The new wool?

n a farm bordered by cattle ranches and hayfields, just a stone’s throw from the New Mexico border, Jim and Lois Burbach have taken up a pursuit that may seem better suited for the Andean highlands: raising a herd of alpaca. They are among a growing number of alpaca ranchers who have settled in Southwest Colorado to raise the South American camelids. Initially, alpaca farmers were making hefty sums breeding and selling their animals, but the economic recession has made the venture considerably less profitable, diminishing the prices for animals by 30 to 50 percent. Such economic forces, combined with the herd’s steady growth, have spurred a new push, locally and nationally, to turn back to the animals’ original asset, their fiber. But in such a new industry, creating a market for the fiber and making it profitable still pose formidable challenges. Since people started importing the animals into the United States in the 1980s, the nation’s alpaca herd has grown steadily. Now, there are almost 180,000 registered alpacas in the United States, but Claudia Raessler, a board member of the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association, said unregistered animals could boost that number by 50,000. The industry’s growth in Colorado, now one of the top states for the number of breeders living here, has followed the same trajectory, said Jim Burbach, owner of Navajo Lake Alpacas and founding president of the Alpaca Breeders of the Four Corners...more