Note: a repost from last year. This year the National Alpaca Week is from the 28th March to the 6th April.
Many alpaca farms in Queensland are suffering because of an extended drought. Some owners have had to sell stock because all their grass is gone. It finally rained heavily last week which is great news for farmers, but everything is muddy and yuck at the moment.
Thinking of you all in the alpaca world.
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National Alpaca Week
Yes, it is that time of the year again, National Alpaca Week.
This is the week that you can visit your local alpaca farm in Australia; and being the proud owners of two Suri alpaca we thought we would go and have a looksee at the place where Spirit and Merlin were born (Ivory Park alpaca farm in a place called Bungadoo).
Personally I would have gone to visit Bungadoo just for the sound of the name 😉
So we travelled forth to Bungadoo on Sunday afternoon to visit Ivory Park. This alpaca farm is owned and operated by Bev and Darryl (with a focus on solid white Suri alpacas).
And what a pretty farm it was!
Rolling hills, plentiful dams and a multitude of alpaca afoot.
This is the Suri nursery with Mums and their bubs (or crias as they are called in the alpaca world)
Suri alpacas (crias and Mums)
Suri nursery (Ivory Park)
Ivory Park also has some Huacaya alpacas (the fibre is very dense and stands perpendicular to the body). Suri alpacas have the finer fibre which has a dreadlock appearance.
Here is a very young Huacaya alpaca (cria) with Mum.
Huacaya cria with Mum
Huacaya cria
There was even a llama to behold:
Fabuloso (not my name 😉 )
Llama
Last but not least – the Suri alpaca on the left is Pinjarra Rossini (father of Spirit and Merlin). He looks a bit pleased with himself (but what the hell would I know) learning the body language of an alpaca is on my To Do list!)
Pinjarra Rossini (left)
The kids and I really enjoyed our visit to Ivory Park and didn’t get spat at once!
Thank you Bev and Darryl (and Sandra and Tim for the introductions).
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Gabe Feathers McGee 
Hi Gabrielle and familyI have sent a couple of emails to you but you must have gotten them.How are you all going, great bit of rain ah. Happy 1 year anniversary with Spirit and Merlin for the 1 April, I can’t believe it has been that long. Bev went to Toowoomba Royal Show and brought back 3 Champions and a Reserve she is ecstatic. We went out there 2 weeks ago and it was heart breaking to see the dirt and dead grass not aspec of green in sight. But now Bev said it is all green again thank goodness for that.Sandi
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 05:01:39 +0000 To: sandi.rob@hotmail.com
That’s great news for Bev #yayayayay All my emails got sucked up into the ether by bigpond – unbelievable – I did read one from you and was going to respond and it disappeared (along with about 3000 others) – I’m going to ring them and try to get them all back – so sick of telstra 😈 but not many options out this way! The boys are good – we have made a new field for them and the goats which they loved – they are all best of friends. Speak soon 😀
sending you good vibes from all my llamas. here in california we are also in a long drought, so we all know what you are talking about.
ah yes I have heard about your drought even from over here in Australia – hope it breaks soon 😦 thanks for stopping by – good to hear from a llama lover from the US 😀
I had NO idea there was an Alpaca Week. Between all the special days & weeks of the year it’s almost like apps where you can say – yep, there’s a day for that (instead of there is an app for that). I still think they are AWESOME & look forward when we can get our farm & get some. I am 42 & I got myself a stuffed Alpaca for Christmas with real Alpaca fibre on it. I have found that I have a new tendency to go to sleep with my hand buried in it :*)
As far as the weather…..it scares me. The world is going insane & I worry for us all
aw that sounds so cute 😀 a stuffed alpaca! We should all be scared – we will get more extreme weather events as the world warms.
I wish I cld share a pic!
I have to try not to think too much about the weather and how we all, humans, plants & animals, will cope or I’d be in a mental hospital from the magnitude of anxiety! Scary days ahead. I often wonder if we could slow it if we took massive immediate action….
I’m sure we could mitigate the warming with a massive response – just doesn’t seem to be happening – maybe earth will be hit by an asteroid and we’ll have cooling – who knows! No point panicking about it though – anything is possible so chin up 😉
Absolutely keeping my chin up & nose to the grindstone to ripple out positive changes! Really appreciating ur blog 🙂
Looks like you had a good visit…we’re still awaiting rain here…our drought is in about it’s third year here in SoCal.
Such a long time Charles! Even as parts of Queensland were flooding, some parts were in drought – the areas further inland that were higher up. Hope you see rain real soon over there.
i posted a couple of photos of 2 of my girls. come look. 🙂
thanks buddy71 – love them 😀
Glad you’ve had rain, Gabe. Are your alpacas affectionate? Or are they quite prickly? I have no idea how they are as pets.
Thanks bb 🙂 the rain has been much needed – it’s dry again now but the dam is full and everything is very green. Alpacas are generally very shy (but curious) creatures – they will come up to look at you but when you try to get close they will bolt – but if handled regularly you can lead them and give them a cuddle. Ours don’t like to get too close – but if we can get them in a smaller holding yard than you can put a halter on and pet them. Deep down they never really lose that herd mentality (everyone is out to eat me) 😉