CCNF at the 2021 AOA National Fleece Show
Those of you that have followed us for some time now will know that we have always preached quality and consistency as the hallmarks of our breeding program. The ability to create consistent results and finishes in both the halter show ring (insert your own pandemic-related gag here, as we haven’t walked in circles at the end of a lead line since November 2019) and at fleece shows over the past 24+ years, as we slowly but surely built our small family-sized operation from fewer than 15 animals at its founding in 1997, to a farm that has now birthed 70 +/- crias per year for the past decade, is something that we take great pride in. One major measuring stick we have used quite a lot in recent years has been the annual AOA National Fleece Show, which has for some time now been a stand-alone event, separate from the National (halter) Show, which takes place in March most years. The beauty, as ever, of having our fleeces compete and judged at Nationals is that it is done blind. Any insinuation, spurious as it may be, about our results being influenced by the human(s) connected to said animal or fleece gets thrown out the window. Our fleeces win (or don’t) on their merits, plain and simple.
CCNF Carillon 
CCNF Carillon 
CCNF Marielle 
CCNF Marielle 
It’s all in a month’s work… 
CCNF Triumvirate 
CCNF Diadema 
CCNF Declan 
CCNF Triumvirate 
CCNF Lennox CCNF Lennox 
CCNF Marius United
With the aforementioned birthing season in full swing — and in point of fact, we entered June of this year with 78 crias due to be born before the end of August — and the newborn crias coming fast and furious, we elected to ship our 62 fleeces out to Tennessee, rather than attend in person. Jennifer is, of course, the brains and the brawn behind our fleece show entries, and it took many days of laborious work to prepare the 9 large boxes of skirted and noodled fleeces we sent out via FedEx. Many thanks as always to the world’s best Show Superintendent, Judy Shroeder, all of the Judges, and especially the show volunteers both for working the fleece show generally and helping to get all of our entries and their accompanying awards back to us in such short order.
So what are our big takeaways? Keep Jennifer Lutz away from the halter ring for 18 months, and she goes fleece-crazy? It is, of course, hard to keep a good fleece nerd down, though, and truth be told, we could have obviously accomplished much of what we needed to, from a marketing perspective, with far fewer entries in a “normal” year. Many of our 27 blue ribbon winners, after all, came out of classes where at least 1 or 2 other of our animals finished behind them in those same groups. With two whole summers’ worth of crias, the birth classes of 2019 and 2000, having never entered a physical show ring before courtesy of Covid-19 though, Jen had felt some self-imposed pressure to stretch herself and get the top members of those two groups of animals, in particular, some exposure. Given that each show fleece takes approximately one hour of preparation, one can certainly imagine how my better half spent much of June, all while also playing the role of head-midwife during the busiest birth month of the year.
Those 2019/2020 animals didn’t disappoint either, accounting for 12 of the 14 total banners that our show team garnered. Also, remember what I said about quality and consistency? In total, 57 of our 62 entries, regardless of where they placed in their classes, were awarded Advanced Fleece Awards for having scores of 80+ points, with 7 of those carrying scores of 90 points or better. There were banners won by Elixir kids (Declan and Triumvirate), Bataclan kids (Amelie and Diadema), a Dreadnought son (Lennox), Sovereign-Legacy kids (Reign Dancer and Feliciana), our first Privateer daughter (Marielle), and last but not least, the first generation of Irish Meadow’s Elite Max kids ever born here came to the party too (Carillon and Valiant).
As we are not counting his results in those tallies above, a bonus shout-out goes to the Martin family of Heritage Alpacas in Oregon, whose newly acquired Herdsire, CCNF Moonstalker (CCNF Clare de Lune x CCNF Elixir) managed to nip his older paternal brother, Declan, for the Light Male Championship! The other cool backstory there, of course, is that this is the third time in 4 years that two genetically ‘full siblings’ from that same maternal line have combined to win Championships at the same show. The first time was at the 2018 Futurity, where Valyria (not coincidentally featured in these results as Valiant’s dam) and Sovereign-Legacy (2 RCs here for his lot) won both their color groups and their respective JCs, a feat those two would mostly repeat (back then there was only a single huacaya fleece JC) later that summer at the National Fleece Show as well. This time it was Moonstalker and Triumvirate (who not coincidentally, also happens to be Sovereign-Legacy’s actual full brother). The dams of all of those animals — Moonbeam, Luna Majesty, and Clare de Lune — are all full sisters sired by our dearly departed Matrix Majesty out of our beloved Moonlight and have undeniably done their best work when bred to the one and only, Elixir. It’s a pretty cool genetic story that shows no sign of winding down any time soon and it’ll certainly be fun to see where that road leads next both here and in Oregon. 🙂
So anyway, long story short for us at the Nationals: mission very much accomplished, and not a day passes that I don’t recognize that I married up and just how much I love my wife! CCNF 1sts, Championships, and specialty awards are all listed below:
2021 AOA National Fleece Show, Lebanon, TN – CCNF Championships, 1st Place Winners, & Specialty Awards
Cas-Cad-Nac Farm LLC – 2021 AOA Heirloom Breeder Cup, Huacaya Fleece
CCNF Carillon (CCNF Campana x Irish Meadow’s Elite Max) – Huacaya Female Judge’s Choice
CCNF Declan (Delicate Lace x CCNF Elixir) – Huacaya Male Judge’s Choice
CCNF Declan (Delicate Lace x CCNF Elixir) – Spirit of the Fiber Industry Award, Huacaya Male
CCNF Silky Tradition (Snowmass Silky Heritage XX x Accoyo America Kingfish) – Best Brightness (IFA)
CCNF Bataclan (CCNF Daliance x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Light Huacaya Get of Sire (CCNF Miss Americcana, CCNF Diadema, CCNF Solaria)
CCNF Dreadnought (CCNF Prima Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Dark Get of Sire (CCNF Lennox, CCNF Eternal Revel, CCNF Dreadnought’s Andromeda)
CCNF Khione (CCNF Prestige x Snowmass Sub-Zero) – 1st Place, Light Produce of Dam (CCNF Khiara, CCNF Khyron)
CCNF Love Dove (TGF Morning Dove x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Dark Produce of Dam (CCNF Dark Storm, CCNF Love Rules)
CCNF Marielle (CCNF Marguerite x CCNF Privateer) – Champion Fawn Huacaya Female
CCNF Triumvirate (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – Champion Fawn Huacaya Male
CCNF Carillon (CCNF Campana x Irish Meadow’s Elite Max) – Champion White Huacaya Female
CCNF Lyricist (CCNF Lyrica x CCNF Bataclan) – Champion Multicolor Huacaya Male
CCNF Feliciana (MFI & KVR’s Fila My Fleece x CCNF Sovereign-Legacy) – Reserve Champion Brown Huacaya Female
CCNF Reign Dancer (TGF Let Freedom Reign x CCNF Sovereign-Legacy) – Reserve Champion Brown Huacaya Male
CCNF Amelie (CCNF Margaux x CCNF Bataclan) – Reserve Champion Fawn Huacaya Female
CCNF Lennox (CCNF Lilah x CCNF Dreadnought) – Reserve Champion Fawn Huacaya Male
CCNF Amadea (CCNF Amalthea x Irish Meadows’ Elite Max) – Reserve Champion Light Huacaya Female
CCNF Declan (Delicate Lace x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion Light Huacaya Male
CCNF Diadema (CCNF Bellicosa x CCNF Bataclan) – Reserve Champion White Huacaya Female
CCNF Valiant (CCNF Valyria x Irish Meadows’ Elite Max) – Reserve Champion Multicolor Huacaya Male
CCNF Feliciana (MFI & KVR’s Fila My Fleece x CCNF Sovereign-Legacy) – 1st Place, Huacaya Brown Female Juveniles
CCNF Reign Dancer (TGF Let Freedom Reign x CCNF Sovereign-Legacy) – 1st Place, Huacaya Brown Male Juveniles
CCNF Valentina (CCNF Couture x CCNF Dreadnought) – 1st Place, Huacaya Brown Female Two-Year-Olds
CCNF Lennox (CCNF Lilah x CCNF Dreadnought) – 1st Place, Huacaya Fawn Male Juveniles
CCNF Marielle (CCNF Marguerite x CCNF Privateer) – 1st Place, Huacaya Fawn Female Juveniles
CCNF Juneaux (CCNF Margaux x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Huacaya Fawn Female Yearlings
CCNF Triumvirate (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Huacaya Dark Fawn Male Yearlings
CCNF Dreadnought’s Andromeda (CCNF Aurora x CCNF Dreadnought) – 1st Place, Huacaya Medium Fawn Two-Year-Olds
CCNF Eternal Revel (CCNF Eternal Rose x CCNF Dreadnought) – 1st Place, Huacaya Fawn Male Two-Year-Olds
CCNF Sovereign-Legacy (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Huacaya Dark Fawn Male Adults
CCNF Amadea (CCNF Amalthea x Irish Meadows’ Elite Max) – 1st Place, Huacaya Light Fawn Female Juveniles
CCNF Marius United (CCNF Majesty United x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Huacaya Light Male Juveniles
CCNF Vesuvia (CCNF Venise x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Female Yearlings
CCNF Amalthea (CCNF Capella x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Huacaya Light Female Adults
CCNF Carillon (CCNF Campana x Irish Meadow’s Elite Max) – 1st Place, Huacaya White Female Juveniles
CCNF Luciano (CCNF Lucretia x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Huacaya White Male Juveniles
CCNF Electra (CCNF Elicia x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Huacaya White Female Yearlings
CCNF Perceus (CCNF Pristine x Snowmass Elite Legend) – 1st Place, Huacaya Male Two-Year-Olds
CCNF Priam (CCNF Pristine x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Huacaya White Male Adults
CCNF Silky Tradition (Snowmass Silky Heritage XX x Accoyo America Kingfish) – 1st Place, Grade 1 White (IFA)
CCNF Valiant (CCNF Valyria x Irish Meadows’ Elite Max) – 1st Place, Huacaya Multicolor Male Juveniles
CCNF Lyricist (CCNF Lyrica x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Huacaya Multicolor Male Yearlings
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