Letter from the President

We are gearing up for an election and everyone needs to know the process. First we need a nominating committee (need 2 volunteers for that) and then they will look for volunteers to run for 3 BOD positions. Because we just approved a revamping of bylaws we had to restructure the BOD positions. I am still president, Julie Sines is Vice-president, Darlene Awarski is Secretary, Mindy Jorpeland is Registrar and Pam Fink is Treasurer. The positions that will be up for election are Vice-President, Treasurer, and Registrar, each for a 2 year term.

Any member in good standing can run for a BOD position. Please refer to the bylaws that were mailed to you a few weeks ago for descriptions of the positions. Think about putting your name on the ballot. Why not feel the fear and just do it anyway. Why not jump in and see what the BOD waters feel like. Why not join a group of board members who try very hard to improve and make things run well for our little association. I mean... what the heck, go for it. Too busy you say? Too much going on you say? Aging parents? Jobs? The sun is in your eyes? Cʼmon just do it.

In just one year, the positions of President and Secretary will be up for election. Please remember that the North American Livestock show is taking place the first weekend in November. Several of us are going. Support for these shows is a good thing and can be a lot of fun.... especially if you win. Also they are very good marketing opportunities.

Pam Fink has been working on our web site. Anyone who has built a web site knows it takes a lot of time and with so many opinions, Pam has done a superb job of taking criticism and suggestions. She is still willing to take suggestions.

I will be going to Indianapolis next week to help man the llama booth. 55,000 people go through the facility and the only animals that will be there are llamas and alpacas. I will have our big AMLA sign and 2 llamas to show people. These two llamas are the same age but one is very big and one is really small. It will give a good visual up close and personal so people can see the obvious difference. I have in hand 1,000 AMLA brochures to pass out. There are pictures in the brochures of various llamas that some of you sent in. We printed several versions of the brochure so that more than one picture is represented on the cover. This highlights our ever vigilant effort to be fair.

2010 brings changes with both show divisions. To show in ALSA mini classes your llama must be 38” or under and AMLA registered (either mature or immature). To show in ILR mini llama classes your llama must measure 35” or under for juvenile, 36” for yearling, 37” for 2 year olds and 38” for mature. It seems that if someone doesn't like one set of rules of a show organization they can show in another. We can see how this all works out this next year and work on changes if we need to do that.

Itʼs getting cold so I hope you all have quality hay in your barn, a big stack of seasoned firewood for your stove, lots of good recipes for warm soups, healthy strong mini llamas, and someone nice to share it all with.

Thank you and hope to see some of you soon,
Laura Harrawood- President

Southern MN TV Show Spotlights Twin View Llama’s Minis

Twin View Llamas’ Bill & Shirley Fisher and their herd of miniature llamas were spotlighted in a short segment on a TV show airing on public access channels of cable TV in 75 towns across southern Minnesota.

A segment called “Outside Sweet Swine County” featured photos of Bill & Shirley and their mini llamas. It gives a history of the farm, of miniature llamas and give a description of what makes a llama a miniature.

Outside Sweet Swine County is a short segment that presents unique hobbies, interesting attractions & events across southern Minnesota found outside the fictional county of Sweet Swine. It is one of many entertaining and unusual segments in “Our Story”, including “The Cocklebur Morning Show”, “The Women of Sweet Swine County”, and a soap opera “As the Corn Grows”. There is also an online magazine, “Sweet Swine Scoop” featuring the happening in Sweet Swine County as well as stories and videos about real people and communities in southern Minnesota.

To follow the folks in Sweet Swine County, produced by Our Story Productions in Fairmont, MN, go to Our Story or Sweets Wine Scoop or visit our farm at Twin View Llamas.

Mini Llamas Make History! by Mindy Jorpeland

This is the first year that mini classes were offered at the Iowa Llama Futurity which was held in conjunction with the 2009 Iowa State Fair. This is a show for llama breeders to enter the best of their breeding programs and compete against each other for titles and prize money.

At the futurity the llamas were not only judged on conformation but also fiber and marketability. The full size llamas had two age divisions offered for both males and females and this year mini llamas were given their own classes too.

Mini llamas were represented in all four of the classes offered for them and a mini even took Reserve Grand Champion Female against all the first and second place class winners which included the full size llamas. AMLA was represented by two Iowa mini llama farms which were Bridgeview Llamas and Luminary Minis.

The Buzz Word Was Minis! by Gladys Moritz

We were wondering if any of you at the North Carolina show noticed the positive shift in attitude towards minis. Folks generally seemed to be a friendly bunch. We ran around to each others stalls to meet up with old friends. The public was also very interested in both full size llamas and mini llamas. With questions like how much do they weigh, what can you do with them and can you ride them? Price seemed to be an important factor as well.

Performance classes were on deck for Sunday and they appeared to hold great interest for the exhibitors as entry numbers for these classes were high.

We were getting our mini male Sterling Silver ready for the day’s events. We had taken the plunge and entered him in Novice Pack and also Novice Obstacle. We had only had him in these classes one time prior to this.

We had a borrowed pack and a very fuzzy idea of how to put it on properly. We asked a few questions about the packs and soon we had fellow exhibitors pitching in to help us.

One helped with getting the pack on and fitted to our llama. Someone else loaned us their weights (2 20lb kitty litter jugs) still another person was sharing information on the dos and don’ts of competing in a pack class. Keep in mind we were competing against these same folks that were helping us.

Our turn in the class was coming up quickly and out of the blue a question came up about the required weight that a mini llama should carry. Several people were thumbing through the ALSA Rule book to see if that issue was addressed. In the mean time the exhibitors had talked among themselves and concluded that they would not have an issue with our mini carrying less weight as the felt it would not be fair for him to carry the same weight as their full size llamas. What a wonderful show sportsmanship! At last someone did find it in the rule book and found that a mini is to carry the same weight as Alpacas – 20lbs. So a last minute scramble took place to exchange the kitty litter jugs for Pepsi bottles and some newspaper to fill out the packs and off we went to take our turn. We placed a respectable fourth place.

A highlight of the afternoon was talking with folks with their full size llamas telling me how excited they were to see minis competing in the performance classes!

We’ve always appreciated the majesty and grace of the full size llamas. We still have some of our own, love them dearly, and would never think of selling them. It’s heartwarming to know that many full-size breeders are so enthusiastic about our minis, as well. The little guys seem to take to the performance classes just as well as our big guys. After all, one “nose-nuzzle” from any sized llama is enough to win anyone over. Let’s keep working with our minis to show what we can do, and at the same time welcome the chance to lend a hand to any full-size breeders at any time… even during classes where we’re competing against each other.

Featured Farm: Very Little Llama Farm

Welcome to the Very Little Llama Farm located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. We have been in the miniature llama business a relatively short time – just over 5 years. We were first intrigued with alpaca after attending an advertised open-farm invitation. However, the cost of a single alpaca got us investigating an alternative animal for our very small property of 2½ acres. Ray’s on-line investigation opened up our world to the beautiful and highly intelligent llamas, and then those perfectly proportioned smaller counterparts … miniature llamas. Our journey began with the purchase of one pregnant mini female and two mini cria. It was then that we started preparing for their on-site arrival. Nothing like leaping into an enterprise with both feet and THEN starting the educational process! Time has been an educator as well. We have added run-ins and revamped some of our fencing for our increased herd. Ray has taken over the worker-bee/managerial aspects of our farm; I do more of the hands-on work. It’s taken some time, but not so long ago, I realized my heart was no longer beating out of my chest as I clipped toenails; now when did that happen? I now can worm single handedly; and, while giving SQ shots still makes me sweat and breathing is sometimes delayed until the medicine is in and the needle out, I’m getting better (albeit very slowly). Medicating and treating non-threatening problems is becoming more comfortable for me to do – and then there are those dear ‘other’ miniature llama people who have helped answer myriad questions and who willingly offer advice and suggestions. Thank you. There is one thing we learned very quickly, however. It’s simply this: we no longer need to try to beat each other out the door to pick up manure. It seems we have more than enough poop to pick up without our fighting over the scoop – make that another modification; we now have two scoops!

Working with these amazing animals gives me great joy – and having them come up for back rubs and having cria nuzzle me is just pure delight (as y’all know; I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already experienced).

Our herd has vacillated from a high of 22 (after a neighbor let us fence an acre of adjoining property), but we have since decided 8-14 is probably where we feel most comfortable. That number doesn't’t over-tax our pasture areas, and it enables us to give plenty of hands-on attention to each animal. At present, we have six miniature females, 2 males who were born this spring, and our new Argentine stud on property. In addition, we have one jointly-owned 36” stud off property. Three females are pregnant. Although we prefer not to breed in the fall, three females who had been due to deliver in the spring slipped their pregnancies. We have begun breeding them to our Argentine Gustavo. Thus, we are hoping for 6 miniature half-Argentine cria in 2010. Breeding for small size is one of our criteria, but fiber, disposition, and conformation are also important ‘must haves’ with none having precedent over the other … we want them all!

These five years of mini ownership have been exciting. However, as with many other mini owners, we also have experienced sadness and frustration as well as joy. Our cria have needed: epinephrine after a difficult birth; shots for injured neck muscles - due to the squeezed birthing process - which made nursing almost impossible; tubing and/or bottle feeding colostrum because moms don’t always come into milk immediately or because of severe tenderness mom didn’t want a cria under her. We have lost cria after ministering round-the-clock feedings for days on end; we have watched seemingly healthy cria romping in the morning and lethargic by evening. Upsetting though this has been, we go forth – sometimes discouraged and saddened, only to be renewed when we receive nuzzles and kisses or just get to run our hands along silky fiber or have a welcoming committee run up for evening good-night treats and neck scratching and kisses.

We believe sharing our minis with others is not only a good marketing tool, but it’s fun, gratifying, and the miniatures are especially appealing and readily accepted by children and to those in nursing homes and to those confined to wheelchairs. We are now being called to schedule visits to these types of facilities, and we welcome small groups to our farm to give a more ‘in depth’ look at the life of a miniature llama. With environmental awareness being talked about more and more, we are able to discuss how our minis fit into the ‘Greening of America.” This year, we are hoping to have our llamas in some of Staunton’s annual Christmas activities in the hope of opening more educational and marketing doors about miniature llamas. People seem to know that llamas spit (‘yes”, we tell them; “and dogs bite.”) ‘thanks’ to those animal park llamas who are vying for food coming from humans in vehicles. We are trying to dispel that picture of llamas. We use our minis for teaching children that having an animal to care for means the animals’ needs must come first. In addition, we tell youngsters that tricking a llama in order to try to get it to do what we want causes the llama to distrust us – just we stop trusting those who lie or trick us. We try to show how being gentle, consistent, honest, loving and faithful in the care of our llamas brings about rewards that cannot be measured – just as these same qualities can bring blessings to us when we are dealing with people. I’d also like to think we are helping show a bit of God’s very real presence in our lives through all His creation. We feel tremendously blessed, as well as humbled, that we have these exquisite and intelligent miniature llamas to care for, love and introduce to others.

New Web Site & Contest by Pam Fink

For better or worse the new web site is up. There are still some minor "tweaking" that needs to be done but when you have time check it out. Now for the fun part: I created a PhotoShop picture for the banner but would really like to change it for a "real" llama related picture so with the boards permission I am creating a web site banner contest. This is how it will work--All members in good standing may submit as many horizontal pictures as they would like until December 31, 2009. Early January I will submit all pictures that can be cropped to the correct banner size and allows room for the words "Miniature Llamas- Unique Beyond Measure" somewhere inside the picture to the board for voting. Only I will know who submitted which picture and I will not be eligible to vote. The winning picture will become AMLA's web site banner picture including farm byline credit for the picture plus a full year free advertisement on the breeds page of the web site.

So, get your cameras out, dust them off and start clicking away. For those of you who are real camera buffs the exact banner size is 890 pixels by 295 pixels by 72 resolution. For those of you who aren't don't worry, just keep sending me horizontal pictures and I will size & crop.

Minis @ the Minnesota State Fair! by Sue Morgan

Yes, it’s true, for the first year, two of our mini llamas were shown @ the MN State Fair. Wow! A year ago I would not have thought it would happen, but thanks to many helpers along the way, it did.

About a year & a half ago, I had a call from an alpaca owner, Dana Tiedeman, saying that her daughter wanted to show in the county fair & would I help her get a 4-H program started in our County? I had been involved just a bit in 4-H when my boys were little, but they had never shown livestock, so I didn’t know where to start. Dana contacted Norris & Kay Berg to get the specifics, then the county extension office & away we went! She worked very hard & we ended up with 7 kids showing @ the county level in 2008. In 2009, I took over as program leader & although we just had 6 kids showing, it went very well. We were hoping and planning for growth, but felt very lucky to have had one participant from 2008 qualify to go to the State level and this year, three qualified! Our other kids did really great, too. It is fun to see families’ gain an interest & enough confidence to buy an animal of their own & watch their skills improve over time.

Two of the State fair participants lease mini llamas from me, as they do not own animals of their own. Katie showed our Rock Solid Ares last year & a beautiful ½ argentine, Rory this year. Megan, started with Oberon & although she still loves Oberon, he has not been gelded yet, so she showed Titan Moon, another small, argentine that is OHHH, so nice! Also, Katie’s brother, John showed Titan @ the county level in Cloverbuds, which the crowd loved! At the county level, Katie achieved grand champion in showmanship last year with Ares & was reserve champ this year in Obstacle. Megan was outstanding in her knowledge of llamas & did her best in the interview, both @ the county & state level. She also designed a really cute soccer costume for Titan with a bright red jersey, but she didn’t show in costume @ the state fair. I’m still not sure why, as with his llama jersey & Nike headband, I thought it was a hoot!

One of the biggest challenges was obtaining the obstacles needed to get this program started. I have to thank Megan’s dad for making the majority of our obstacles. Megan tells me he has even more ideas for next year, after seeing what they had @ the State fair! Now I just have to figure out where to store them during the winter when the barn is full of hay!

Another problem was that I could not take off work to be @ the State fair this year. So how would we get the llamas up there? A good friend, Lynda Carothers transported my two minis so Katie & Megan could experience the State Fair. And they loved it! I was able to come up & watch one evening & the excitement and anticipation of Katie & Megan, and our other fair qualifier, Maxine, was proof that this program is SO worthwhile. Getting a
4-H program going in your area can be a great way to expose others to the joy of owning & showing minis!

Contact Us:

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Board Members
Laura Harrawood, President
Julie Sines, Vice President
Darlene Awarski, Secretary
Pam Fink, Treasurer
Mindy Jorpeland, registrar

Membership
AMLA membership dues must be sent to ILR. ILR is responsible for maintaining our membership list. Dues are $25 per farm and the membership runs the calendar year.

Registration
Individual llama registrations must be sent to ILR. You will receive a combined ILR-AMLA registration paper for each mini llama you register or upgraded.

Fees for AMLA registration are:
Initial Registration: $10
Upgrade from Immature to Mature Status: $6

Checks should be made payable to AMLA and sent to PO Box 8, Kalispell, Mt 59903. amla@lamaregistry.com

Annual Web site Ads
All breeder ads should be emailed to Pam Fink and the appropriate fee should be mailed to: ALMA, 65 Windy Valley Lane, Blue Ridge, Ga 30513

The cost is: $50 a year.

Annual Newsletter Ad Rates
Business Card $40
Double Business Card $80

1132 W, Woodrow Rd.
Shelby, MI 49455
231-742-0931