Mitchell Park Gladiator

Mitchell Park Gladiator was Imported from Australia in November 2001.

We asked Russell Gent of Totara Grove Alpacas to pick us out a Stud Male with specific traits, while he was in Australia, looking for a Male for himself. Our Criteria were very simple, all we wanted was:

1. A Medium Fawn Male.
2. A Big strong Upright Male with Presence. 
3. He had to be 20 Micron on his Second Fleece while living on Green Grass.

Russell looked at over 400 males in Australia before he came across Gladiator. He is exactly what we were looking for, Big, Strong, Upright Male with a Beautiful Soft Crimpy Fleece.

Gladiator was an agisted animal living on Ron & Dianne Condon’s Alpaca Farm - Shanbrooke Alpaca Stud in Australia.
Gladiator's Sire was the Top Choice Male in the 2nd Peruvian Shipment to arrive in Australia, and at six years of age, was still producing a 20 micron fleece.  Named Somerset Peruvian Excellence, Ron and Dianne still own him.

Mitchel Park Gladiator when he first arrived from Australia

Gladiator's First Fleece was 19 Micron
Gladiator's Second Fleece was 20 Micron
Gladiator’s Third Fleece was 20 Micron
Gladiator's Forth Fleece was 20 Micron
Gladiator's Fifth Fleece was 22 Micron
Gladiator's Sixth Fleece was 22 Micron
Gladiator is now 9 years of age (2010) and his fleece is still just 24 Micron

Dianne Condon quoted: "Gladiator has a lovely soft handling fleece and should stay fine as his sire which we own is still 20 micron now at 6 years of age. He is an upstanding Male and is of Pure Peruvian bloodlines.We keep very few males each year as stud males. The majority of males on the farm are castrated and sold as wethers. We go through them at 6 months and then again at 12 months, if they get past this (which very few do) then we run them on to be sold as stud males. So my opinion of him is very good as he would not have made it this far if he was not".

The year Gladiator was born there were 200 Cria born on the property and all but 4 males were castrated. This gives you an idea of the quality of Gladiator.

Below is his pedigree and you can see he is the offspring from two Imported animals out of Peru.

Gladiator when he won Champion Senior Male at the Manawatu A&P Show

Gladiator's Pedigree:

Gladiator's Sire: Somerset Peruvian Excellence

Gladiator at 5 Years of Age - Still only 20 Micron

Gladiator's Results Speak for themselves:

Gladiator has now been the backbone of our herd, with a large number of his daughters and grand daughters making up our breeding herd. Nearly all of his Daughters remain fine, are the easiest animals to shear as the hand piece just flows over their bodies and his daughters are tremendous mothers as all have huge amounts of milk – This is a trait that many breeders fail to take into consideration. 

He has now sired over 130 Cria and in every single case the Cria have been better than their Dams. Gladiator stamps his mark on every Cria, adding lustre, length and especially fineness to all of their Fleeces. 

Every Cria also has the added advantage of producing an extra kilogram of fleece compared to their mothers. This is a very good gain after just one generation. 

Gladiators Finest Daughter this year was down to 15 micron.

Would you like to breed Soft Blacks and Greys?

Gladiator will produce Black Cria when put to Black Dams and produce Grey Cria when put to Grey Dams and all his Cria come with soft fine fleeces.

Gladiator in our opinion is a world class male who adds fineness to any female he is placed over.

Mitchel Park Gladiator's Cria below