SEE THE ARTICLE IN ALPACA WORLD following the photo..........
ALPACA
WORLD EDITORIAL
DISPERSAL
OF FAMOUS INAUGRUAL AUSTRALIAN ALPACA STUD.
It was a
feeling of surprise and a touch of excitement when we heard that Windsong
Valley Alpaca stud was to conduct a full herd dispersal of all of its 140
alpacas on the 19th September 2010. There are only a few genuine dispersals that Cathy and I
would fly to the other side of the world just to attend and this was definitely
one of them.
For
those of you who are unfamiliar with Windsong Valley, it was established in the
early 90s by Terry and Tena Wheeler from WA. The stud was subsequently sold in its entirety to a South
African based investment syndicate.
The plan was to relocate the herd to South Africa. Due to more recent GFC related turmoil
the farm in South Africa was not purchased and hence the syndicate had decided
to disperse.
Windsong
Valley’s alpaca herd was initially founded on Jolimont bloodlines. The real coup and subsequent elevation
to the top ranks on the breeding and showing scene happened when Terry, very
astutely, convinced Roger Haldane from Purrumbete to sell him not only the
famous Purrumbete Ledgers Dream but quickly followed by the purchase of
Purrumbete Highlander. These males
are unquestionably 2 of the most influential alpaca sires in the world.
Roger
Haldane changed the landscape of the Australian Alpaca industry in the early
nineties with the importation of a small group of females and six outstanding
males from Don Julio Barreda of the Accoyo.
Highlander
with 403 registered progeny and Ledgers with 325 have woven their bloodlines
through not only some of the finest alpacas in Australia but also
internationally.
The
Wheelers followed this clever purchase by regularly purchasing the top priced
lots at the Australian National Alpaca Show and Sale. This added to their elite female lines with soon to be
famous names such as The Pines Queen of Sheba.
The 2
most influential and famous female lines were import females Jolimont Mariella
and Jolimont Gessica who both through their matings to Highlander produced
elite progeny.
Mariella’s
mating to Highlander produced WV Starbright who at 11 years of age is still
holding a 21 micron 17.4 CV fleece.
At the recent auction she not only topped the female sale price but was even
more notable as the dam of WV Firedragon the highest priced male sold for
$165,000. This is believed to be
the highest price ever paid at auction for an alpaca in Australia.
The 6
year old Firedragon by Jolimont Warrior son of Jolimont Conquistador was an outstanding
Light Fawn male who has won an endless array of Supreme Champion awards
including Royal Melbourne.
His
ability to throw a range of colours was evident by his 7 progeny sold seeing one
of the highest sale average s including a 12 month old black daughter sold for
$11,000.
It is
interesting to note that Firedragon’s grand dam Jolimont Mariella was purchased
from the same herd in Peru as not only Jolimont Warrior’s dam Jolimont Marilu
but also Jolimont Melina. Melina
is the Fawn dam of another superb Australian male Jolimont Gianmarco!
A
calculated guess would suggest there was a pretty influential fawn sire running
around Peru in the late 70’s and early 80’s!!!
Jolimont
Gessica the other super dam in the herd also had a tryst with Highlander that
produced Primavera Anushka; Anushka was then mated to Ledgers Dream to produce
Primavera Jacinta.
Jacinta
was owned by a client of WV and upon seeing her the cheque book was brushed off
and she also joined the WV herd.
Jacinta went on to produce Feathers and Nami Kawa, to name just a couple,
genuine Champions in their own right.
The10
year old Jacinta is one of the densest females either Cathy or I had ever seen
so needless to say she is now part of the EPC herd.
The
second Highest priced male was Winterbrook Prince John another son of
Highlander out of another good female WV Summer Show selling for $44,000. This 11 yr old male is still holding a
very soft fleece for his age and was eagerly bid on.
Overall
the sale grossed in excess of $800.000 for 136 mixed sex alpacas sold. A very good result given most of the
females had not been mated over the last couple of years, given the export
plans not to mention quite a few females in the sale approaching or in excess
of 10 years of age!!!
Alpacas
were booked out to Germany, UK and New Zealand and at times the phone bidding,
along with the jam packed crowd, saw bidding very intense. Auctioneer Andrew Sloan, who has been
conducting the major alpaca auctions in Australia from the beginning quoted “In
all the alpaca auctions we have ever conducted I have never seen such frenetic
bidding on certain lots, it is testimony to maintaining a focused quality
breeding plan and sticking to it”
Overall
it was a very positive sale for the industry. Cathy and I decided we needed Fire Dragon
genotypically. When we saw
him again in the flesh we also realised he was a “must have”
phenotypically. Unfortunately for
us quite a few other people had the same idea!