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Angora Goats in the Midwest (Part 3)
By: "R.M. Jordan, Extension Animal Specialist, Univ. of MN"
About the Author
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Selecting Breeding Stock
Mohair is the product sold, and inherited traits affect the amount, uniformity, fineness of grade, and lustre of the fleece. Under the same environment and feed circumstances, the amount of hair produced per goat annually can vary 6 to 8 pounds due to superior breeding. The official score card used in evaluating goats gives equal value to body traits and to fleece traits. Fleece traits seemingly warrant 60 percent of the emphasis.
During the last ten years, several hundred Angora flocks have been established in the Midwest. However, only some 25 flocks of those are good sources of breeding stock.
When buying breeding stock to upgrade and enhance the productivity of your flock, establish minimum goals. Select bucks (billies) as yearlings with good size and conformation with fleece production records for the first two shearings. Select bucks from the top 20 percent of the crop that have sheared a minimum of 12 pounds in the two kid clips. In the fall, yearling does should weigh about 60 pounds and should have sheared a minimum of 10 pounds of hair in the first two kid clips. Try to develop a flock that will produce 16 to 20 pounds of hair annually rather than 10 to 14 pounds.
Recognize that while big Angora goats produce more kids and more hair, their hair is usually coarser, and is less valuable per pound. In the last 2 or 3 years, coarse hair has been in less demand. Therefore, a flock improvement program that includes the use of bucks with finer hair (micron of 35 to 38 rather than 42 to 45) may be in order.
Figure 2. Growth pattern and daily feed intake of drylot-fed Angora kids.
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 -
Part 4 -
Part 5 -
Part 6 -
Part 7 -
Part 8
About the author: North Central Regional Extension Publications are subject to peer review and prepared as a part of the Cooperative Extension activities of the thirteen land-grant universities of the 12 North Central States, in cooperation with the Extension Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
pubs@unl.edu
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