The Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds was full of women and guns on Saturday, but the dominant sense might have been the smell of straw and hay coming from Hall C, where the 21st annual Alpacapalooza was taking place.
“There’s the gun show and the women’s show going on, so we ended up getting a good public crowd,” said Jeff Williamson of Liberty Alpacas in Battle Ground, who also served as chairman of the event. “We’re free, so we had a lot of people wandering in to see the alpacas.”
Breeders from around the Pacific Northwest and as far as California and Nevada brought more than 250 alpacas to the show, Williamson said, which made it a slightly larger event than recent years.
“It’s a good way to see how you stand up against other breeders,” said Daryl Krause of Amber Autumn Alpacas in Culver, Ore. “Shows like this are a measuring tool. We can make sure we’re not falling behind the curve.”
Krause has more than 800 alpacas, and brought 24 to the show. He’s been breeding them for more than 24 years. There was a range of experience on display Saturday. Scott Miller of Terrebonne, Ore., has been breeding alpacas for more than 20 years. On Saturday, he had a special assistant with him: his granddaughter, Clara Leason, 5. It’s been an eventful week for Clara, as it was her first time competing in a show and just days after she received her first alpaca, Willy.
“I like bottle-feeding them,” Clara said, adding sometimes the baby alpacas need some help drinking milk.
She picked the name Willy because her alpaca’s father was named Wilkinson. She helped her grandparents show off their alpaca, and happily ran around showing off her blue first-place ribbon to anyone who looked at her.
Miller said Alpacapalooza, which he has been attending since the 1990s, is a great way to not only compete with other breeders and network, but catch up with people. He added that alpaca show season is from February until mid-May, so it’s a short time frame when they get to go out and be around their peers. After May, they shear the alpacas.
“They’re raised for their fiber,” said Tina Durham-Bars, president of the Alpaca Association of Western Washington, the nonprofit that organizes the event. “They’re used to make luxury garments.”
Miller also emceed an auction Saturday afternoon to raise money for the association. Everything in the auction was donated by breeders, and included items like a bottle of alcohol from Peru and opportunities for breeding with accomplished alpacas.
There was also a lot of competitions, where the alpacas were judged on their fleece, shape and size.
“It can take six to 10 years to create an alpaca with a look you like,” Krause said. “It takes generations. With genetics, you never really know what you’re going to get. If you get a bad head, that can throw you off for five years.”
