Mother-and-son team Sally and Jonathon Provis-Vincent run the stud from their property near Green Hill Lake.

The stud achieved great success at last month’s Australian Alpaca Spectacular in Bendigo, where its Malakai Supernova ET took home the prize for Australian National Champion Adult Female.

Mr Provis-Vincent said he was incredibly pleased with the win.

“We’ve been to the show once before a few years ago to attend and take it all in, and meet all the breeders,” he said.

“We took two girls to the show this year and we’re thrilled to have won our age class to start off with. It was one tier before Best in Show.

“There are breeders from all across Australia who come to this show, so it’s a really great place to network and learn as much as you can about the high quality of animals that are around.

“Being a small stud, it means a lot to us. Having only started four years ago, this really helps solidify our choices of what we’re breeding moving forward. 

“That’s the real pinnacle for us. With only a few years in, we’re already seeing the rewards for all the hard work that we’ve put in.”

He said the stud started from humble beginnings.

“We started off with a couple of pets in 2012 or 2013 to mow our grass,” he said. 

“We then had our first breeding female in 2014, and she gave us our first breeding quality animal. We just built our stud from there.”

Over 60 alpacas have been born at the stud since then.

“We’ve grown from about 10 animals to up to 70 or 80; we’ve just dropped down to 50,” he said. “There are 16 pregnant females that are due to give birth between October and March.”

Mr Provis-Vincent said there were big plans in motion for the stud.

“This win really helps us moving forward,” he said.

“We’re looking at embryo transfer for the alpacas, which is quite an effective way to multiply the female genes. A couple of our top females have been chosen for the program, so we’re hoping to multiply the winning gene.”

Alpacas are shorn every 12 months on average. There are two types of alpaca – Huacaya and Suri.

“Suri have a shaggy style which is very bright, while Huacaya fleece is similar to that of a merino,” he said.

“Both will grow their fleece for 12 months before being shorn nowadays. We shear our heard in October so their fleece is off before it gets too hot in the summer.

“It’s great to be able to see the end product of what we’ve been working hard for each year.”

Fleeces are sold to the Great Ocean Road Woollen Mill.