Alpaca breeder Sandy Retallick will be showing soft foot alpacas at the Australian Alpaca Association National Show today and tomorrow. She’s been breeding alpacas for 12 years. She says they only spit on one another when the female is pregnant.

“The female will spit on the male to let him know they don’t want to mate,” Mrs Retallick said.

She opines although it’s very rare humans get spat on, it may happen if you’re antagonizing the animal.

“You have to be very calm around alpacas otherwise you scare them. I always slow my breathing before I walk into the pen. They’re very calming animals,” Mrs Retallick said.

This weekend marks the twentieth anniversary of the show.  

Show co-convener Steve Pate says the industry is growing rapidly.

"There is an increased demand for the fleece and meat," Mr Pate said.

“However they are mostly used for their fleece. It has a thermal property that makes it highly efficient at warming and cooling."

For those not familiar with alpacas, there are two different breeds—Suri and Huacaya.

Suri are the less common type. They make up only a small percentage of alpacas in Australia. The suri has a fleece that is long, pencil fine and shaggy. The fleece feels silkier than that of the huacaya, and is mostly coloured white and fawn.

The huacaya is more common and has a bonnet of wool on its head. It kind of looks like sheep's wool. It grows straight out from the body and is slightly crimped. This crimping increases with fleece density. 

The animal originates from South America.

They were first imported into Australia in 1858, but the project failed and none of the alpacas are believed to have survived. 

Alpacas were then imported again into Australia in 1988. The Australian alpaca herd has since steadily grown from breeding stock imported from Chile and, more recently, from Peru.

Today, in Australia there are approximately 25,000 alpacas. Which are owned by around 1,600 breeders and have a combined livestock value of over $100 million.

Suri breeder Cheryl Hearn bought her first alpaca after driving past a sign saying they were for sale. She had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. 

“I was having chemotherapy and on the drive home we saw a sign. We went in and bought our first alpaca that day,” Mrs Hearn said. 

“They’re very soothing.”

Along with being a calming animal, they are the most environmentally friendly of all Australia’s agricultural animals. 

Their soft padded feet do not cut into the top soil in the same way as sheep, goats, cattle and horses.

Mrs Retallick said that was one of the main reasons she purchased the animal. 

"We had a conservation property in the Hindmarsh Valley and one of the requirements for that land was to have animals who would be gentle on the soil," Mrs Retallick said. 

"Our soft foot alpacas have toes instead of hooves so they aren't too destructive. Alpacas were the only animal that would fulfill the conservation requirements."

Alpaca breeder Trevor Parry says the industry has changed from people breeding alpacas as a hobby to breeders being able to make substantial amounts of money.

He says initially the Parry family had purchased alpacas to chase away the foxes.

“We kept losing lambs. We had heard that alpacas were great at chasing foxes away. So we bought a few and they were excellent. We now have 85 alpacas and I’m the vice-president of the Australian Alpaca Association,” Mr Parry said.

"Alpacas are just like people. Some are really shy while others are show-offs."

"Our company mainly focuses on selling the fleece. We definitely aren't as serious about breeding top bloodlines as some other people in the industry are."

The owners of Australia's top breeding male and Australia’s largest alpaca herd Matthew and Cathy Lloyd say they started breeding huacaya alpacas because the couple owned a small piece of land.

“We didn't have any farming background. But we wanted to get an animal because we had a small holding so we got an alpaca. The business has grown considerably since then,” Mr Lloyd said.

Mr and Mrs Lloyd have worked hard to refine their studs, which is the name given for male breeding alpacas.

"People pay a lot of money for our male studs because they produce alpacas that are of such a high standard."

“Alpaca fleece and meat isn’t where we make much of our money, we make a lot more by selling our prestigious blood line.”

Only a small part of the industry sells alpaca meat.

Mr Parry says the industry has realised there are ways to make money from older animals that have not produced prestigious blood lines. 

 Although there won’t be any alpaca meat sold at this weekend’s events, Mr Pate says the meat is incredibly lean, leaner than emu meat and does not have a strong gamey taste.

“It does have to be cooked carefully. So it tends to be cooked only in high end restaurants. You can smoke alpaca meat and it’s very similar to prosciutto. So that’s being marketed towards Jewish communities as it can be prepared kosher,” Mr Pate said.

Over 680 alpacas descended upon the showgrounds on Thursday, when the judging began. 

This weekend the crème de la crème of the alpaca industry will be crowned.  

Mr Pate said people can see some of the best alpacas in the world in Bendigo.

“The Australian standard is the highest in the world,” he said.

“We have the biggest herd outside of South America and we apply the same technology as they do to sheep genetics and breeding.”

This is the 20th national show and sale, celebrating winners over the past 20 years and advances in alpaca breeding.