{"id":59322,"date":"2013-06-12T20:59:32","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T02:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/alpacas-give-up-coats-to-make-sweaters\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:16:47","slug":"alpacas-give-up-coats-to-make-sweaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/alpacas-give-up-coats-to-make-sweaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpacas give up coats to make sweaters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"With
With bits of fiber on the cutting table, Sonny Gustamantes begins shearing around the head of the alpaca.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, one day a year, it becomes a beehive of activity. The alpacas are rounded up and herded into the corral.<\/p>\n

Animals are led one by one into the barn to be brushed by the local 4-H Alpaca club members before being sandwiched in a specially made frame. The frame is made of steel, padded on one side and a sheet of plywood on the other.<\/p>\n

The frame is twirled and the alpaca ends up laying flat and then tied down at the legs and head.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Sonny Gustamantes begins quickly shaving off the fiber, slowing only occasionally when smoke starts to swirl up from the electric shears. A quick squirt of oil on the clippers and it\u2019s back to shearing.<\/p>\n

Following close behind the clippers, Rachel Nellingan and Hank Gustamantes gather the fiber, placing double handfuls into paper sacks.<\/p>\n

Each of the 23 alpacas yield 10 to 12 pounds of fiber. The back of Butler\u2019s Subaru is stuffed with sacks of fiber ready for the mill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a day once a year,\u201d said Butler. \u201cThe rest of the year it\u2019s calm and serene. You wouldn\u2019t know anything was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler takes the fiber to a fiber coop mill in Grand Junction where it is spun into yarn similar to wool.<\/p>\n

The best fiber comes from the body of the animal, which Butler uses to weave jackets and blankets. The fiber along the legs of the alpacas is considered seconds. Butler gives that fiber to the 4-H Alpaca club for their help with the shearing.<\/p>\n

The 4-H kids make alpaca wool items to sell and raise money for the club.<\/p>\n

After the haircut, the alpacas return to pens where they rub noses, as if to reassure each other that life will return to the normal serene setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

bits of fiber on the cutting table, Sonny Gustamantes begins shearing around the head of the alpaca.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal Then, one day a year, it becomes a beehive of activity. The alpacas are rounded up and herded into the corral. Animals are led one by one into the barn to be brushed by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,1398],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-59322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-livestock-farming"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63232,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59322\/revisions\/63232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59322"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=59322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}