Summer - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

feature alpaca partnership
he has to see his wife and daughter. For Jan,
weekends often mean a harassed changeover in
the holiday cottages and can be very busy for
the B&B with breakfasts seemingly running on
until lunchtime and occasionally beyond. Not to
mention preparing for the guests evening meal.
The other on-going problem is the show
season. This rears its ugly head every year and
whilst Jan and Lesley are very keen to compete
and show off their animals, their husbands
seem to crave their presence and I am not
referring to the animals here. Actually, this is a
little surprising, as when it comes to working
with the alpacas the men seem to do their
level best to be somewhere else.
Unfortunately, leaving their husbands for
weekend shows can, and usually does, result
in disaster. The last time Jan went away for a
show running over the weekend her husband,
Neil, managed to set the electric oven on fire
when demonstrating his new found cooking
skills to the B&B guests, inability to manage
basic kitchen technology is how Jan describes
it. Now it has to be said that Neil is not a
confident cook but scrambled egg rehearsals
had run fairly smoothly and Jan had every
reason to ignore the frantic text messages
sent begging for assistance with cooking a
poached egg in the microwave.
Lesley, on the other hand, is getting very
used to returning home to find her daughter
Amy looking like “an unwashed orphan Annie”
and her free range chickens still in their hen
house. This is especially true if the Grand Prix is
on television. Actually, any sport or alternative
activity seems to result in the same outcome.
Moving on….
Both Jan & Lesley had major aspirations for a
more commercial alpaca enterprise and both
dreamed of seeing a very small but elite herd
of stunning alpacas grazing on the Derbyshire
landscape. Unfortunately it is not at all easy
to get from a small “hobby” style herd to that
next all important step. Especially if one does
not own a stud male alpaca of the right kind
of quality. It becomes a vicious circle as using
inferior males, no matter how good the female,
tends to produce inferior progeny and so on.
Furthermore for the small alpaca owner
there are always two major hurdles to
overcome:
Time and Money
Time is a huge problem as it seems that
there are never enough hours in the day
particularly when you have to do all the work
yourself. With the usual distractions – work
and family - it is virtually impossible to do it
all on your own.
Nor can you afford staff, working together
helps here, but you still need time to go
to shows, on courses, search out for new
animals, find the perfect stud and generally
participate in the industry. And as for money,
there can never be enough to cover the cost
of everything required to meet the over
ambitious wish list. The cost of studs and stud
fees particularly are so much more expensive
for smaller numbers and you really cannot
justify buying your own stud with only a few
females to cover.
The lack of choice of animals in terms of
colour and range of quality means that at best
any sales are limited. A further problem is that
once a female has been sold there is no real
choice of studs for the customer to come back
and use.
A Eureka moment!
In thinking of a possible way forward and in
an attempt to overcome some of the pitfalls of
owning a small alpaca herd, Jan and Lesley had
considered combining their herds but were
not sure how to go about it. They ummmed &
ahhhed & ahhhed & ummmed but made very
little head way.
Then one day Lesley saw an offer in the
Futurity brochure.
Nick Harrington-Smith and John Potts of The
Alpaca Stud were promoting their business
and had made an amazing offer. The first 20
phone calls to Nick would earn the caller a free
herd evaluation. This was just the impetus that
the ladies needed. Lesley got on the phone
immediately and to cut a long story very
short, Nick & John, beginning of a beautiful
relationship, very quickly came to evaluate
both herds. Laneside Alpacas and Hollowbrook
Alpacas it was concluded, as we had expected,
were of very similar value. This removed the
final obstacle and meant that there was now
no excuse for not creating the partnership.
Even the husbands were persuaded. The legal
details were drawn up and on January 1st 2008
The Alpaca Partnership was born.
Overnight two herds of 20 alpacas became
a single entity of 40 with 20 cria due that
summer. Suddenly two heads and four
hands were available, making the prospect
of shearing, injections and all the other day
to day management much more achievable.
It also, perhaps more importantly, gave the
Lesley and Jan greater confidence in their
abilities. One surprising outcome was that
even the husbands came on board for the first
time offering to get a little more, but not too
much more, involved.
The Alpaca Partnership – The reality
Time and money are still major issues but the
alpacas do now pay for themselves and their
marketing etc and we have, in the last year or so:
• have had money at the bank
• managed to complete a judges course
• successfully run Hope show
• attended other shows
• bought 1.5 studs males
• afforded additional stud fees
• made a series of talks to various interested
groups
• run husbandry courses
Additionally, Lesley has been on the
British Alpaca Society board which was also
an experience for us and is a BAS Welfare
Representative. Our network of professional
alpaca contacts has expanded to include many
other breeders who are all generous with their
time and advice.
Our customers have a much wider range
of alpacas to choose from when they come
to buy or arrange stud services. We can now
genuinely provide for all of our customer
needs in terms of price, colour and sex either
from our own herd or from other breeders that
we work with.
To some extent we still have a small herd
mentality when it comes to our customer
needs, actually we see this as a huge positive,
but this does mean that we provide high
quality after sales service. This includes hands
on help with shearing, herd management,
provision of feed, agistment and most
importantly advice and reassurance. The
latter two were the areas that we were very
conscious of being in need of when setting
out along the alpaca road all those years ago.
What next – the future
Our goals have not changed but have
become increasingly focussed and ever more
achievable. We do not aspire to be the biggest
or even the best, although we would like to
get very close. We are still looking to achieve
a small herd of elite alpacas and recognition
from our peers. We want our alpacas to form
a commercially viable enterprise alongside
our other rural business pursuits. This is
definitely no longer an unrealistic dream
as our herd quality improves and becomes
more consistent with each crop of cria. Our
customer base is expanding and the number
of enquiries continues to increase. Most
importantly of all Neil and Andrew, our better
halves are beginning to get control of the
kitchen and childcare, making show days a
little less fraught.
So, for The Alpaca Partnership, two into one
definitely does go. l
Stud Services 2010
Renaldo – Bred from the Best!
58 Alpaca World Magazine
summer 2010
summer 2010
Alpaca World Magazine 59