Greetings from Suri Network Board

This spring has a whirlwind for us with Winter Symposium in February, alpacas shows and completion of shearing this past weekend. As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, take time to enjoy your family, friends, and alpacas. Also, please take a moment to remember those who have sacrificed their lives in military service and the immeasurable loss to their family, friends, and communities. Savor every moment and do not take for granted of being able to do what we love because of those sacrifices.

What an exciting time at the Winter Symposium and thank you to all our Gold and Silver sponsors: Long Hollow Suri Alpacas, Suri & Company, Big Timber Alpacas and Heritage Farm. Additionally, a shout out to all those who sponsored the Meal, Beverage Tables and Farm Tables. Everyone enjoyed the fellowship of being back together after the great lectures. Attendees learned about “Enriching Your Breeding Program” with 3 wonderful lecturers. Amanda Vandenbosch discussed herd uniformity and Innovative Fleece Assessment. The individual fleece assessment discussions were valuable, and many attendees stayed late to hear to participate. Dr. Ruthanne McCaslin and Dr Ed helped us learn about herd health issues and mites. Beverly Brehm gave us some more firsthand experience as we took a deeper dive into skin biopsies. 

AOA Elections

As an affiliate of Alpaca Owners Association, we would like to encourage our members to vote in the election for the AOA board. Time is running out to vote! Pease go to the AOA website and take a minute to read the bios and learn which candidate will best support your farms interest. Just as in our election which is just around the corner (see more details below) it is important to have your vote count.

What's Been Happening at Suri Network:

Membership

Have you renewed your membership yet? June 1st is just around the corner. Suri Network Board of Trustees is committed to making sure members receive excellent value. We estimate the return on a full membership investment is easily worth 2-10 times the cost, depending on the benefits a member chooses to utilize, not to mention the value of education and networking with those who share your passion for Suri alpacas! Here are just a some of the benefits:

• New branding initiative Suri Simply Stunning™
• The easy new renewal form will need to be completed.

• Improved S.H.I.P. system capabilities
• New marketing opportunities To see all the member benefits, click here. Stay tuned for even more next year. Share this information with others and help us to grow in 2023.
  

Suri Network Trustee Election

The SN Trustee Election time is here! Please help us thank the members of the 2023 Election Committee: Karen Ball (Heart and Soul Alpacas), Cathy Crawford (Honey Maple Farms), Dale Davis (Derwydd Alpacas), Sue King (Big Timber Alpacas), and Ray McMahan (Raynay Alpaca Farm, LLC). Their work and commitment to SN is appreciated by the SN Trustee Board.

The election period will be open between June 2nd, 2023, and ends on June 15th, 2023. There are two positions to fill. Let us try to have 100% membership voting.

Thank you to the following candidates. For more information on each candidate please click on the following link: https://surinetwork.wildapricot.org/Election

• Jason Brehm - Rogue Suri Alpacas
• Bob Figular – Memory M-Acres Farm
• Candy McMahan – Raynay Alpaca Farm
• Lesley Rebtoy – Healing Springs Suris LLC
• Laurel Shouvlin – Bluebird Hills Farm

All Suri Fiber Show

The 2023 All Suri Fleece Show is just around the corner, immediately following the AOA Conference and Fleece Show in Burlington, Kentucky. Dawn Browning will once again serve as our Show SUPERintendent along with her sidekick Judy Schroeder. Senior Judges Jude Anderson and Cheryl Gehly will be judging fleece, Maureen Macedo will be judging Spin Off, and Elizabeth Taylor will be judging Fiber Arts. Once again, we will offer free fleece forwarding from AOA to the Suri Network, and on to the Pennsylvania Fleece Show. To learn more about all the fleece show has to offer, visit https://surinetwork.org/sys/website/?pageId=1860261 . To register for the shows, visit www.alpacareg.net .

New this year is the TRIPLE CROWN AWARD. Enter your 2023 Suri fleece in the AOA IFA, the Suri Network Regular Fleece Show, and the Suri Network Spin Off competition. When fleece judging is completed, an AOA certified judge will pull a 2-ounce sample from the same fleece to compete in the 2023 Suri Network Spin Off. This provides 3 unique fleece assessments along with a small hand spun skein from your Suri fleece. The fleece that wins the most points competing in these 3 classes will win the 2023 TRIPLE CROWN AWARD along with that great feedback from 3 different competitions.

And, of course, Sponsorships are essential to the success of our fleece show. There are multiple levels of sponsorship to meet everyone’s budget and you can now purchase your sponsorships online through the website by visiting the sponsorship webpage for a description and clicking through make your selection. Click here.

Volunteering at a fleece show is an excellent and fun learning opportunity. Our wonderful Volunteers make the show happen, and we are still in need of folks to help with the show from Monday, July 17th to Thursday, July 20th. If you are interested and/or able to volunteer, please email Laurel Shouvlin laurelshouvlin@gmail.com .

PurelySuri

The 25th anniversary magazine was so exciting and brought back memories. We would love to hear what your favorite article was. It is now time to start planning for the 2024 magazine. If you have any ideas for future topics or want to help with this effort, please contact Cindy Grigg.

Fiber Committee

Suri Network is continuing to bring Suri and Suri fiber to the forefront in social media! Which of the first two YouTube videos released so far was your favorite? A third YouTube video featuring Sally Brandon on weaving will be coming soon. Do not forget to link your websites to the first YouTube videos:

• Hannah Thiessen: Why knit with Suri
• Celeste Malvar Stewart: Why Felt with Suri

Suri Simply Stunning Brand

The Brand Committee held two webinars in May to help members embrace the brand and learn what it means to your business. These webinars provided information, offered great discussion, and identified additional efforts that will be evaluated. These webinars are available online if you were not able to attend. For existing licensees - when you renew your membership to Suri Network, please also complete the Suri Simply Stunning renewal form - it's easy  to complete and is needed to continue as a licensee in the program. If you have not already applied to be a licensee, now is a wonderful time to do so.

 

S.H.I.P. (Suri Herd Improvement Program)

What other program can provide a qualitative evaluation of 16 key classification traits (8 conformation and 8 fiber traits) on each of your Suri alpacas? Upon completion of the individual assessments the classifier spends time discussing the information collected and affords the opportunity to discuss and sort the data according to expressed 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 an 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. Click here.

Sustainability - Did you Know

Scientists in Switzerland studied methane gas production in Camelids in 2014 (Methane Emission by Camelids, by Marie Dittmann, Ullrich Runge, Richard Lang, Dario Moser, Cordula Galeffi, Michael Kreuzer, and Marcus Clauss).  Their findings revealed that because camelids have a lower intake of food, the amount of methane gas produced daily by Camelids is only 73% of that amount produced by other ruminant species.  This finding suggests greater sustainability of alpaca fiber relative to other protein producing species!