{"id":544029,"date":"2026-07-25T23:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/544029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T23:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:09:23","slug":"country-life-why-not-llamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/544029\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Life: “Why not llamas?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Already addicted to llamas’ yarn, Janette Buckingham thought she’d give farming the animals a spin.<\/p>\n

That was over 30 years ago and in that time her herd of camelids has grown to include a few ovine cousins – Gotland sheep – also raised for their fibre which she spins and sells from her home studio in Southland’s Waikawa Valley.<\/p>\n

“For me, I like just being able to turn fibres over to people who will use them, and certainly the money’s good too,” she told Country Life.<\/p>\n

It was a high school friend who first got her wheels spinning – literally.<\/p>\n

Addicted to yarn: Llama herd follows love of fibre<\/p>\n

Country Life<\/p>\n

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, iHeart<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

Buckingham has been spinning since 1973 when she was first introduced to the craft.<\/p>\n

“I was terribly uncoordinated, but I just stuck with it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Nobody showed me what to do. I just felt my way sitting up ’til God knows what time at night, trying too hard, but eventually … I got the hang of it and could even spin a lumpy yarn. Anyone will tell you that’s the breakthrough.”<\/p>\n

Since then she’s taught a few people to spin herself. The trick is in knowing how to coordinate one’s hands and feet.<\/p>\n

\"Janette<\/p>\n

Janette Buckingham at her home in the Waikawa Valley.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

\"It<\/p>\n

It was a high school friend that got her interested in spinning in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

She looked quite at ease, tucked up by the fire on a squally afternoon, working away on her electric spinning wheel – a massive timesaver which helps when she’s trying to rapidly replenish her stock of yarns.<\/p>\n

Her love of spinning is what got her started on the llama farming. She’d bought a packet of caramel-coloured alpaca fibre in the 1980s which she “fell in love with”.<\/p>\n

“It was absolutely beautiful, like nothing I’d ever spun before, just sort of buttery smooth. I became addicted to it.”<\/p>\n

It was a time when many farmers were looking to diversify their farming operations, and the llama’s cousin, the alpaca, was starting to become more well-known.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A love of fibres saw a Southland woman build her own herd of llama, Guanaco and Gotland sheep.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

However, it was a herd off llamas near Canterbury that caught her eye.<\/p>\n

“We managed to get three, and one was a guanaco male. The fine-fibred guanaco is also a cousin to the llama.<\/p>\n

“They weren’t as popular then because people just wanted alpacas or llamas. The guanaco was something else again.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Gotland sheep came later, a breed popular for their dark and grey-toned wool.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

Crossed with a llama, she said they can produce “very fine fibre”.<\/p>\n

“They’re a bit more of a challenge to handle, but they’re something that perhaps make my business a little bit different from a lot of other people’s.”<\/p>\n

Today she has about 40 llama and guanaco which she runs alongside the Gotland sheep on her 25-acres in the Catlins.<\/p>\n

The Gotland sheep came later, a breed popular for their dark and grey-toned wool and originally from the Gotland Islands off the coast of Sweden.<\/p>\n

“There seemed to be a lot of interest in the Gotland wool because of its lustre, its colour, not much crimp in it, but it’s just got certain characteristics that appeal to people.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The studio is stocked with a range of finished products.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

\"She<\/p>\n

She sells the skeins from her home studio.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

\"Janette<\/p>\n

Janette prefers the natural tones.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Already addicted to llamas’ yarn, Janette Buckingham thought she’d give farming the animals a spin. That was over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-544029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}