AOBA Emphasis Guide

By Mike Safley

 

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Industry Issues

Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association:  Emphasis Guide

By Mike Safley

The AOBA board of directors met in Louisville Kentucky on May 16, 2007 and approved the Alpaca Emphasis Guide. The new guide will be used to train alpaca judges. The purpose of the guide is to help judges consistently prioritize placing points in the alpaca show ring.

 The guide identifies the important alpaca traits and catalogues them into three classifications: 1) priority emphasis, 2) moderate emphasis and 3) lesser emphasis. Both fleece and conformation traits are addressed. The emphasis guide also takes into account whether the alpaca is male or female and their age: juvenile, yearling and adult.

 The idea for the emphasis guide which has been three years in the making began at a meeting of judges, Amanda VanDeBosh, Jude Anderson, Cameron Holt, Julio Sumar, Cheryl Gehly, and Mike Safley. The idea was proposed as a means of augmenting the AOBA handbook which identifies positive and negative alpaca traits but does not give any guidelines as to their relative importance. The handbook also failed to distinguish the relative importance of traits between younger and older alpacas.

 The chart is based on three guiding principles: 1) the form to function aspect of conformation 2) the textile value of fleece and 3) the heritability of the traits involved. The expectation to these three principles is body score which is included as a trait of primary importance, the judges believe that too many underweight animals, not in show condition, were being entered into AOBA shows.

 The emphasis guide was first exposed to a group of judges in Golden Colorado during an AOBA Form and Function clinic. The judges discussed and modified the original chart. Since then the chart has been reviewed, edited and approved by the Judges Training Committee, the Alpaca Show Rules Committee, the Judges Advisory Committee and the AOBA BOD.

 The Emphasis Guide is a significant step forward for the Alpaca Show community. It should help judges be more consistent in their placing and help exhibitors better understand the judge's decisions. The chart was implemented for the first time at the Form and Function clinic this July in Golden Colorado. I have attached the guide below. To fully understand the dynamics of the guide you need to remember that certain traits such as bite, leg set, testicles etc. are given more importance, or moved up from 2 to 1, for instance, as the alpaca matures. The fleece traits remain consistent as the animal ages. Fineness, density/ fleece weight, uniformity of color and lack of guard hair are the number 1 traits above. Lock style (suri), crimp/ character (huacaya), handle, and uniformity; of length, fineness, and density are secondary traits or number 2's in the Emphasis Guide.

 I hope each alpaca breeder takes the time to understand the new guide. Much of it is common sense and many breeders already employ the same hierarchy of traits in their breeding program. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at mike@alpacas.com.  Click here to view full article with guide tables.
 

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