We have to trim the Canadian alpacas up, before they fly out.

It was too cold to shear here, and they need some fleece to come off, for when they fly.

Although they can fly in full fleece, as most of these alpacas come from NSW, where they shear earlier in the year than we do in victoria.

Their weather is a lot hotter than we have. They have more than 12 months growth on them currently.

But we cannot shear them to low to the skin, as they will arrive in a canadian winter, which i am told is very, very cold. In the minus, so the Canadians leave their legs, and underbelly on as that keeps those parts which is closest to the snow, when kushing, warm.

So we have tried a happy balance.

It takes on average 4 hours to trim up an alpaca, and you get heaps of blisters from the scissors.

My blisters are finally healing, so if we get time to day we will tackle a couple more of the alpacas.

The bigger alpaca is Mantra.

and the other two photos are of Star Dynasty.

It may look like a rough heairt do, but we will neaten it up before they go.

we just have 10 more to clip up, these will be the hard ones, as they are older females.

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.