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The British Alpaca Futurity

The most exciting British Alpaca Futurity yet will take place on Friday March 11^th and Saturday March 12th, 2011, in Hall 2 at the Stoneleigh Park Conference Centre, near Coventry. It is the international education and networking event of the year with some of the best British born alpacas in the show ring and for the first time an international fleece show.

This year there will be new ‘Best in Show’ awards for the winning suri and huacaya in the halter classes judged by our own British trained judge Liz Barlow. Whilst Matt and Cathy Lloyd will do the honours in the fleece competition which will be open to European as well as British fleeces.

The judged halter classes will run throughout the two days and alongside that will be a number of seminars and workshops which will cover stomach parasites, faecal egg counting, successful cria delivery, the assessment of huacaya and suri alpacas, an introduction to hand weaving and much more.

There will be an art and photography competition and a craft competition which will offer spinners, weavers, felters and knitters the opportunity to show off their skills.

The Futurity will once again stage a fashion show that will feature sophisticated British alpaca garments and welcomes collections from designers in Europe and the rest of the world. It will be staged during the champagne reception on the Saturday evening followed by the celebration dinner, prize draw and the awards ceremony. There will also be a silent auction of a small number of elite alpacas which will close during the dinner.

The British Alpaca Futurity is designed to be the showpiece for all British alpaca breeders, large or small. The alpacas shown will normally be the progeny of ‘nominated’ herd sires although alpacas that are not the progeny of these herd sires can be entered on payment of a slightly higher entry fee.

The Futurity Show Champion Huacaya and Suri are the males whose progeny have won the most placings during the show. The points system for 2011 will be altered to more accurately reflect the make up of the breeding herds in the UK and it is likely that fewer progeny will be required to win the show.

There will also be an award for the most successful Small Breeder, cups for the Champion Suri and Huacaya fleece and the new awards of Best in Show Huacaya and Suri.

The Futurity is a non profit making event and will be financed by sponsorship and an on-line auction of stud services from a small number of the top stud males in the UK donated by the originating sponsors and any other breeders who wish to support this important event in the alpaca calendar.

The main sponsors are The Alpaca Stud, Bozedown Alpacas, Houghton Hall Alpacas, Moonsbrook Alpacas, EP Cambridge UK Ltd and Classical MileEnd Alpacas.

For more information visit www.britishalpacafuturity.com or contact Chas Brooke at chas@alpaca-uk.co.uk

The Futurity group would like to urge all alpaca breeders to help us to start 2011 with a bang and ensure that the alpaca industry remains buoyant and bucks the recessionary trend.

The Information Booklet will be published in mid November and remember, if you book early, you can avoid the VAT increase on January 1st. More information can be found at www.britishalpacafuturity.com or contact Chas Brooke on +44 (0)1884 243579.