Inca Hallmark – Solid Black Huacaya Male
Sire: Popham Thunder – SBLK
Dam: Inca Enigma – SBLK
As many of you reading this post will know, breeding an alpaca that accurately represents the goal of your breeding programme can take years and involve much trial and error. How many times have you looked at an alpaca in its second fleece and thought “well I wish it was a bit finer” or “if only he had a better head” etc? Thankfully this is not something we encountered with Inca Hallmark. Before Hallmark was born we had high hopes for something special as the previous year his dam, Inca Enigma, had produced one of our best females; Inca Gratitude. Many would have seen Gratitude at the shows when she was a junior in 2013 and again at the BAS National Show this year where she won champion black female huacaya.
Inca Hallmark’s second fleece
Shortly after Inca Hallmark won Champion Black Male at the BAS National Show in March, we had an inquiry from Steffen and Antje Messig from Alpakahof Schloesschen Messig who farm grey and black huacaya in the east of Germany near Chemnitz. They had been interested in our stock here at Inca Alpaca for some time but it wasn’t until they visited the Alpakashow-Sud Illshoven in Germany and met our friends Anja and Peter Winkelmolen from Alpaca Farm Tienda Molino in Holland that they decided to come over and take a look at what we had to offer.
Antje and Steffen with Inca Hallmark
Steffen and Tim with Inca Hallmark
Steffen and Antje visited with their daughter, her boyfriend and Peter and Anja, armed with an array of wonderful German gifts and great anticipation of their first meeting with Hallmark! Although Steffen and Antje had seen photos of Inca Hallmark and had been sent a fleece sample and all of his performance statistics, it was not the same as seeing the male in the flesh. At the very first opportunity Steffen had to see Inca Hallmark and it is fair to say that it was love at first sight. I have never seen someone fall in love with an alpaca so quickly and as a result I could not keep Steffen away from Hallmark. He was the one for them!
A couple of months after their visit we prepared Inca Hallmark and five grey and black females for export to Alpahof Schloesschen Messig to join their herd of 120 alpacas. The alpacas were thoroughly tested for disease including the priming and subsequent blood testing for TB using the new Enferplex Test offered by Surefarm Ltd. The group were transported by John Parker International and had a trouble free journey.
Steffen unloads some of the females
Steffen with his new boy Inca Hallmark
Steffen and Inca Hallmark
Inca Hallmark started working before his second birthday and continued to do so throughout the breeding season in Germany, resulting in many confirmed pregnancies within Steffen & Antje’s herd.
All of us here at Inca Alpaca congratulate and thank Steffen and Antje for taking the time to travel to the UK to see our farm and to have the forethought to import from the UK. Steffen says that it was the quality of the stock here at Inca Alpaca, matched with the tight biosecurity, excellent herd health and whole herd TB testing via the Enferplex test that gave him and Antje the confidence to buy their next generation of breeding stock from us rather than import from Australia or the US. We also thanks Anja and Peter for their help and guidance in the process. We look forward to following Inca Hallmark and the females’ progress at Alpakahof Schloesschen Messig over the coming years and we wish them every success.
‘News just in’
Welt der Alpakas Buchloe Show 2015 – Germany
Inca Hallmark’s fleece wins 1st Place Intermediate Black Huacaya Fleece and Champion Black Huacaya Fleece
Inca Hallmark’s Fleece wins 1st place and Champion