Riverdale Alpacas, Fibre Mill & Inca Secrets

How did we get in to Alpacas?

We have a small block just out of Otorohanga and close to the Waitomo Caves, which was for grazing Julie’s horses, but seemed ideal for planting a house on — and then adding alpacas too.

After seeing alpacas at the National Field Days in Hamilton in June 2000, we began as alpaca owners with three wethers the following weekend!  We’ve quickly expanded the herd to include ten females, (three imported from Australia), plus 2 young stud males. Also we have purchased shares in 3 other studs, one of which took Supreme Champion at the Franklin Show 2005, to expand our genetics available. We now also have a number of our own grown stud boys.

What can we offer?

We have alpacas agisted and for sale and offer stud services from our own males and selected males from other breeders. We also offer males for stud tours, if you would like to explore this option please contact us.

For 6 seasons we have provided educational courses for new breeders and, with the help of our accounting backgound, business related courses. Julie also offers courses in felting which have proved very popularded educational courses for new breeders and, with the help of our accounting backgound, business related courses.

A bit more about us

Both of us are involved in the numbers game at work and our other interests include horses and motorcycle touring. We also breed Pembroke Corgis and Labradors who are award winners at shows. Our alpacas are winning championships at shows now too.

Farming is relatively new to us, having moved on to the land just prior to our wedding in January 2000. Since then we have  built new fences as smaller paddocks help us in animal handling, a small set of yards, and another shed for animal handling and hay, with a planned covered yard adjacent for mating, veterinary, and shearing ease.

One of the enjoyable aspects of alpacas (besides the animals) is the people we meet in the industry, the steep learning curve is eased considerably with discussion groups and information pooling wherever there is a get-together.

Our Breeding Goals

Our aim is to build a high quality herd of white, light fawn animals. Julie was the Northern North Island region President of the New Zealand Alpaca Association from 2002 to 2004, and treasurer for the  Association from 2004 to 2006. Curently she is on the Bred Development Committee, Chair of the Judges group.and and active member of the Waikato Cluster Group.

We are breeding for fleece rather than any particular colour. Our herd is predominately white and light fawn. However no good alpaca is a bad colour and we have a range of colours.

The key things for us are a dense, high frequency, deep crimp with low micron and good coverage. By that we mean good quality fleece down in to the belly and upper part of the legs. Minimum guard hair and good fleece coming round in to the chest area. All this on a healthy animal with strong bone and good conformation.

We have concentrated our genetics to include males such as  ILR Alpine Fibre’s Brutus, Peruvian Hemmingway, Jolimont Conquistador, NWA Ruffo,  NWA Luminosa, ILR PPPeruvian Auzengate and Jolimont Warrior.

We mate our females to the best males we can find. Our herd average micron is 22.64 (2004/5). 20.97 on first fleeces and 25.38 on 2nd fleece and over. Our goal is 18 micron for first fleeces and 21 for 2nd fleece and older.

Coupled with our goal of minimum blow out and older animals holding their micron. We are participating in the AGE programme and will have all our animals in the programme by the end of 2006.                                                    

Please  contact us we will be happy to help you in building your herd.
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