As membership approaches the 150 mark, we can look back upon a successful year as alpaca breeders and as an active membership continually learning and growing.

The 2007 Alpaca Ontario show in Orangeville was a resounding success and for the first time, the show was broadcast live on the internet. Judge Nick-Harrington Smith from the U.K. judged 230 entries. The Fibre committee arranged for the Guelph Hand-Spinners and Weavers Guild to spin and weave on site as part of a Fibre to Fashion event, and the first AO People’s Choice event encouraged members to bring their own creations to be displayed.

The 2007 cria season was soon upon us and the wonder and excitement rippled across the province as another crop of quality crias were born. Farm visits, halter and fleece shows, fibre sorting and processing, attending various seminars hosted by local farms kept us all busy.

The Fall Education Days in September was well-attended and those who made the trip came away with a wealth of new ideas and knowledge with which to apply to their farms. Experts Dr Norm Evans, DVM and Ian Watt spoke about nutrition, stress management, breeding and fleece. The level of interest from the attendees was very high and showed just how enthusiastic we are as a group of dedicated alpaca breeders.

The IPM in Crosby and Royal Agricultural Winter Fair attracted large numbers of the general public. Volunteers worked tirelessly to man the AO booth and give information on alpacas to the curious visitors. It is the work of volunteers such as those who gave their time at these events, that benefits us all. Promoting Alpaca Ontario and our farms in as many ways as possible increases exposure for our farms and contributes to our success as alpaca breeders. Thank you, to all the volunteers who ensured a steady stream of visitors were greeted by a friendly Alpaca Ontario member!

Remember to consider gifting a one-year membership to Alpaca Ontario when you sell to a new customer. Your client will benefit from the advantages of becoming a member in our growing organization, and you will receive a free business card ad in the next newsletter, and a free classified ad for 2 months on the AO website.

Designed by Ideas on Display, with the help of Committee Members Sandy Green, Dawn Campbell, Lynda Finbow, Kathleen Holmes and Glen Finbow, you will find our new website to be informative and full of innovative ideas. We hope you like what you see. Our newly re-designed A.O. site is arguably one of the finest alpaca-related designs in North America and boasts more than 100 pages of information and photos from over 50 Alpaca Ontario farms and ranches.

The Committee has spent countless hours the last seven weeks gathering information and updating files to ensure that this site furnishes you, the membership, with everything you've asked for over the past year.

If you have any further comments or suggestions on what else we can do to improve the site, you find posted information is incorrect, or we have misspelled anything, we would appreciate hearing from you.

Please continue to forward your farm/ranch photos so that we can change our look from time to time. Most of all, please enjoy.

Alpaca Ontario has tried to share the wonder of alpacas throughout our province. You may have seen us at the International Plowing Match and Rural Exposition from Tuesday, September 19th through Saturday, September 23rd 2006. The IPM this year, was held in Keene, near Peterborough, Ontario. The IPM Organizing Committee invited us to share their Education Tent. They provided us with a ten by twenty foot space in which we crammed our display area and a pen to house visiting alpacas. Volunteers brought their alpacas to share with the inquisitive public. Twenty-two volunteers stepped forward to staff the booth from 9 to 5 each day. Although the number of children seemed to outnumber the adults, their enthusiasm and interest are sure to find an alpaca or two in their foreseeable future.

Alpaca Ontario has a new display board/panel. It was first used at our Education Seminar with Marty McGee-Bennett but unfortunately was not quite ready to be used at the IPM. It was set up at the Alpaca Ontario Booth, which was set up at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. A professionally produced panel, it gave information to spark the interest of readers on the days that volunteers were not present at the Royal.

The Royal took place from Friday, November 3rd through Saturday, November 12th. The last weekend of the Fair coincided with the Alpaca Canada Conference, which likely contributed to the difficulty of finding enough volunteers for each day of the Royal. Along with the difficulty of loading and unloading trailers (vans are much easier to convey alpacas to the Royal), we will likely participate at the Royal in the fall of 2007 and then re-evaluate our participation with the Royal.

Twenty-two volunteers did step forward to staff our booth at the Royal. One of our volunteers, Kathy Unschied, came from Calgary, arriving early for the Alpaca Canada Conference, to volunteer for the day! Thanks Kathy!!