Like anxious parents, a group of people hovered over baby Regina’s pen awaiting her first steps.
Her mom ignored them, eating calmly and nuzzling her two-hour-old baby every few minutes.
Regina lurched and stumbled, before finally delighting her audience by standing briefly, then curling up for a nap.
Regina is an alpaca, named for her birthplace during Canadian Western Agribition. She and her mother, AVA Madame Dovis, were sold to Max Gossweiler of Herbert, Sask., for $15,000 in the first alpaca sale at Agribition, and the first all-alpaca sale in Canada.
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Twenty-five lots from R & R Alpacas Ltd. at LaGlace, Alta., sold for $340,600. The high seller was a female which went to All Terrain Alpacas in Breton, Alta. for $33,500.
Ruth Elvestad, of R & R, said she was happy with the sale results and because it reached many new breeders.
Agribition was the perfect place to introduce other livestock producers to the animal by having a sale, she said.
“That’s where where east meets west in Canada,” she said. “There aren’t many alpacas from Saskatchewan east and (Agribition) gives the most exposure. Where else could you find a better place to heighten the awareness?”
Alpacas are used for fibre, which does not contain lanolin or dander and is not prickly, Elvestad said.
“It’s a very fine fibre that interlocks,” she said. “It’s very strong and doesn’t pill and doesn’t wrinkle. It’s like silk. There are very few people who can’t wear it.”
When people buy alpacas they should be looking for low micron counts in the fibre, Elvestad said. The lower the count, the finer the fibre.
Crimp, which gives elasticity to help keep garments looking good, is also important.
At the sale, Elvestad said she realized people need more education about alpacas. First-time buyers were looking at the conformation and appearance of the animals. Those are important, she said, but not as important as the fibre.
“Our whole herd has a fine micron count so they were pretty safe,” she said.
At Agribition, five males sold for as low as $3,100 and as high as $16,500, while the females ranged from $7,100 to $33,500.
Initial purchase expensive
Elvestad said the initial outlay can be a lot of money, but alpacas don’t need much shelter or expensive feed. Breeders can run seven to 10 animals per acre.
“They are easy to care for and farmers need a second income, period,” she said.
Canadian alpaca breeders are working toward a fibre industry that will eventually include the fabric manufacturers, designers and retailers.
“We’re a long way from saturation,” she said. “It’s a young industry and it’s growing and we can’t overproduce.”
Next year’s Agribition sale will be a consignment sale handled by R & R.
“We don’t want it to be a dumping ground,” Elvestad said. “We will physically visit the farms who want to consign.”
