RED DEER, Alta. – This year’s Legacy Llama Classic sale was a million dollar event that included a Canadian record price.
The annual sale held here June 8 and sponsored by Warren and Allan Fertig’s Legacy Llama Company drew more than 1,000 bidders and observers for an afternoon of quality breeding animals sold in a high class setting.
It’s one of the few livestock sales in the country where everyone dresses up, sips wine and nibbles hors d’oeuvres. However, this is serious business and a llama valued for its fibre and breeding potential can be sold with a nod or a wink for thousands of dollars.
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This year’s sale total was $1,064,000 with an average of $16,369 on 65 lots. Five males were on offer, 16 bred females and 44 open females under a year in age. Individual prices at this year’s sale ranged from $67,000 to $4,250, offering llamas at the top end as well as allowing new breeders a chance to bid on animals consigned by Canada’s top producers.
A full Chilean bred female from Deone and Val Townsend’s Sylvan Lake, Alta. farm established a Canadian record of $67,000 for a female at auction.
Fast-paced bidding
The excitement was obvious with the bids coming in so quickly it left handler Townsend and auctioneer Steve Dorran breathless as several hopeful owners avidly competed for this Magic Juan daughter.
Successful bidders were Richard and Maggie Krieger of Saltspring Island, B.C.
Expecting a cria in January 1997, Perfection’s Dangeress was the most stylish female of the day with her lustrous, heavy fibre and well-developed profile.
A yearling llama named Palomine’s Mahogany Wind was the high selling male of the day at $36,000. Consigned by Lyle and Joanne Vidulich of Palomine Farms at Heffley Creek, B.C., he’s going to the herd of Pat and Bob Hilton of Long Buckby Farm at Langley, B.C.
A female named SF Miss Tokyo Rose from the herd of Louis and Elaine O’Neill of Serenity Farms, Edmonton, was another high seller. She fetched $34,000 and is going to Bob and Carol Howard at Peers, Alta.
Rick Clauson, owner of Six Pack Ranch at Quesnel, B.C. was in a buying mood and picked up six llamas at this year’s sale to make him the volume buyer. He paid $30,000 for the second high selling male of the day entered by Joey and Jo-Ann Sadden, Cadillac, Sask.
THLC Anne Oakley with a cria at side trotted down the runway and sold for $30,000. Entered by Jack Borno, Rockyview Llamas of Cochrane, she sold as a bred female to Dream Valley Llamas owned by Herman and Carol Bruin of Red Deer, Alta. Her baby was sired by Springfield’s Hidalgo, the high seller at last year’s sale.
