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What's New 12-Dec-2007
It has been a very good year for CME Tulaco Centurion who was Show Champion at the Devon County Show and at the BAS Spring Show. He was Best Fawn Huacaya at the BAS National Show and Reserve Champion Adult Male as well judged by Lyn Dickson and Liz Barlow. Nick Harrington Smith gave him Best Fawn and Reserve Champion Adult Male at the 2007 Royal Bath & West. Our progeny group sired by CME Shanbrooke Distinction did very well too taking the third ribbon at the BAS National in a very big class and 2nd at the Royal Bath & West Show. We are co-owners of Dovecote Jaquinto of Alpaca Stud who also kept bringing home the ribbons in 2007 as an Adult White Male Huacaya and we have high hopes for his progeny in 2008. Our very pretty fawn girl Francesca took 2nd in the junior fawn female class at the National and at the Royal Bath & West and was first at the Devon County Show and took the sash for Best Fawn Female. Mile End Leon was third at the National in the junior brown male class, second at the Royal Bath & West and first and Best Brown Male at Devon. Dante was 2nd at Devon and third at the National in the intermediate fawn male class and one of our older stud males Benleigh Talisman was Reserve Champion Senior Male at the Royal Bath & West. 06-Mar-2007 We've appeared in the Western Morning News! You can download a copy of the article here: Alpacas - an attractive alternative (3.7 MB). 30-Dec-2006 When it comes to owning, breeding, selecting and showing alpacas, we have ten years experience to share with you. Why not come along to one of our Discover Alpacas events in 2007 and find out all about the good life with alpacas. Shake off the stress, breathe in the country air and discover the extra enjoyment alpacas can bring to your life. Our events take place on April 29, May 27 and July 15 and run from 11am until 3.30pm and cost £20 per person or £30 for two to include refreshments. You will find out how to look after alpacas, their husbandry requirements, what to look for when you are buying animals and get some hands on experience. 20-Jun-2006 Another cracking day for CME Centurion at the East of England Show 2006 at Peterborough, judged by Val Fullerlove. Centurion won the Adult Male Class and went on to win the Best Fawn championship and was Reserve Adult Male Champion in the age class. MileEnd Poseidon, a brown weanling male, was first in his class and brought home the Best Brown championship as well.
Royal Bath & West Show 2006 Judge Amanda Vandenbosch We had a good day at the Royal Bath & West with CME Tulaco Lass taking the Adult White Championship and CME Hestia coming second in the hotly contested Junior White Female class that had 24 entries. We were particularly pleased with our showing in the fleece classes with six firsts and two thirds. Halter Classes Fleece Classes Congratulations to Ashill Alpacas whose Ashill Edith, sired by CME Aztec Avalanche was first in the Junior Fawn Female class and Reserve Champion Junior Female; to Lakeham Alpacas whose Lakeham Jethro, sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick was 5th Junior Black Male; to West Dorset Alpacas whose West Dorset Ebano Elaine, sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick was third in the Intermediate Black Female class and Mr and Mrs Poyner whose Barton Midnight was fourth in the same class, also sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick; to Alpha Alpacas whose Alpha Bracken, sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick won the Intermediate Black Male class. Devon County Show 2006 Judges Nick Harrington Smith, David Barnett We had a good day at the Devon County Show winning three championships – Champion Female Fawn with Mile End Gabriella, Champion Male Fawn with CME Tulaco Centurion and Champion Female Black with Mile End Charlotte. The Reserve Champion Black Female was won by West Dorset Alpacas Estralita sired by our black stud Wyterrica Patrick as was the Champion Black Male Alpha Bracken. CME Sappho won the intermediate female fawn class, CME Tulaco Lass won the adult white female class and CME Lysander was third white intermediate male. Congratulations to Marshwood Vale Alpacas who picked up a second prize with Iona, sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick and a first with Marshwood Vale Desmond, sired by Classical Ikon. Lakeham Alpacas came second in that class with Lakeham Jethro sired by CME Wyterrica Patrick. 04-May-2006 Our stunning fawn male CME Tulaco Centurion came home from the first alpaca show of the year, the South of England Spring Show 2006, with the Supreme Champion Huacaya ribbon. This lovely boy is almost two and has just started working. His mother Ashley Grove Flamenco is a bit of a star too with the highest scoring fleece at the 2005 Royal Bath & West Show. His sire is Shanbrooke Accoyo Tulaco, imported and owned by Ron and Dianne Condon of the Shanbrooke Alpaca Stud, whose progeny are bringing home the ribbons in Australia.
MileEnd Gabriella, a fawn junior female, took the Reserve Colour Champion ribbon for fawn females. She is the grand daughter of our multi ribbon winning brown female Mile End Lucille and her sire is CME Benleigh Talisman, a grand son of the famous Australian sire Highlander. Mile End Lucille's 2005 cria CME Poseidon was second in the junior brown male class. He was sired by CME Shanbrooke Distinction. CME Lysander, sired by CME Aztec Avalanche, took the second place rosette in a hotly contested Intermediate White male class. Our two white youngsters CME Hestia and CME Baccus took third and fourth in the junior white classes. Both youngsters were sired by CME Kurrawa Micah. The judge commented on their excellent conformation, typey heads, good bone and the exceptionally long staple length of their fleeces. Congratulations to Di Davies of Alpha Alpacas whose black male, sired by our stud CME Wyterrica Patrick, won the black Colour Championship at the South of England Show 2006. 11-Oct-2005 Judge Mr Dominic Lane Halter Classes Junior Black Female Intermediate Fawn Male Senior White Female Senior Black Female Senior White Male Mature Brown Female Mature White Male Fleece Classes 6 to under 9 months Black 9 to 18 months White 18 to 30 months White 30 to 48 months Fawn 30 to 48 months 20-Sep-2005 Fashion student Jennifer Edelston made headlines at the prestigious Mittelmoda international fashion design competition in Italy in September with her designs using yarns from UK Alpaca. She was one of just two British finalists in an international field of twenty five who were selected from 700 applicants. Jennifer had already won the Best Commercial Collection at Kingston University and she was flown out to Italy to see her clothes featured in a catwalk show and came home with one of the awards. Patterns for her stunning little jacket made from the natural parchment UK Alpaca yarn will be available later in the year at the UK Alpaca website. Our fully worsted yarns for 2004/2005 came in five natural colours, four dyed colours and a baby alpaca/silk blend and have sold exceptionally well, in fact they have virtually sold out. The new colours for 2005/2006 are now available and are a vibrant range of moss, mustard, sapphire and rose. The naturals - parchment, fawn, chocolate and black remain the same with the addition of a silver grey and, of course, the baby and silk blend. The yarns are sold on line, by mail order and into knitting shops via our newly appointed agents who cover the whole of the South West of England. It is our intention to appoint other agents to cover the rest of Britain during 2006. Our new range of patterns, some designed specially for us by Sasha Kagan, are now on the market and have resulted in extra sales of yarn. UK Alpaca became a limited company in January 2005 and has four directors, John Arbon, Chas Brooke, Rachel Hebditch and Juliet Sensicle. Its aim is to be the specialist producer of alpaca yarns in Europe. The company buys fleece from British alpaca breeders and manufactures fully worsted hand knit and commercial yarns in the UK. The commercial yarns that are used for machine knit end products have also sold well, and we were particularly pleased to fulfil an order for three hundred kilos of sock yarn from one manufacturer. Orders for bespoke yarns spun from our tops have also been taken recently including one for knitwear for the designer Donna Karan. The boom is hand knitting has meant that there are now two thriving, modern, knitting magazines that have given us some excellent yarn reviews. There are a lot of very big knitting shows as well and UK Alpaca is taking a stand at two of these - one at Alexandra Palace in London and the G-Mex Centre in Manchester. Stitch n Bitch is a group that has got a lot of young people hooked on knitting, and one of their founders Dorret Conway, gave a series of masterclasses on hand knitted socks at the NEC using our yarn. The barn at our farm near Tiverton in Devon is now filling up with our third fibre collection. Since December 2004 we have collected and graded over six tons of alpaca fibre. This year we have set up a series of collection centres where growers can drop off their fibre, details of those are on our website. We have three grades, baby which is normally under 21 micron, fine, where the majority of animals sit at between 22 and 26 micron and coarse and this year we are paying £7.50 a kilo for baby, £4.50 a kilo for fine and seventy five pence for coarse. Although the micron counts are important, the fleece is graded according to its handle and thus is a 'hands on' job. The coarse fibre is in storage whilst we seek sales for our new rug yarns that are 50% alpaca 50% British wool and explore other promising avenues. It works like this - once all alpaca fleece from each breeder is graded, a tally sheet is sent out to them with the weights and grades of the fibre submitted that we wish to buy. The grower sends UK Alpaca an invoice and we send them a cheque. Anybody who sells us fleece can buy back yarn at wholesale prices without a minimum order quantity, if they wish. All UK Alpaca's yarns are processed and spun in the UK to the highest quality to provide a uniform, soft, lustrous worsted spun yarn. We produce double knit yarns in natural un-dyed alpaca shades blended with fine British bluefaced Leicester wool, to provide extra volume and spring to the alpaca. We dye some of the parchment and fawn yarns to produce our range of colours. And for the ultimate in luxury knitwear we produce a natural coloured ultra soft alpaca yarn, made up of baby alpaca and unbleached Tussah silk. We are utilising the worsted spinning system, which is best suited to alpaca fibre because of the fibre length. This produces a strong, lustrous, smooth and fine yarn, ideal for use in knitwear. The yarn is spun on a ring spinning system in either 100% alpaca or as a blend with wool or nylon dependent on the performance requirement of the yarn. For general knitwear we are adding wool when possible to stop any migration and to produce a loftier, bouncier yarn. The wool enhances the qualities of the alpaca whilst producing good wear resistance. For rugs we are using a 50% blend with coarse grade British wool to eliminate shedding of fibres and to provide good wearability without losing the soft feel of the alpaca. To maintain good yarn stability, the yarns are generally produced as two single strands folded together and then autoclaved (subjecting the yarn to high pressure) which sets the fibres in place in the yarn and stops distortion in the final product. This process also improves stability and the shape of the final product. UK Alpaca is determined to help create a viable alpaca fibre industry in this country by producing the best yarns from the fleeces of animals bred here. We invite you to support that aim by selling us your fleeces. The success we have in the market place will bring increased returns to alpaca breeders with better prices paid for their fibre in the future. If you would like to sell your alpaca fibre to UK Alpaca we would be delighted to buy it. Please visit our website or talk to Rachel Hebditch on 01884 243579 or John Arbon on 01598 753644. UK Alpaca's website is www.ukalpaca.com. 01-Sep-2005
June 19, 2005 Classical MileEnd Winners Sire's Progeny Junior Huacaya White Female Junior Huacaya Fawn Female Junior Huacaya Black Female Junior Huacaya White Male Champion Junior Huacaya Male Intermediate Huacaya White Female Intermediate Huacaya White Male Intermediate Huacaya Fawn Male Senior Huacaya White Female Supreme Champion Huacaya 04-Aug-2005 Huacaya Alpaca Halter Classes Results Supreme Champion Huacaya – Classical MileEnd Ellemista, Classical MileEnd Alpacas Junior Female White Junior Female Black Champion Junior Female – Classical Larissa, Classical MileEnd Alpacas Junior Male White Senior Male White Champion Senior Male Classical MileEnd Distinction, Classical MileEnd Alpacas Mature Female All Colours Champion Mature Female Classical MileEnd Ellemista, Classical MileEnd Alpacas Reserve MileEnd Lucille, Classical MileEnd Alpacas Mature Male White Champion Mature Male Aztec Avalanche, Classical MileEnd Alpacas 23-May-2005
21 May, 2005 Shorn Fleece Classes 1st 12-24 months Black - Mile End Callistor 2nd 6-12 months Fawn - Elite Freya Halter Show Classes Champion Male Intermediate - Classical MileEnd Centurion 1st Junior Male White - Classical MileEnd Lysander 1st Intermediate Male Fawn - Classical MileEnd Centurion 1st Adult Male White - Classical MileEnd Distinction 1st Senior Female Brown - MileEnd Lucille 2nd Junior Male Brown - Classical Simon 3rd Adult Male White - MileEnd Chiron 4th Intermediate Female White - Classical Bellona South of England Show success 2 May, 2005 1st Senior Female Brown - MileEnd Lucille
Three little stunners sired by our Hemingway son Aztec Avalanche who won a blue ribbon in the Sire's Progeny class at the South of England Show this summer. Avalanche's cria have fantastic histograms with micron counts as low as sixteen. Two of this group went on to win their classes at the Devon County Show. 03-Apr-2005 This summer, you will be able to find us at various shows around the country. Come and see us at our stand. South of England Spring Show, Ardingly – 1 or 2 May 09-Oct-2004 Australian veterinarians Dr Jane Vaughan and Dr David Hopkins flew to Britain last month to carry out the first programme of embryo transfer at Classical MileEnd Alpacas in Devon. Visit their website at www.criagenesis.cc.
Embryo transfer is designed to upgrade the general standard of the herd by using embryos from the best males and females and implanting them into females of lesser quality. The recipient females, whose fibre or conformation is less desirable, would be eliminated from high end breeding programmes. But with embryo transfer these girls, who are excellent mothers that conceive and give birth easily, are valuable assets. The procedure involves the natural mating of the donor. A week later the donor is sedated and flushed non surgically using a catheter inserted through the cervix into the uterus. If an embryo is retrieved it is then transferred to the recipient by way of a pipette through the cervix into the uterus. The first embryo transfer cria were born in 2002 at Allan and Carolyn Jink's Benleigh Alpaca Stud in Victoria, Australia. Since then Dr Jane Vaughan and Dr David Hopkins have been working on MOET which involves using various drugs to persuade the donors to produce multiple embryos. MOET was first used at Banksia Park Alpaca Stud in Western Australia, owned by the international judge Jenny Jackson, and was also used during the recent programmes in the UK.
Embryo transfer is not cheap and involves fairly complicated preparations for the owners and the animals. It can involve great disappointment if your best animal fails to produce any embryos or the recipients fail to hold the transferred embryos. It has to be seen as a numbers game and the more females in the programme, the more likely you are to have consistent results. It is too early to predict the success rate of the ET programme here in Britain but at Banksia Park more than 60% of the recipients have been scanned pregnant at 60 days. If you are interested in joining the embryo transfer programme, please contact Rachel Hebditch or Chas Brooke. 29-Jun-2004 Royal Bath & West Show, June 2004 judged by Dr Julio Sumar Halter Classes Classical MileEnd’s Elite Freya – third in the Fawn Huacaya Junior Female Congratulations to West Dorset Alpacas whose West Dorset Carmen, sired by Classical MileEnd’s Ikon won the Grey/Roan Huacaya Junior Female class and whose West Dorset Cavalier, also sired by Ikon was second in the Black Huacaya Junior Male class. West Dorset Mulberry, sired by Classical MileEnd’s Zarzamora was second in the Grey/Roan Huacaya Adult Female Congratulations to Lakeham Alpacas whose Lakeham Elana, sired by Classical MileEnd’s TDR Noaha was second in the Huacaya Intermediate Female class and Reserve Champion Intermediate Female. Skirted Fleece Classes judged by Dr Julio Sumar Classical MileEnd’s Ellemista won class 296 for skirted alpaca fleece from an alpaca aged 30 months and over and brought home the British Alpaca Perpetual Trophy for the Champion Huacaya Fleece Classical MileEnd’s Devon Fudge – fifth in the Skirted Fleece class for alpacas aged between 9 and 18 months
Three Counties Show judged by Liz Barlow June, 2004-06-27 We were very pleased to see our young stud male Talesman come a close second to Bozedown’s Galaxy, who won Supreme, at this show and a second young stud Micah was highly commended by the judge. Classical MileEnd’s Elite Freya – third Fawn Junior Female Huacaya 08-Jun-2004 Good news. Classical MileEnd's Ellemista won the Supreme Championship Huacaya Fleece trophy at the 2004 Royal Bath & West Show judged by Dr Julio Sumar.
17-Mar-2004 Our proud macho Aztec Avalanche has proved himself to be a winner in his native Canada. One of his sons Aztec Avatar won Supreme Champion Huacaya Male at the Farmfair International Alpaca Odyssey 2003 and has now been sold as a stud male to Rio Grand Alpacas and Backyard Alpacas. Another son Avagadro, who is a stunning silver rose grey, is a stud male for High Plains Alpacas in Canada and a third Avallanto, a solid medium fawn, is doing his stuff at Saints Alpacas.
Avalanche's sire is the famous American stud Hemingway, owned by Mike Safley of NorthWest Alpacas. Hemingway is over eleven year old and holding a micron of 24.5. Four of his sons are stud males at NorthWest Alpacas. Classical MileEnd Alpacas brought Avalanche to the UK in the autumn of 2002. He has a micron of 21.9 at nearly six years old and, like his father, has terrific bone and presence. We are looking forward to seeing his cria this spring.
01-Mar-2004 See the new introductory video on the Books and Videos page that sets out the basic information needed to look after alpacas and gives those thinking of buying an insight into the history and nature of these lovely animals.
29-Feb-2004 A new company has been set up to collect and sell alpaca fibre at viable commercial rates. See our page about UK Alpaca for more details. |
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Classical MileEnd Alpacas - enquiries@alpaca-uk.co.uk - 01884 243 579 |