Alpacas the focus of this year's Open Farm Days

Close to a hundred farms and ranches have already signed up for Open Farm Days in August.

The CEO of the Alberta Association of Agriculture Societies, Tim Carson, says they have a new feature for this year's event.

"Our new spotlight this year is alpacas, they're a unique animal and they haven't been in Alberta all that long, but some of the things we like to do with Alberta's Open Farm Days is really spotlight the diversity of our agriculture industry here," he says.

"We've got over 400 farms that are growing alpacas here in Alberta and they are quite a big part of the textile industry here in Alberta and we've got goats wool and sheep's wool as well but it's a growing industry here as far as that fibre stuff goes and I think it even includes hemp, so it's another indication, if you will, of the diversity of agriculture and how far-reaching it is."

Once a host farm signs up to be a part of Open Farm Days they'll be able to receive a newsletter that will provide information about how to make the most of the event in August.

"We provide a whole series of educational information, webinars and things like that to help those small business owners or those people that are sort of kicking the tires on Agri-tourism to give them a leg up and give them the information they need to be successful," Carson says.

In the 12 years of Open Farm Days there's been over a million dollars in direct farm sales and Carson says a lot of other businesses, like restaurant and gas stations, get spinoff benefits.

He says there's a great team behind Open Farm Days and suggests any ag producers who maybe aren't sure of what they exactly want to do, they should sign up and take advantage of the education and information they can provide.

The deadline to sign up is April 30th.