2008 International Fleece Show
On March 28th 2008, we attended the International Fleece Show which was held the day prior to the Inaugural World Alpaca Conference. We had expected this day to function much like an expo (as it was alternately labelled) with large trade stands and lots of fleece. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the day was in the format of an extra conference day with several key speakers and their talks focusing primarily on fleece taking up the whole day.
Scroll down for a brief update on the speakers at the International Fleece Show, but for now here are some statistics relating to the fleece entries and placings:
Number of Entries
There were 478 Entries of which 390 were Huacaya and 88 were Suri
Number of Entries by Country
Of the 478 Entries 424 were from within Australia, followed by 26 from New Zealand, 19 from the USA, 8 from the United Kingdom and 1 entry from Canada.
Percentage of Placings
Of the 478 Entries only 66 fleeces got either a Placing or were Highly Commended
Percentage of Placings by Country
Of the 66 fleeces that received a placing or commendation, 55 were from Australia, 6 from New Zealand, 3 from the USA, 1 from the United Kingdom and 1 from Canada. So you could say Canada had 100% success rate with its entries, United Kingdom had 13% success rate with its entries, USA had 16% success rate with its entries, New Zealand had 26% success with its entries and Australia had 13% success of its total entries.
The speakers included:
Mark Mortimer
Who gave us a standout talk on 'The Use of Technology as an Aid to Selection in the Merino Industry'. Mark's talk focused on breeding values, statistics and the use of these to very accurately predict breeding outcomes on his farm, and whilst they breed merinos, not alpacas, there were several strong correlations between his research and work and what can be applied to alpaca breeding. We thoroughly enjoyed Mark's talk and explanation of the use of breeding values and can see quite easily the significant amount of genetic gain he has achieved by using these techniques. Check out this link to Mark's website centreplus
Steve Ridout
Steve took us through what he believes is 'The Next Phase in Alpaca Farming', his new venture 'La Viande'. Not for the faint hearted, Steve discussed why he is taking Alpaca from the stud and fleece markets into the gourmet meat market. Not something we are personally keen on for our animals, but obviously alot of planning and thought has gone into La Viande and we wish Steve all the best for the future. Click on the link to go to Steve's La Viande website.
Dr Jim Watts
Jim gave us a run through of the SRS Breeding System for alpacas that he developed. SRS is becoming more and more popular in Australia and New Zealand and Jim's website is here: SRS Website. It is obvious that Dr Watts is very passionate about what he does and about the SRS breeding system. We've been following his theories for a while now and intend to sign up to the SRS breeding system and have our animals classed by Dr Watts.
Michael Talbot
Michael Talbot is the Managing Director of Australian Alpaca Fleece Ltd (AAFL) and he gave another passionate talk about 'Developing an International Market for Australian Alpaca'. It was easy to see by his talk how motivated he is and how he has been instumental in the progress that AAFL has made with their market share Nationally and Internationally. Click on the AAFL link to visit the website.
Derek Michell
We were very fortunate to have Derek Michell the Manager-Director of Michell & Co, from the Michell Group in Peru, give us a talk on 'Manufacturing Tops and Yarns'. See the website here: Michell Group. Derek was entertaining and informative regarding the processing of alpaca, the quality of the fibre classing, (a skill that is passed down from mother to daughter, generation to generation), and the antics that some growers get up to, in order to increase the valued fleece weight of the fibre they put up for sale. I was pleased to note that Eric Hoffman in his book "The Complete Alpaca Book", had faithfully recorded much of what Derek imparted to us, and referenced Derek directly, so if you want to learn more there is a lot of information available in his book.
