This has been an exciting year for Dry Drayton Alpacas.
Champion Bonnie Grey
Owing to pressure of work, we have time to show animals at only one show per year at present; so we are very lucky that our nearest show – The East of England Show at Peterborough, is also one of the major alpaca shows, with a very large entry and stiff competition.
We were therefore very excited indeed to have such a successful visit this June. Out of the 4 animals we showed, Dry Drayton Brandy (an intermediate dark fawn female) took 2nd place and Dry Drayton Bruno (a light fawn junior male) took a very respectable 4th in a large class. The show honours however, went to Dry Drayton Bonnie Grey, a young medium-grey junior female, described by the judge as the “perfect package” and as having the best fleece she had seen on a grey. So enthusiastic was the judge indeed, that she encouraged on-lookers to seize the opportunity for a closer look, and we were surrounded on leaving the ring. Despite Bonnie’s tendency to sit down when she’d had enough – a response which produced a lot of Aaaah’s and hilarity amongst the watching crowd – she took the ultimate accolade of Champion Grey.
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Welcome Bosedown Geronimo – Grey Stud Male
This year we also welcome to our farm our first stud male, Bosedown Geronimo. Geronimo is a rather splendid rose-grey male and as we own him 50:50 with his breeders, Bosedown Alpacas, he will be spending half of each year here in Cambridgeshire. We hope this will be a valuable acquisition not just for us, but also for other local breeders, in expanding the range of quality coloured studs on offer locally.
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If you have detected something of a grey theme in this news update it is not entirely accidental. We are not abandoning our other colours and particularly not our lovely blacks, but I am fascinated by the genetics of breeding greys and the fleeces do make rather delightfully shaded knitting wools; so we aim to put a special effort into producing high quality greys.
Knitting Wools for sale
Dry Drayton fleeces are now professionally processed into knitting wools and felts. The wools knit like DK wool and are representative of most of the natural alpaca shades, plus a rather attractive tweed effect in light/dark fawn. It is retailed in 50gm balls (£5.50 per ball + vat : reductions for quantity – please enquire). The felt has been prepared both as single colours and in a medley of natural shades, in a range of thicknesses. Both wool and felts are available direct from Dry Drayton Alpacas. Enquiries to 01954 210402 or heather@drydraytonalpacas.com.
In association with AlpacaSeller, we are pleased to be able to announce brand new sales and stud listing services for Dry Drayton Alpacas. By going to the appropriate page on this site, you will now find a 'live' list of the alpacas we have available for sale and stud. These listings are fully searchable, and provide detailed information about each alpaca. We hope you find this new service useful.