Alpaca News and Events

The second ever British Alpaca Futurity Show was held at Newbury Racecourse in February.

Exhibitors and visitors were excited by the high standard of entries which this year which this year exceeded 220. We at Langaton were particularly pleased with our results, we only entered 7 animals in total with our results being:

1st place	Junior Female Fawn Huacaya
1st place & Reserve Champion Male	Junior Male White Huacaya
1st place	Junior Female White Huacaya
1st place & Reserve Champion Male	Junior Male Fawn Suri
3rd place	Junior Male Fawn Huacaya
4th place	Junior Male White Huacaya

An expenses paid Alpaca selection trip to Chile with Geoff Scott was the draw prize I was fortunate to win at the British Alpaca Futurity.

“Are you going to go?” was the question everyone was asking me at the evening meal

Having been to Peru some 8 years ago the opportunity to visit Chile to gain an idea of what alpacas were available was extremely appealing. Obviously having accepted the prize I was obliged to select some alpacas whilst there – the minimum to economically fill a crate would be 15 animals.

At Langaton the majority of our alpacas are white and I was keen to add some more coloured animals of which Chile is renowned to have a large proportion.

My journey started from our local town by bus to Heathrow, then by air to Santiago via San Paulo where Geoff Scott met me. After a quick shower and coffee we headed back to the airport to fly north to Arica – and after a total travelling time of 36 hours I was eventually permitted to climb into bed. A 5.30 AM start the following morning saw us driving north again to Putre close to the Peruvian border and up into the Altiplano at a height of around 4,500 metres.

By mid morning we reached our first farm (if you can call it that!). The Altiplano is VAST – much being sparsely covered with a Lleylandii like shrub interspersed with clumps of coarse grass. In areas where there is running water there are flat areas called ‘Bofodels’ where the available water source is spread over as large an area as possible to encourage grass growth. July is winter in Chile and contrary to this country rainfall is very extreme in the winter months.

In the area we visited there were no visible signs of any fencing and each farm appeared to have an area around their living quarters where the alpacas grazed – often unsupervised – returning themselves in the evening to be shut into corals. Corals are yards with an earth floor surrounded by a stone wall – they provide some protection at night from predators such as big cats, or from being stolen.

Our alpaca selection took place in these corals, which was quite challenging as it meant walking through 50-150 alpacas trying to pick a good one. Once an alpaca was spotted it was a 2 or 3 man operation to catch it, which on some farms involved lassoing the animals.

We saw hundreds of alpacas – but I must admit that some were of dubious quality and then out of the blue we would spot a stunner which was quickly checked over for faults, fibre samples taken, ear tags applied and photographs taken. It was not unusual to drive one or two hours to locate one good alpaca amongst a group of 100 or more.

After three full days spent visiting farms reached by graded stone roads I had selected 15 alpacas – if all goes well these should land in the UK at the end of this year.

We entered Alpacas at the SWAG Spring Show in March, the Devon County Show in May and the Bath and West Show in May. We were thrilled with our results - especially as the winners are home-bred.