The winning ways of a Fernside alpaca farm have continued, with another male, Aquaviva Claudius, becoming the new Dutch grand champion.

Claudius' success in the Netherlands event at Hapert comes on the back of his brother, Marcus, winning the same title a few years ago.

Both alpacas were raised at the Aquaviva Alpacas farm before being sold by breeders Stephen Davy and Cathy Roche to Belgian owners.

Davy said the win for Claudius was remarkable as he was competing against the best in Europe, including exported alpacas from Australia and New Zealand.

He said they were unaware Claudius was entered until its Belgian owners contacted them with the result.

"We were thrilled and there were a couple of people from Canterbury over there at the time who told us the New Zealand animals did well across the show,'' he said.

''There were quite a few Australian animals there, and this gave everyone smug satisfaction."

Aquaviva's performance has been built on Claudius' mother, Aroma, a fawn dam producing five offspring winning supreme champion titles, including the Dutch events.

Davy said Aroma would be one of the top coloured females in the world, given the record of her offspring and they were unaware of a fawn female with a similar record.

"She would be one of the best fawns, if not the best, in the world, based on her show results of her offspring. There would be quite a few males with these results, but it's unusual for a female and particularly for a coloured female,'' he said.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News

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