Rainbow Forest Acres is located on the West Coast of British Columbia, situated in the beautiful Pemberton Valley region, just 40 minutes north of the World Class ski resort of Whistler and less than three hours from Vancouver. This ideal setting is where we chose to establish ourselves in 1997, moving with our then herd of two children, 9 alpacas and 6 llamas.
In our first few years of operation we concentrated on building our herd through careful breeding and selection and for the last 6 or 7 years we have maintained our herd size, through sales of production and bred females to Canadian and International breeders, at around 50 animals. This includes 20+ breeding females. Oh, and we also added two more children. Our herd now at Rainbow Forest Acres consists primarily of white and fawn Peruvians. Our animals consistently do well in major shows (we were the high money-winning farm at CNASF 2007) and our males are very highly regarded. Our entire herd is registered with the CLAA and the ARI. Prices of our animals vary according to quality, breeding status, lineage and our appraisal of their expected production performance.
From Coyo Destini, Jolimont Peruvian Ivano, Jolimont Peruvian Alpamayo, RFA D'arcy and now also Snowmass Accoyo Arctic Ice, we have harboured an array of studs at Rainbow Forest Acres that have undeniably made a significant impact on the improvement of alpacas in Canada.
Jolimont Peruvian Alpamayo (21-micron fleece at 8 years of age) consistently passes his outstanding fleece characteristics (fineness, brightness and high frequency crimp) to his cria. He produced the Supreme Champion huacaya at Canada's richest show in 2002, 2003 and again in 2005, at the 2006 CNASF he was the grand sire of the Supreme Champion Huacaya.
Jolimont Peruvian Ivano has a heritable excellent disposition, superb conformation and a 24 micron fleece exhibiting exceptional character with age. He is the sire of many highly decorated alpacas in Canada and his genetics are present in many of our girls.
The other sire we used extensively was Coyo Destini, a full Accoyo male, and himself a multiple Grand Champion as well as the sire of many winners.
We started using one of his son's in 2004 – RFA D'arcy. D'arcy has Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion ribbons to his credit and was the winner of the Supreme Champion fleece at the 2003 Canadian Alpaca Breeders Association National fleece show. He is consistently producing straight, large boned cria with bright, well-crimped fleeces.
In 2006, we acquired a new double registered, full Accoyo male, Snowmass Accoyo Arctic Ice, purchased from Snowmass Alpacas and owned in partership with Aztec Alpacas. This outstanding new herdsire for our breeding program exhibits superior conformation and fleece. His 2005 fibre analysis at 6 years of age was AFD 21.8, SD 5.0, CV 22.9, 4.7% > 30.
We also have genetics from a range of other top performing Canadian studs including, Jolimont Peruvian Viracocha, Jolimont Peruvian Sweet William and Sweet Dreams Zaccoyo.
We have, and continue to be, active participants in the promotion and organisation of our industry. One or both of us have been members of the Alpaca Show Committee, the Board of the Canadian Llama and Alpaca Association, Genetic Evaluation Committee, Pedigree Committee and Alpaca Canada Product Committee members. We were also founding members and part of the organising committee for the BC Lama Breeders West Coast Sweepstakes and the Canadian National Alpaca Sale and Futurity and members and supporters of the Canadian Camelid Fibre Co-operative. All our four children (Miki, Toby, Emma and Eliza) and a number of local children use our llamas as 4-H projects, and we are regulars at as many shows and events that help promote and increase the public awareness of the llamas and alpacas that we can.
We invite you to make the trip to the beautiful BC West Coast, take in the area sights and activities that include horseback riding, river rafting, mountain biking, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, hiking, golf and checking out the alpacas at Rainbow Forest Acres.
Barb and Daniel Eslake
