Futuregen’s owner – Carita Saarinen

Hello and thanks for visiting our website! In this section, I will introduce myself to you a little.

My name is Carita Saarinen and I was born in January 1988 and purchased my first alpacas in 2012.

By profession, I am a nurse specializing in rehabilitation, which I graduated in 2010. Rehabilitation work and helping work in general are close to my heart, and on my farm an experiment was carried out in the form of a project with the two autism units of the rehabilitation center in Antinkartano, which yielded very promising results. Offering regular rehabilitation at the farm has yet to find the right partner. In March 2016, I graduated as a solution-oriented animal-assisted trainer.

Over the years, my journey in the world of alpacas has offered very wonderful and unique experiences.

– In 2015 I moved to a small and idyllic village of Ahlainen.

– In the summer of 2019, I started as a technician in the then AAFT’s fiber laboratory, and an office covering the analysis services of the European region was opened at my home address in Ahlaii, where I worked as a technician and manager until autumn 2021. AAFT was originally a company founded in Australia, whose roots date back to 1999. The name AAFT came from the words Australian Apaca Fiber Testing. AAFT had been a well-known and popular laboratory among alpaca breeders for 20 years, whose owner Paul Vallely has been considered one of the world’s most respected experts in wool fibers and especially alpaca fiber. The company sold its Australian office in the summer of 2019, and I then proposed a name change in our meeting. My proposal Art Of Fiber was accepted as the company’s new name, and I also designed the logo used by the company and was able to do quite a lot of the company’s appearance and rebranding. I ran the internal EU operations with good success and the volumes increased considerably during this time. We had negotiated cooperation with the Scottish branch of the gene laboratory Neogen from autumn 2020, and the intention was that this new task would have been entirely my responsibility. We then jointly reached the solution that Kuitulaboratorio would be transferred to owner Paul Vallely in Ireland and I would focus on the completely new Neogen cooperation pattern and the business built around it in DNA testing of South American camelids. The alpaca wool exhibitions between the Benelux countries organized in September 2021 were my last work gig with the OFDA 2000 equipment. This job offered many great experiences, plenty of contacts around Europe and numerous trips, e.g. to wool exhibitions and large farms in the form of on-site testing, visits to breeders, and training related to wool fibers and especially alpaca fibers. During this time, my own expertise and understanding of wool fibers and especially alpaca fibers developed from a hobbyist to an expert level. During this time, my own expertise and understanding of wool fibers and especially alpaca fibers developed from a hobbyist to an expert level. and training related to wool fibers and especially alpaca fibers. During this time, my own expertise and understanding of wool fibers and especially alpaca fibers developed from a hobbyist to an expert level.

– One significant personal “stepping stone” happened with the corona virus, when in the spring of 2020 I got the last of the good spinning tools and equipment and decided to learn to spin my alpaca myself. Since then, I have also helped with collections at other farms during the collection seasons.

– In the fall of 2020, I signed up for the alpaca judge training program organized by the British Alpaca Society and immediately got a lot of material to study. Alpaca judge training lasts 3 years and includes close courses, plenty of independent practice and study, and finally acting as a judge’s apprentice at shows. Due to the corona virus, my admission to the local course was delayed, but I spent my time reading a lot of relevant literature, as well as studying exhibition rules and evaluation criteria. In autumn 2021, I completed the Intermediate Alpaca Assessment and Advanced Alpaca Assessment courses in England, which I passed with excellent marks. You can study to become a certified alpaca judge through judge training programs organized by the British Alpaca Society (England), the Alpaca Owners Association (USA), or the Australian Alpaca Association (Australia).

– In the summer of 2021, I started raising my own elite-level alpaca herd in England. My new breeding animals live on the famous Inca Alpaca Farm in Dorset, under the high-quality care of Judge Tim Hey. In the same summer, we also imported a stallion from England with three other farms, and this way we got new breeding material to improve the Finnish alpaca population. You can read more about our animals in Tila’s alpacas tab.

– Negotiations on cooperation with Neogen progressed and Futuregen was born.