Alpacas up for auction

IF THERE had been pan pipes, guitars and ponchos in abundance then this green corner of the county could well have been mistaken on Saturday for the Chilean Andes.

For the occasion was the first ever auction sale of alpacas to take place in East Sussex.

Alpacas, for the uninitiated, are domestic South American relatives of the llama, with particularly fine long wool.

Before the auction, farmer Philip O'Conor managed just under 600 of them a never-to-be-forgotten sight as they graze in the Glyndebourne Farm fields between Glynde and Ringmer, near Lewes.

Motorists for the past two years since the herd was established have been stopping in the country road in droves to get a look at the exotic beasts.

Alpacas don't come cheap. The sale of 58 prize specimens averaged out at 3,400 each!

They were bought privately either for their wool and breeding value, or as pets.

Said Mr O'Conor, general manager of Atlantic Alpacas: 'We have been at Glyndebourne since October 2000, and before that in West Sussex.

'Glyndebourne is suitable for alpacas because it has good grassland, is well drained and has a mild climate.

'It was our first auction and we are well pleased. We had excess stock, particularly after foot-and-mouth, and the auction went very well.

'There were about 300 people here from all over the country. We even had one gentleman looking at the alpacas from their homeland of Chile.'

So succesful was the event that Mr O'Conor plans to repeat the exercise next year.