The 2010 National Elite Alpaca Auction & Halter Show

As many of you know, since 2007 we have co-hosted the National Elite Alpaca Auction with our partners at Virginia Alpaca Farm & Breeding Co., for the first few years at their beautiful place in Leesburg, VA.

For 2010 though we have changed things up quite a bit and the event, to which we have added an AOBA certified halter show on Sunday, will be held the weekend of November 6th & 7th in Oklahoma City, OK at Heritage Place. Heritage Place is most famous in the alpaca community for being the locale where 4Peruvian Legacy was sold for a then world-record price at the 2000 Futurity Sale. There is definitely some history there!

The behind the scenes planning for the National Elite, as one would expect, has been going on in the background for quite some time and we are now less than a month away from the auction catalog arriving in people’s mailboxes. Since it’s inception several years ago the National Elite has become our primary outlet for releasing our breeding program’s genetics to the greater alpaca world, so while we have always welcomed outside consignments it has also become what amounts to a small scale production sale for CCNF & VAF. Though helping to organize an event such as the Elite has at times been a rather stressful enterprise, all in all it has been very much a net positive for us both as a business, as well as being fulfilling for us on a more personal level too. In the last few years we have met and interacted with many wonderful people whom might not otherwise have encountered. It has also been a real joy to watch animals (or in some cases their offspring) that we sold at one of the auctions bring home some trophies and recognition to their new owners. Needless to say that though the calendar date and the physical location may have changed for 2010, we are still very excited to be part of the National Elite and are looking forward to a great event! Though we will leave the majority of our farm’s consignments under wraps for a little while longer, I did do a little pull-back of the proverbial curtain yesterday, the results of which can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

For those of you wanting to enter animals into the National Elite halter show (FYI: as an event sponsor, we won’t be showing any of our animals there) please click on the link here for the online registration system. We have secured the services of topflight judges Amanda VandenBosch and Helen Humphreys for the show, both of whom we would normally drive a great distance to show in front of. Our loss, your gain!  For hotel rooms in OKC, we have secured a block of rooms at the nearby Embassy Suites, just ask for the “Celebrity Sales” block if making a reservation. There will also be an online RSVP site available in the near future so you can watch this space for an announcement to that effect as soon as it’s up and live. More to come soon…