About John and Val
John and I live at Williamsdale just south of Canberra, and had been breeding quality angora goats for 23 years. In 2004 we bought our first alpacas to use as guard animals in an effort to keep the foxes at bay and save our kid goats. Within a few months we had fallen in love with these inquisitive, quiet, environmentally friendly animals and now are running over 250 alpacas- AND NO GOATS!!
The first decision we made was to breed ‘grey’ alpacas and we carefully selected our initial purchases based on grey genetics. The beautiful creams and apricot colours soon took our fancy as well, and we added light fawn genetics to the herd. Light fawn is a poor descriptor for the wonderful colour range from cream and warm light fawn, to apricot and almost pink or mushroom colour.
We started breeding huacayas with fleece a little similar in appearance to sheep wool but much softer and warmer. We were soon intrigued with the lustre and handle of the rarer suri fleeces so expanded our herd to include this stunning breed with their long silky 'dreadlocks' as well.
Nearly 400 cria (babies) later, we are still totally smitten with these quiet, intelligent animals who come running to check what we are doing and make sure we are doing it right. We are delighted that our choice of carefully selected genetics is producing high quality, fine, lustrous fleeces in the colours we, and others, are looking for. Visit www.qozqo.com to see some these beautiful animals on our farm at Williamsdale.
The quality of the fleece has been proven in the show ring with the numerous champion ribbons that our animals have won- both suri and huacaya. 46 ribbons inlcuding 7 champion or Reserve Champion from 5 shows in one year tell the story!!
Val has taken samples of our fleeces to the Natural Product shows in Asia and had amazing feedback from textile manufacturers in
both Russia and Asia who say it is the lightest, softest fibre they have come across.
After selling our super fine fleeces to home spinners for the last 10 years and repeatedly getting feedback that these are "the finest, softest and cleanest fleeces" they can get, and the "natural colours are amazing", we decided to get our soft fine cria (baby) fleeces commerically spun into yarn. We were so delighted with the results that, as well as having stunning fleece and yarn for sale, we now have a team of experienced home knitters making luxurious unique garments for sale.
Our alpacas are bred under strict biosecurity protocols so you can be confident that these garments are from animals that are well looked after and top quality. ALL NATURAL -No dyes or other chemicals- no blending with synthetic fibres. No wonder these garments have that luxurious feel.
Val Johanson
