SURI NETWORK
SURI ALPACA
BREED STANDARD VOTE
Dear Suri Network Member;
If you haven't voted yet, PLEASE DO! Many have, but we want your vote too.
We urge you as responsible Suri breeders to involve yourself in the breed standards issue. Many of your fellow breeders and Suri Network members have already done so over the last 2 years and the result of that involvement is the proposed Suri Network Suri Alpaca Breed Standard. The Suri Network Board has been active in helping to facilitate involvement by many breeders in writing this standard and it truly is your standard. We know that some of you did not attend any breed standards development conferences but many of your colleagues did at regional conferences across the country as well as those held by Suri Network in Estes Park. While it is true that without coordination by the board we would probably not be this far in the process, this standard has been written by breeders and breeders only. Having attended many of these conferences, board members were pleased to see that many of the breeders in attendance were small to midsize farms and not just the big breeders who everyone fears are determining the standard. We were very encouraged by the input from people passionate about this industry and active in this democratic process. Those who were not able to attend missed some of the most enlightening breeder interaction we have ever seen in this industry.
Breed standards are a tremendously important issue in all livestock breeds and are no less so in the Suri alpaca industry. That brings up an important point for all of you to consider. Are we a livestock industry or are we simply an industry that is made up of people collecting exotic animals to keep in the back yard? We truly believe that most of you see yourselves in an emerging livestock industry. If so, then perhaps it is time to step up to the plate and do what livestock breeders do. Developing a breed standard will be a big statement to the traditional livestock breeders who at this point do not view us as part of their world. Eventually having a standard and working with a standard will open up a whole new class of buyers among livestock breeders. One of the most important reasons to develop a standard is marketing. One of the most important points in marketing is to promote the Suri as a separate breed of livestock. Having a Suri breed standard is an important step in developing that recognition. It is important to pave the way to the future of our industry and this is an important milestone in that journey. Breed standards will have a major and lasting positive impact on our industry!
Sure there are those who say we have show rules so why do we need standards. At the same time there are many who are not always totally happy with the rules or the frequent changes that are made. One of the most important distinctions is the differences in the process undertaken to develop show rules and that taken to develop standards. Standards are developed and changed by a majority of interested breeders as they see the need for change and refinement. Show rules are developed by a small committee and then ultimately by the AOBA board and do not go thru a vetting process with all interested breeders. While this works for procedural issues it does not always work so well for determining the attributes of our Suris that will be judged in the show ring. On the other hand, if we have a democratically determined breed standard then the show rules will be largely determined by that standard. We have already seen this at work. During the last two years of work on the breed standard it became apparent that the majority of Suri breeders did not want the judges to favor one particular lock style but were more concerned with consistency of lock. When this was pointed out to the AOBA, SRC we were able to get a change in the show rules to direct the judges to evaluate lock differently from how they have done in the past. Knowing that this was part of a breed standard proposal helped a great deal in achieving this change. From judge to judge and from show to show there is often uncertainty over how our Suri will be evaluated. This is in part due to the absence of a breed standard that can serve as a model for the judges to use in training. Even if you don’t show your Suris this is still important as the shows have an important impact on valuations and that indirectly affects the value of your animals.
Many of you are new to the concept of a breed standard as you have not raised livestock before. It is important to understand that a standard will also change over time as the markets change and information regarding production, disease, fiber markets, etc. change. What you are being asked to vote on is a beginning not an end. This standard will evolve over the years and get better at serving as a target and goal for the industry to strive for. Any endeavor that does not have a goal tends not to do as well as those with clearly defined goals. Any business that doesn’t have the ability to change those priorities eventually becomes outmoded. Those changes must however be determined by breeders and supported by data, research and education. That is the purpose of the Breed Standards Council (BSC). This council will serve an important research and educational function in the Suri industry as it facilitates future changes. The most important feature of this council is that it is run by breeders for breeders and that any Suri breeder can participate. What a revolutionary idea!
With a new breed standard like we are developing now there are bound to be issues that emerge requiring attention by the council this year. It is encouraging to see recommendations already being made by members who have not previously contributed to this dialog. The BSC will have issues to tackle as soon as it is formed. We feel that the BSC will serve a very important role as an educational resource for the Suri industry.
There are those who urge the industry to wait until we have all the information on genetics, heritability, etc. before we undertake the development of a standard. It is interesting to look at history to see if that is necessary. To our knowledge there is not a single livestock industry breed standard that was initially developed utilizing genetic information to guide that development. In fact, some were first developed before much was known about the science of genetics. Yet, over time, the presence of standards has led to tremendous gains in productivity and herd health and the financial success of breeders. Prime examples are the beef, swine and dairy industries. Over time, as these industries have funded specific scientific inquiry, they have vastly refined their standards. They did not, however, wait for all the information prior to writing their first standard. In fact it was the development of standards that provided the impetus and structure for determining future research priorities, without which this would have proceeded at a much slower pace. If you don’t develop specific goals and targets how is one to determine what we need to know in order to reach them. There is a saying that "if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there" unfortunately it may take a very long time to get anywhere that way. We have already made significant improvements in Suris since importation without standards. There is no arguing that. It, however, begs the question of whether we can continue that rate of improvement without standards? There is ample historical perspective in other livestock breeds to indicate that we will not. It is quite likely that on an industry-wide basis that those gains will level out unless we get much more specific about our goals in the future. The only hope for the USA Suri industry to compete in the world fiber market is to do everything we can to hasten the improvement in our fiber as we will not be able to compete on numbers or production costs with South America.
We would like to show you in broad terms the strategic plan of the Suri Network for helping you to build this industry and your business.
1. Grow the network from less than 200 members to being representative of a majority of breeders. This we have accomplished.
2. Strengthen the concept of the Suri as a unique livestock breed in part by developing a breed standard to define this new breed.
3. Market the Suri alpaca as a breed, not the alpaca but the Suri Alpaca; Rarest of Breeds - Ultimate Natural Fiber
4. Develop and assist the industry in developing marketing outlets for Suri fiber.
As you can see a breed standard plays a significant role in this strategy.
If you are someone who bases your opinion simply on what someone else tells you to do, we strongly urge you to become informed on the breed standards issues and make up your own mind. This is simply too important to let someone else make your decision. As your Board of Trustees we have facilitated the development of this standard by your fellow breeders because we feel strongly that it will strengthen our industry and help prepare it for the years ahead. If we had not seen this as a unifying and strategic step we would not have given our support to its development. If you have not already done so, we urge you to review the information provided in the mailing and online at www.SuriNetwork.org. After you have looked at the issue objectively and made your own educated decision, please vote. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact any of the Board of Trustees.
Sincerely Yours,
Suri Network Board of Trustees