Alpaca :: Flowerdale Estate Alpacas :: Alpaca Breeders, Alpaca Agistment

Clients of Flowerdale

An introduction to some of our clients and their exciting alpaca plans

A PROUD BREEDER WITH A LOVE FOR SHOWING

Vivienne Derwent has been around alpacas for quite a few years now. Her interest in alpacas started 8 years ago. Having sold a block of land, she decided to put the proceeds into her on-going love of animals. Ten years ago she moved from the city to a bush block near Kinglake. The mud brick house had been built by Marleen Pugh, a well-known potter. Vivienne added an external cat "play area" for her 2 Scottish Shorthair cats. The grounds were not suitable for her next venture - moving into the world of alpacas. So she decided to acquire some nice alpacas and have them agisted for her. This way she could have them looked after, on someone else's land, without the hastles of setting up a farm of her own.

During a visit to an alpaca show she met Jeffry and enquired whether he agisted alpacas. After starting to build her herd, she re-located them to Flowerdale Estate where Haydn, Jeffry's son, is the Farm manager. Haydn looks after her alpacas between Vivienne's frequent visits. Vivienne only lives an hour away and enjoys the drive and quality time spent with her alpacas. Occassionally it is necessary to prepare them for showing - selecting which ones to enter, halter training and grooming.

Her future plans include concentrating her breeding with a favourite stud male she owns, Phoenix. As a young fawn male he had an exceptionally soft and fine fleece which won many show prizes including Supreme Champion Fleece at Ballarat and first place awards for his fleece at the Royal Melbourne and National shows. He stands at stud at Flowerdale and Vivienne would be pleased to talk to anyone wanting to use Phoenix over their coloured girls.

Vivienne's own family, twin daughters and a son; all share her interest in animals. One daughter in particular has over 40 pet animals on her property - with a focus on horses. As yet, no alpacas!

Vivienne's interests also include A Cappella singing and pottery; some unusual and interesting gifts are produced by her creative hands. Her greatest love though, when all is weighed up,are her 6 grandchildren.

NEW BREEDERS WITH A FOCUS ON QUALITY

Ian Wastle and his partner Cherie are new breeders. They have joined the Association and have purchased their first alpacas from Flowerdale Estate Alpacas.

Ian's interest in Alpaca's started in the early 1990's when he was an acquaintance of Des & Lis Williams (Wangoom Ridge Alpacas, Warnambool) who shared a common business interest in the motel industry.

Since leaving the motel industry, after 20 years, Ian now has the time to follow his passion and aspirations for alpacas. Cherie's background of living on the land all of her life and her love of animals makes for a perfect partnership in alpacas.

“Purchasing land and living on a property near Tocumwal N.S.W has given us a chance to begin a new life in the wonderful world of Alpaca's. We had been researching Alpaca's through the web and found the Flowerdale website to be most informative and user friendly. We contacted Flowerdale by email, through their website and received an immediate response to our questions. Since then we have attended a weekend workshop, “Introduction to Alpaca's” at Flowerdale Estate. We thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and learned such a lot. Following the weekend we purchased 4 females and 2 wethers, from Flowerdale. We now intend to breed and show high quality animals,” says Ian.

“With advice from Jeffry and Haydn along with our own enthusiasm, we are sure to do well,” says Cherie. “We intend to return to Flowerdale to attend their Fleece Seminar in October and stay on for the first shearing of our animals. It is a whole new world for us.”

Being involved at the start, to help new breeders on their way, is one of the most rewarding things about this industry for us at Flowerdale Estate Alpacas.

AGISTEES WITH BIG FUTURE PLANS

Mary O'Shea and Deb Freeman are new breeders to alpacas. Mary has a background in vet nursing and is currently Customer Service Manager with Queensland's largest veterinary wholesaler. Deb is an Administration Support Officer in the Property Services Dept of a major Queensland Credit Union. Mary and Deb had been doing some alpaca research on the Internet when they saw the banner on the Alpaca Association website for Farm Planning offered by Flowerdale Estate and were immediately interested. They emailed Jeffry Farman and he offered to help them by suggesting some alpaca studs to visit on a trip to Victoria

After several months of planning, Mary and Deb visited Victoria from their home state of Queensland. They visited Flowerdale Estate, Jingana, Pucara, Blackgate Lodge, Kurrawa and Adelyn Alpacas, doing their research into future plans to establish their own alpaca stud farm. Mary and Deb say "We had a simply wonderful time on our visit to Victoria. Each of the six studs we visited, over five days, gave so freely of their time and we are very grateful for the advice received."

Our first Purchase, Rose Royale.

Mary and Deb stated in the beginning, (before their visit) that they were looking for quality in their initial acquisition. They chose Flowerdale Rose Royale, a solid white, super dense female with an impeccable pedigree. Rose is out of Society Attraction, a daughter of Shanbrooke Society Lass, the only alpaca to win 5 championship ribbons at National Alpaca Shows. The girls have become AAA members and have registered their own stud called Shikota Alpacas.

We are thrilled that Mary and Deb have become new breeders. We always find it rewarding to see new people come into this exciting industry with definite plans and ambitions.

AN ELITE NZ BREEDER WITH AN EYE FOR A QUALITY ALPACA

David and Fran Goulden own Premier Alpacas, outside Christchurch in New Zealand. David is a plant breeder with a background in genetics and breeding systems. Fran has a bookstore business in Christchurch. They had farmed goats for 30 years, before switching to alpacas. David has also been an alpaca judge in New Zealand so he knows a top animal when he sees one. Their focus is on breeding heavy cutting, ultra-soft alpaca fleeces.

In the middle of 2003 David approached Flowerdale Estate to see if he could buy a particular female from the line that had produced Mariah Hill Khan, the densest alpaca so far measured in Australia. Being of like minds, Jeffry and Dave hit it off immediately. After some careful consideration, Jeffry agreed to sell Mariah Hill Tulu, from the Dam of Khan and mated to his sire Jolimont Cristiano.

David visited Flowerdale Estate in October, 2003. There he had an opportunity to inspect the alpacas in the Flowerdale Herd. He commented, "I was impressed with the density and evenness that is evident throughout the herd. There were a number of alpacas that would easily slip into our controlled breeding program. We focus on density as a priority, to produce heavy cutting fleeces. At Premier Alpacas, like Don Julio Barreda, we believe it is necessary to first build the density into our herd before concentrating on other traits such as micron fineness. That's what attracted us to Tulu, coming from a line known for its density," says David.

Flowerdale Estate was fortunate to have the dam of Khan, and 3 sisters including Tulu. Therefore, the decision to let one of these girls go was a little easier.

Tulu is now in New Zealand and everyone is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her cria in April.

One of the really nice things about this marvellous industry is in being able to share in the success of others. We congratulate David and Fran on their new purchase. At Flowerdale Estate we wish them every success with Tulu. We are sure she will make a positive contribution to their well thought out aims and plans.