Frosty Ridge’s shearing day supplying the nation with alpaca fiber

Wednesday, the Frosty Ridge Alpacas hosted their annual shearing day. About 80 alpacas were shorn with their fiber to be used in the making of gloves, hats, socks, and more.

The fluffy process is one that takes a lot of work. But luckily there’s a lot of helping hands. Frosty Ridge co-owner Loni Blumerich says, “Without the volunteers. We couldn’t do this. So we’ve got 20 volunteers out here that come every year and it’s awesome. My kind of people I guess.”

After a few years of research, they started with 6 alpacas, and now they have 27, plus one llama. Four of the farm’s females are expecting this summer.

And now the business is expanding. Recently Loni and her friend opened a fiber mill in Culver, Minnesota. This is to help with turning the fiber into other material. Loni says, “There’s a shortage of mills nationwide. Right now turn around time in most mills are a year or more.”

And now the Northland will have a mill that can service customers from across the nation.