Snowshoe Farm Alpacas

Here’s the official show photo for our two male – FULL BROTHERS – Snowshoe Aristides and Snowshoe Astraios. The pair won the White Male Color Champion and Reserve Champion at the Northeast Alpaca Expo last weekend!

Aristides’ first crias were born in 2011 and we expect to see several of them in the show ring in the fall. We hope to start Astraios breeding this year.

Are you looking for a top quality herdsire for breeding or purchase? We are offering half interest in Aristides and full interest in Astraios. Please check our website or contact us for more information.

Results are in from the Northeast Alpaca Expo! We are so proud of our two males – full brothers – Snowshoe Aristides and Snowshoe Astraios. They won White Male Color Champion and White Male Reserve Color Champion.

Snowshoe Aristides, Color Champion & Snowshoe Astraios, Reserve Champion

Shearing alpacas keeps Ron very busy during the spring and makes it difficult for us to participate in many alpaca shows. Tomorrow we will be heading to Syracuse for the Northeast Alpaca Expo, our last show of the spring season.

Ron will be taking two of our males, Snowshoe Aristides – 3X Color Champion, 4X Reserve Champion, and his full brother, Snowshoe Astraios. He will also be taking three young males who board at our farm. It looks like this will be a more intimate and relaxed show, so there will be plenty of time to mingle and look at the alpacas on display. Please stop by our booth and get your  hands on our boys’ fleeces – you’ll be glad you did!

North American Alpaca Show 2012

We’ve been shearing our herd of alpacas all week here at Snowshoe Farm. Though we’ve had quite a bit of unseasonably warm weather this spring, this week it feels like winter is back. We now have 51 naked and shivering alpacas in the barns. Oh well…we worry more about the alpacas overheating than we do about them being a bit chilly. They’re getting plenty of hay, a bit more grain and we keep the barn doors closed up as much as we can while still giving them egress from the barn. A few of the smallest alpacas and the show string for the Northeast Alpaaca Expo are still in full fleece and will be shorn the day after the show.

Many, many thanks to our friends who helped with shearing: Kathy and Tracey from Foggy Bottom Ranch, Jane from Berry Hill Alpacas and Carlene. Everything went so smoothly with your help!

This is our show string for the Northeast Alpaca Expo. Fortunately, we have a couple weeks for them to clean up. These alpacas are WHITE!

Looks like they both stayed out in the rain last night…

We’re so proud of Snowshoe Aristides – Reserve White Male Color Champion, North American Alpaca Show 2012! His show photo arrived today and I can’t help wanting to share…

Aristides is available for breeding and we are keeping his stud fee at a low $2000 for 2012!

North American Alpaca Show 2012

Our multi-champion herdsire, Snowshoe Aristides, won a second place ribbon in his class (behind the color champion) and also won RESERVE WHITE MALE COLOR CHAMPION at the North American Alpaca Show today!!

This is Ari’s 7th banner, making him a 3X Color Champion and 4X Reserve Champion – yay!! We couldn’t be more pleased. The competition, as usual, was fierce and that makes a win so much more meaningful. It’s great that both the champion and reserve champion white males were from the 2 year and over class.

The trip home was uneventful and we did manage to get back just as the snow was starting to accumulate.  This is what we came home to! We hope all our alpaca friends who are heading north have a safe trip tonight!

The North American Alpaca Show will be held in Springfield, MA this coming weekend. This show always kicks off the season for us.

Getting ready for the first show is a bit of a challenge. Our show supplies have been packed away since fall and it’s time to drag them out and see what’s missing. We need new stall signs, copies of our sales list and herdsire list, business cards and banners. We have to pack up hay and grain, water buckets, fans and poop scoopers. We have to pull the farm display out from storage and dust off a winter’s worth of hay. We need to located our scattered tables, chairs and tablecloths, tool kit and – most importantly – make sure we have sufficient zip ties to put up the display.

Our spring show string is ready and trained (more or less). The vet’s been here for their health check and paperwork has been submitted to the show. The show alpacas have been fitted with halters and had their toenails trimmed.

Ron – the one who takes the alpacas into the show ring – has to be outfitted, too. Dark pants, plain shirts, fleece vest and comfortable boots will do for him.

We’ve been hauling hay with the trailer, so it needs to be cleaned out and the dividers put back in so we can bring both male and female alpacas to the show.

Once we get through the first show, we’re good to go for the rest of the season.

We look forward to alpaca shows. It’s easy to become “barn blind” and think your alpacas are the best if you never get a look at the “the best”. Next weekend, we’ll see some of the best alpacas in this part of the country.

Taking good fiber pics is not one of my strengths, but I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of this fleece today. The alpacas look pretty ratty during mud season and I had to open up this fleece to remind myself how nicely this guy is coming along. This fleece belongs to Snowshoe Astraios, a full brother to our white male champion, Snowshoe Aristides. Astraios should be ready to breed this year and we can’t wait to choose a few dates for him. If you’re interested, we might be able to offer some low introductory breeding fees!

The first day of spring and it feels more like summer! This stretch of warm weather is so unusual for northern Vermont. We are generally sitting in a sea of snow and mud at this time of year. But most of the snow is gone, the roads are nowhere near as muddy as most years and the pastures are drying up quickly.

For once, we might not have mud-covered alpacas for the first show of the season!

Tomorrow I will start planting our vegetable garden. It’s great to be able to get a head start on lawn and garden work before Ron is tied up with shearing – which starts in mid-April.