The moment Greg Mecklem first showed us Marco Polo's fleece we were bedazzled by the possibilities. Marco is a product of Pacific Crest's two top fleece lines, Microsoft and Sicuani (dam of Nautilus, Sequin, and Sequoia). Greg calls Marco's fleece "elite elite." Phil Mizrahie said "This fleece isn't excellent. It's phenomenal!" And Ian Watt, former President of the Australian Alpaca Association, said "This fleece is as good as Drambuie's, the best stud Australia ever had." This is high praise from some very high-power, world class breeders. The judges have agreed with their appraisal. Marco's fleece won first place in the AOBA fleece show in both 2003 and 2004. Not only that, in 2004 he won Reserve Champion fleece at AOBA over hundreds of white fleeces. Plus, in the same show Rod Dakan of Royal Fiber Spinnery awarded him the Mill's Choice Award for the best fleece for processing, over almost 1000 other entries. The same fleece also won first place at the Midwinter Nationals in Atlanta, 2005. And in 2006, at five years of age, he topped all the competition in fleece points at the AFCNA National. He's throwing that fleece as well. Time after time Marco produces winning fleece quality (see his 3 champs and 6 blue ribbon offspring on his AN herdsire listing). And get this--21 out of 31 offspring are female! We now have seven Marco Polo daughters in our production line (and have sold several others in the 28-30K price range), so we are making him available to another farm looking for the absolute best in fleece genetics. Marco Polo has been a great investment for us. Sales of offspring and breeding fees have repaid us several times over.
Marco Polo is co-owned with Accoyo America/Pacific Crest Alpacas, but we have had uninterrupted possession and use of him since we acquired him seven years ago, and we are entitled to keep all the breeding fees. That arrangement will no doubt continue for whichever farm acquires our share of Marco Polo.