Silverhill Alpacas

Silverhill Alpacas is an alpaca farm dedicated to breeding fine but densely fleeced coloured alpacas (although a couple of whites have sneaked into the herd). Situated on 5 acres about 7km north east of Wellsford in North Auckland and close to the Northland border, Silverhill Alpacas was established in early 2004 with the purchase of 2 wethers. We soon became ‘hooked’ on these wonderful animals and bought our first breeding female shortly thereafter. Our herd has grown substantially to around 50 alpacas and in order to accommodate them all we are now leasing another few acres nearby.   

Our objective with the huacayas is to improve the fleece fineness and density of the coloured animals to parallel the quality currently found in white and light fawn alpacas.  To help achieve this we are using high quality white or fawn males over our coloured females in the expectation that they will pass on the fineness, density and crimp definition but retain the colour from the dam. 

Although our main focus is breeding huacayas we do have a few coloured suris who are registered under the Nonsuch herd prefix.

 We actively participate in the Alpaca show circuit with the aim of giving our stud a high profile and also to enable us to gauge how our breeding programme is progressing when comparing our alpacas to the others in the show ring.  We have had some successes in the past few seasons, with our upcoming young medium fawn male, Silverhill Prince of Beltane winning 6 broad ribbons in the 2008-9 show season.  It was especially pleasing to see him beating large classes of white/light fawn to the Championship ribbons.  We intend having him certified this year and he should be working Spring 2010.

 Another new venture in 2009 was the opening of our farm shop, selling handcrafted alpaca knitwear, felted alpaca accessories, alpaca yarn and carded alpaca fibre.  The shop is currently only open by appointment.  Many of the products we have for sale will also be available online.

 We are passionate about our alpacas and are happy to share our experience and advice with prospective, new or established alpaca owners or breeders.  We welcome visitors to the farm but please check first that we are home.