Recent news
December 2009
Surico fielded a large team in the Alpaca Expo this year. The team was busy throughout the show, with Hermione organising the alpacas to be presented, Kerif and Sue handling in the ring and help of many friends and Brooke keeping the alpacas fed, watered and pens clean. The smallest member of the team Haniki was a great hit smiling and gooing at everyone, won't be long before she too is a Junior Handler.
Expo 09 was a very successful show for Surico, with Surico Mantovani taking out Supreme Suri (Surico have now won this coveted award 3 times out of 6). Mantovani is a great young male with that presence that commands the show ring. His sire is one of our top stud males, Kaihere Accoyo Brilliante, who also sired the 2007 National Supreme Suri with Surico Ballerina.
Proving that Brilliante continues to be a major influence in the herd at Surico.
Of the 9 Champions lined up for Supreme, 6 were from Surico, Oracle [Junior Male], Cezanne [Intermediate Female], Johann [Adult Male] and Luciano [Senior Male], were all sired by Parsifal. Valiant [Mature Male] was sired by Rufino and Mantovani [Intermediate Male] by Brilliante. Parsifal also sired 5 of the Reserve Champions, 3 from Surico along with Andigenetix Dupion [Int Female] owned by Andi Ewen & Gene Rigney, and Deinay Hillary [Int Male] owned by Dudly & Alison Read.
Congratulations to Keith and Sue Osborne who bought Surico Belle immediately after the auction. Surico Belle, also sired by Parsifal went on to win Supreme Suri at Waikato World in October. We know Belle will go on to produce some stunning cria in the future.
This year the team at Surico have decided to exhibit fleeces at shows around the region and with great success. Cotapaxi II [sired by Parsifal] has been a shining light getting top marks at a number of shows and winning Supreme fleece. Several others that have not been in the show ring have come up with some excellent fleece scores, see our show results page for a full set of results.
Surico has exhibited at all of the regional shows held so far this season and most alpacas have come home with ribbons, many broad and supreme.
Congratulations to Dudly and Alison for their success with Deinay Hillary, especially Reserve Champion Intermediate male at the National Show.
Congratulations to Andi & Gene for their success with Andigenetix Dupion who won Reserve Champion Intermediate Female at the National Show and Waikato World.
Congratulations to Paul & Christine Spooner for their success at Hawkes Bay Show and especially Tironui Wasabi with his 3 excellent fleece wins at 3 different shows.
Congratulations to Ruth & Peter, who are new to the show ring but have already taken a 2nd with Greenbank Romeo at the National Show and won Champion Junior Female with Greenbank Vivfinnie at Waikato World.
Shearing 2009
It was all hands on deck for shearing the first week in November, with Mike Banks and the return of Marcus as his handler, last year's record was broken by shearing 115 in one day. A huge effort from a well oiled team.
There is now a shed full of fleeces to sort for shows and processing.
Squeals on Wheels
We are celebrating our 7th anniversary of our mobile mating service with a special offer to all North Island alpaca breeders - Coming in your mailbox soon!
Squeals on Wheels has commenced the mobile mating rounds now that the weather has finally decided to warm up, services from the great line up of males suri and huacaya are in high demand. Read more about our males and service on the Stud Services page.
August 2009
Surico Belle has been selected for the 2009 National Sale – this elite auction is to be held on the final day of Alpaca Expo 09, Sunday 27th September. We are very proud to have had Belle selected as one of 6 elite alpaca in the auction. To find out more about Belle visit our new webpage. You can find out more about the auction here.
Well, it is only 6 weeks to go to the Alpaca Expo at Manfeild Park in Feilding. Surico is a major contributor by sponsoring Supreme Suri, entering an large show team, having a trade site and putting “Belle” in the auction. Halter training is in full swing as we have entered 27 suri , with a large number of juniors all going through their paces. It will be a major undertaking getting them all down there in show condition but are looking forward to the event and meeting up with other breeders and interested people, we invite you all to come along and have a look at our team, we are happy to show them off.
We are also exhibiting 13 suri fleeces and intend entering the SuperSix competition with some of these.
We were sad to farewell Surico Trovatore who flew to the UK earlier this year. In his short show career, he entered 8 shows and was awarded a broad ribbon every time, with 7 Championships, 1 Reserve Champion and 4 Supreme Suri Championships. He is a stunning young male and has great potential as a stud. We wish his new owner all the best.
Trovatore was quarantined in Cambridge at NZ Alpacas Ltd [Chris Leach] before departing, he arrived in excellent condition and Chris made a follow up visit in the UK and we were very happy when he reported him well settled in his new surroundings.
June 2009
Things have been pretty busy over the past few months with the end of the show season, National Alpaca Day, and lots of cria being born.
We have had some fantastic cria this season – and still have a few to birth. The most exciting cria we have is a young male out of Surico Ballerina (2007 National Supreme Champion) and by Surilana Rufino, only two weeks old at the time of writing he is already showing great promise with incredible lustre. He is shown here on the right.
The show season ended on high with Surico Trovatore taking Supreme at the Royal Easter Show. Trovatore has proved himself to be an exceptional suri taking many supreme and broad ribbon awards.
National Alpaca Day was held on the 3rd May and was a great success with people opening their farms across New Zealand and hosting thousands of visitors. We had a great day here at Surico and really enjoyed meeting new people and sharing our knowledge and enthusiasm for alpacas. If you missed out on visiting a farm this time make sure you keep an eye out for farms open next year (We’ll be one of them) 2nd May 2010! Or you can visit for our next open day 21st June 2009.
Planning for our annual pilgrimage to Mystery Creek Fieldays is well underway. We will be there at the usual site (D29 – opposite the LIC building) with New Zealand Alpacas, for all 4 days. Come and visit us and the alpacas.
Also coming up is the AANZ alpaca conference where Hermione will be speaking on Marketing the Alpaca Industry. The conference is to be held at Lincoln University in Canterbury on the 27th & 28th of June. The AGM will see Hermione standing down from her role as AANZ Secretary after nearly three years. She will remain actively involved in AANZ as Chair of the Marketing and Promotions committee, and looks forward to having more time to spend on this role and in the family business.
Surico is also supporting the industry as a major sponsor of Alpaca Expo 09. As Supreme Suri Sponsor we will have both a trade stand and a large show team at the event. Held in Fielding at the Manfeild Stadium.
November 2008
SuriSelect:
Together with NZ Alpacas we have developed an innovative concept for breeders to own their own sires. A group of like minded breeders collectively own a group of males with equal access to services. This way small to medium sized breeders can access top quality genetics at a reasonable price. By owning a share in a selection of males participating breeders can spread their options and not be backed into a genetic gridlock.
The prize offered in SuriSelect is the prestigious Surilana Parisfal, who has already proved his genetic worth. With 2 white, 2 fawn and 2 black sires the program is suitable for all suri breeders.
Recent Shows:
Surico has already this season had major success in the show ring. For the first time we sent our show team to the Nationals held in Christchurch on the recommended transport of Morley Transport, and we were pleased with their condition on arrival. It also meant we could fly and arrive in equally good condition.
It was the most successful National for Surico in the South Island, with 3 Championships, Junior Male – Surico Trovatore [sire Parsifal], Intermediate Female – Surico Meribel [sire Parsifal], Senior Male – Surico Ranaldo [sire Rufino].
Waikato Show in early Nov, the largest ever in the Nth Is, the Surico Show team excelled with our team of young assistants who showed great handling skills. Thanks to Laura and Charlotte Leach and Jonne Pachoud and Nicky. Charlotte steered Surico Trovatore to Supreme Suri. Mike Ottaway managed Surico Alinghi [sire Brilliante] in the ring who behaved really well and became Intermediate Male Suri Champion. Surico Belle came home with a Reserve Champion Junior Female Suri award.
Congratulations to Andi and Gene for their Champion Junior Female Suri with Andigenetix Silky Dupion and Dudley and Alison with Deinay Harrington who took Reserve Champion Male Suri. Trovatore, Belle, Dupion and Harrington are all progeny of Parsifal.
Manawatu Show a week later, was a 2 day show this year and gave it a much more relaxed atmosphere, once again ran smoothly in the capable hands of Eric Lister. Belle was Junior Female Champion Suri and Trovatore Junior Male Champion Suri with Mantavani [sire Brilliante] Reserve and Alinghi took Reserve Champion Intermediate Male. Cezanne and Johann completed our team and were both awarded 3rd ribbons in their class.
August 2008
We recently attended the Central Region Winter Show held in New Plymouth in a great venue.
This was a first time show and the organisers have to be congratulated on an excellent event. The judge was Julie Bird from Australia for the suri section and both Julie and Kate Mander, Pejo Alpacas judged the huacaya. Surico had a very successful outing with Surico Alinghi, [sired by Brilliante] winning Champion Intermediate male, then going on to win Supreme Suri. Surico Cezanne[sired by Parsifal] took Champion Junior female and Surico Mantavani [sired by Brilliante] took Champion Junior male, and Surico Trovatore [Parsifal] taking Reserve Champion Junior male.
We are proud to be sponsoring the Show Ring at the upcoming Alpaca Expo in Christchurch. Preparations, including halter training our show team, for the National Show are well under way, along with being a major sponsor of the event we are taking a team of around 10 alpacas down to Christchurch and would love to see you down there so make sure you call into our site in the alpaca pen area and say Hello.
This winter has been a wet one and at Surico we have had some huge bursts of rain, but luckily, because we are so free draining the water doesn’t lie around and we haven’t got any mud. The rain has washed the alpacas and their fleece underneath is looking beautifully lustrous.
We have decided to sell our property at Kaharoa, Rotorua, so that we can buy a bigger acreage and increase our alpaca herd. So if you are thinking of going into alpacas or already have them and looking for a new property, then come and check out this one, it is perfect for alpaca farming.
