Suri Network October 2024 Newsletter
Fall is officially here and as the season changes and the weather cools, our members are well into their preparations for winter. Change has also come to your Suri Network Board. Beth Sheets and Liz Vahlkamp have both completed two 3-year terms and must step off the Board. Both have served the Network with incredible energy and enthusiasm. Beth has been an excellent leader as president of the Board for several years and has been active as chairperson of the Education Committee where she will continue to serve. Liz has been a positive and innovative presence on both the Fiber Committee and the Branding Committee. We are pleased that Liz will continue to work on the Branding committee and Beth will continue to work on the Education committee. We hope that as you see the two of them out and about, you will thank them for all they have done and continue to do to advance the North American Suri industry.
While we will miss Beth and Liz’s contributions on the board, we are very excited to have Leslie Rebtoy and Chris Fredericks join us. Leslie is now serving as our Vice-President as well as liaison to the Fiber and Branding Committees. Chris Fredericks is serving as the chairperson of the PurelySuri magazine committee. Welcome!
In August the Board elected its officers. For the 2024-25-year, Laurel Shouvlin is president, Leslie Rebtoy is vice-president, Karen Ball is treasurer, and Nikki Griffith remains secretary. Our Annual Meeting was held via ZOOM on August 21st informing the membership of the various accomplishments over the past year and the exciting initiatives currently on the horizon.
Suri owners have once more shown their kindness and generosity by stepping up to assist fellow alpaca owners who are struggling in the aftermath of the terrible storms that hit the southeastern states. Thanks to all who have given their time, talent and treasure to assist those dealing with the damage from these storms. Both Suri Network and AOA have provided owners with information about how to plan for disasters, and times like these are a sad reminder that each of us should plan for emergencies of all kinds to keep ourselves and our animals safe.
Membership Committee
Hopefully you have already renewed your membership. Your membership dollars help support all the initiatives the Suri Network undertakes. Membership also offers multiple benefits. To Renew
Membership Farm Feature
With this newsletter we are introducing a new feature initiated by our Membership Committee (Randy Brealey, Brian Arnold, Dawn Browning, and Cathie Berger). With each newsletter, the committee will be sharing short bios of member farms and ranches across the United States. We hope to have a “vintage” farm, a “middle” age farm, and a newer farm. We hope this will help bring our Suri community a bit closer together. If you are interested in sharing a little about yourself and your farm or ranch, please let us know ( office@surinetwork.org ).
Justina and Chris Dumont of Shady Alpaca Ranch
Justina and Chris first began their alpaca journey on a road trip long ago when they saw a herd of alpacas staring back at them and laughed at their silly, just-shorn appearance. Years later, Justina and Chris were lucky enough to be able to escape into the country, purchased some land with livestock infrastructure, and decided to look deeper into the nuts and bolts of raising alpacas. A quick informational class and a five-year plan turned into five weeks, and the Shady Alpaca Ranch was born in 2022.
Shady Alpaca Ranch is on the northwest side of Mt. Colville in Stevens County Washington, which gets a lot of shade in the winter months, hence the name. They focus on Suri fiber production and handmade yarns trying to take advantage of the full range of natural alpaca colors. They grew from an all-male fiber herd to a breeding herd faster than originally anticipated. They currently have 12 Suris and are keeping their fingers crossed for their first new baby alpacas next summer. The ranch priorities are trying to balance several things: happy alpacas, happy people, restoring our farm ecosystem while maintaining the wild and natural areas of our property. They love Suris! Who knows where they will end up in a few more years? Wherever that might be, they are looking forward to connecting with more Suri alpaca folks in the Suri Network.
Steve and Cathie Berger of Daydream Alpacas
After retiring from the military and starting second careers that brought them to the Seattle area, Steve and Cathie Berger came across a small alpaca farm on Whidbey Island and fell in love. Daydreams of one day owning their own alpacas quickly turned into research and planning. Ultimately, they started their Suri alpaca farm in 2018 in Renton, Washington. They are part-time farmers with a small herd of 9 Suris and a bunch of chickens and hope to one day be full-time farmers. They were introduced to Suris by Chelsea Farms and, “We love Suri fiber, their cute little faces, big eyes and sweet dispositions. We also enjoy being members of the Suri Network and have gone to one conference and show. These educational events are great for networking and sharing information. Our farm focuses on fiber production and educating the public about Suri alpacas.”
Still employed full-time and looking forward to retiring “One Day”, they raise their small herd with great care and attention. “Our alpaca breeding program is small, focusing on just a few select breedings a year with high hopes of producing exceptional Suri offspring that exceed breed standards and carry forward all the best traits. It has been incredibly fun so far, and we look forward to introducing new potential alpaca owners to our alpacas and alpaca farming.”
Dawn & Christopher Browning and Susan Feil
Our alpaca journey began when Dawn retired from a museum, and by coincidence, Susan watched an episode of DIRTY JOBS with Mike Rowe, working on an alpaca farm, around this same time in early 2012. An idea was born, and the research began.
Dawn had seen an alpaca, but not up close-Susan only on TV, so they had to decide which type of alpaca they wanted. It was not a hard decision. The alpaca is a magnificent animal, and once you have witnessed a Suri in motion with their fleece flowing, well, for us anyway, little could compare. Many farm visits, and phone calls later, we purchased our starter herd in late 2012. We still have much to learn, but we are enjoying the adventure.
Nola Graham, of NGG Alpacas and Castle Hill Farm, was our first mentor. She was very patient with all questions and constant phone calls. Nola was especially brave inviting two “City Girls” for a long weekend of Alpaca Bootcamp!
The real stewards of our alpacas are Ray and Candy McMahan, of Raynay Alpaca Farm in North Carolina. We agist, so these folks are on the frontline daily, taking care of our furry friends and giving the best care and advice we could ever hope for! Not only have these folks been the best mentors, but they have also become very close friends.
We cannot forget to mention Dawn’s husband, Christopher, self-proclaimed chauffeur and chief pooper scooper.
The Suri Network Online Auction
Each November the Suri Network holds an online auction of donated items with the proceeds benefitting the special initiatives this great affiliate undertakes. There is always a wide range of great items to bid upon and this year for the first time Herdsire Breedings will be among the auction items. So, keep an eye out for the auction emails and bid high and bid often! Thanks to the Auction Committee members, Randy Brealey, Verna Carpenter, Barbara Coleman, Candy McMahan, and Nikki Griffith, as you continue to organize this wonderful fundraising event.
Education Committee and “September With Suris”
This 2024 webinar series was well received. Thanks to the Education Committee for organizing these three webinars. Karen Ball, Laurie Findlay, Sue King, Beth Sheets, and Laurel Shouvlin helped make this a great educational opportunity for our membership with the following 3 webinars on ZOOM. The webinars will be available for non-registrants in March of 2025.
September 11, 2024 – Joe Preston presented “The Five Rules of Marketing and Sales – Making the Most of Openherd”. Joe had provided a different approach for attendees to market their animals, and also spoke about the new opportunities on Openherd to help their business. As part of his presentation, Joe also created a “Happiness Is….” document that was sent to the attendees and was also very generous to offer to spend individual time with any of the attendees that contacted him after the seminar.
September 18, 2024 – Kylie Munyard, B.Sc (Hons) PhD presented “Want to Breed For A Specific Fleece Colour? Understand Your Animals Colour Genetics” – This was an excellent presentation and Kylie has generously offered to have her slides put on our website for attending members to take advantage of.
September 25, 2024 – Two of our current committee members and former board members, Nancy Lindemood and Liz Vahlkamp teamed up to present “The Story of Two Fiberpools – Lessons Learned and What to Consider”. They did a great job presenting side by side 2 different approaches to accomplishing their sock fiber pool projects. It was interesting to hear the difference between the projects, what they had learned, and what they would do differently.
PurelySuri Magazine
New board member, Chris Fredericks, has stepped into the role of committee chair and Dale Davis has once again generously volunteered to put the magazine together. It is hoped that the next issue of the magazine will arrive in your mailboxes in January. As always, we are seeking advertisers and there is still time to request or contribute an article. Please contact Chris with your ideas whistlingpinesranch@yahoo.com . You can see the advertising specifications and rates at PurelySuri
S.H.I.P. (Suri Herd Improvement Program)
Board member Candy McMahan is chairperson of the S.H.I.P. committee and is seeking new members for the committee. Please contact her if you have any interest in serving on this committee ( mgbcandy@aol.com ). It may seem early to think about scheduling a S.H.I.P. evaluation of your herd, but we are approaching a time when scheduling a classification will be perfect. Late fall and winter are great times since life is a little slower and the fleeces are getting longer. As a reminder, your Suris can still be evaluated after shearing, but the alpacas’ fleeces must be noodled and available. The classifiers will simply evaluate your alpaca’s noodled fleece as well as its conformation.
No other program in the world provides a qualitative evaluation of 16 key classification traits (8 conformation and 8 fiber traits) on each of your Suri alpacas! This is a tremendous learning opportunity for upon completion of the individual assessments, the classifier spends time with you discussing the information collected. S.H.I.P classification affords the opportunity to discuss and sort the data according to expressed individual farm goals, both current and future. All S.H.I.P. classification scores are stored in a specific S.H.I.P. database.
Consider scheduling a S.H.I.P. classification now. One of the classifiers can help you select the timing depending upon your shearing dates. Click on the following link to learn more about S.H.I.P. https://surinetwork.wildapricot.org/SHIP
The Suri Network Fleece Show
The Suri Network Fleece Show once more was a stellar success. You can look for photos and results of the 2024 Suri Network Fleece Show in the coming issue of PurelySuri. The Fleece Show Committee (Randy Brealey, Lisa Collura, Nancy Lindemood, and Laurel Shouvlin) will soon begin meeting again to put together another great show. As you are shearing next spring, please consider entering your fleeces in the world’s largest Suri fleece competition, and also think about sponsoring and volunteering as well. This show is an excellent learning opportunity.
Don’t forget, the Fiber Arts, Skeins, and Spin Off competitions are a wonderful way to show off your talents and your animals, so don’t forget to enter those contests as well. It’s time to get started on your Fiber Art masterpieces so they’ll be finished in time to compete!
Fiber Committee
There have been a few changes to this committee. First Liz Vahlkamp has decided to step back from volunteering on this committee and Leslie Rebtoy has been gracious enough to step in and serve as the board liaison. Last summer after completion of the newly updated Resource Directory, a few members have decided to step aside and the board recently approved new members, Myndee Ebbers and Amy Jones, to serve and continue this committee’s great work.
Marketing and Branding Committees
Please stay tuned, for these two committees have come up with some exciting ideas that are still a bit too new to talk about but are being incubated as this newsletter is being put together. Hopefully, our next newsletter will be able to provide more concrete information. Thanks to Liz Vahlkamp, Deb Christner, Ted Ritschard, and Leslie Rebtoy for serving on the Branding Committee. Thanks also to the Marketing Committee members Yvonne Jones, Jackie King, Sue King, Seth Onsager, Collette Peterson, and Laurel Shouvlin.