WINDSOR -- Sometimes there's just no more room in the barn, even for the cutest and softest of bunny rabbits, much to the dismay of eight-year-old Cameron Beamis.

"He's so soft, I want to take him home," Cameron said after holding a tiny rex rabbit in his arms at the second annual Northeast Livestock Expo Friday.

His mom, Stacey Beamis, said they don't have enough room in their North Berwick barn, even for a tiny bunny, though she at least agreed Cameron could ask his dad later.

The Beamis family has one large and two medium-sized other reasons to be at the expo other than looking at rabbits -- they're selling their purebred Black Angus bull and Cameron and his five-year-old brother Connor are showing their Suffolk sheep in the sheep show today.

The family is staying in an area hotel for the duration of the three-day expo. Many farmers showing or selling their animals at the expo stay in campers and trailers parked at the rear of the Windsor Fairgrounds.

"We've got a trailer for the animals, but not for us," said Deborah Beamis, the boys' grandmother. "It's a fun time here, very relaxed."

Members of the Western Maine Rabbit Breeders Association gave demonstrations on how to start with a rabbit and end up with a sweater -- while still having the rabbit around to produce more fur.

Sheri Cormier, who lives just four miles or so from the fairgrounds in Augusta, said the old standard for German Angora rabbits was you could get enough fur out of them in a year to make a sweater. But she said many breeders are producing rabbits that can provide much more fiber in a year than that old standard.

She said the rabbits grow fur back fast enough for them to be sheered about every 90 days.

Fellow rabbit breeder Mary Merriam, of Auburn, said the fiber from a rabbit is seven times warmer than wool from a sheep.

"This is where Angora sweaters come from," Merriam said to children peering into the many rabbit cages stacked inside the exhibition hall.

"You can spin it right from the rabbit."

Among the biggest events at the expo are livestock shows and auctions, including goats, cows and sheep.

Throughout much of the fairgrounds Friday, animal owners carefully trimmed and groomed their critters, making them look their best for shows and sales.

Cindy Kilgore, a livestock specialist with the Maine Department of Agriculture, said people are coming from as far away as Tennessee for the expo. She said participants and spectators will likely number in the thousands at the event, which continues today and Sunday.

The event is funded by a Department of Agriculture grant and other sponsors and hosted by the Beef Producers of Maine, Boer Goat Breeders of Maine and the Maine Sheep Breeders Association.

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com