Angora

The fiber was famous long before any goats left. The French naturalist Pierre Belon, traveling between Heraclea and Konya in 1555, judged the fleece finer than silk. Turkey's flock peaked above 6 million in 1960 and then fell hard; by 2004 Angoras were about 5 percent of the country's goats, and a conservation program began in 2003.

In the United States the industry organized early. The American Angora Goat Breeders Association was established in 1900 at Rocksprings, Texas, and over 90 percent of recent US mohair has come out of Texas.

Mohair is not wool. It is a smooth, lustrous fiber with no crimp and a high sheen, it takes dye brilliantly, and Angoras are shorn twice a year.

They are small: does around 77 pounds and 20 inches, bucks around 99 pounds and 26 inches, with slender frames, semi-lop ears and ringlets over everything but the face and legs. The fleece is usually white, though black, brown and gray are also bred, and both sexes are typically horned, the bucks with long, twisted horns.

Relaxed and docile, in the words of a USDA small-farm guide, which contrasts them with cashmere and Spanish goats that are often flighty and high strung. The American Angora Goat Breeders Association points to their small size and friendly nature.

Both sexes are horned, Penn State Extension notes. Angoras are most often shorn lying down with the legs tied, the method developed by Mexican shearers, according to the same USDA guide.

Goats keep a peck order, and the association advises dividing a flock into groups by size and age where you can.

Mohair first and meat second. South Africa produced about half the world's mohair in 2010, with the United States among the remaining producers.

The trade is that they are the most delicate of the goat breeds. Angoras are poor mothers, prone to abortion under stress, sensitive to cold and wet particularly just after shearing, and they need better nutrition than a hardy meat goat.

The shearing risk has a number on it: a shorn Angora can freeze to death in cold, damp weather for up to six weeks after shearing, so shelter is not optional. The breeding season is limited, roughly August through November, with gestation of 145 to 150 days.

Registration means the American Angora Goat Breeders Association, the only American record of purebred Angoras.

The fiber has to be worth the management. Price the two shearings a year, the shelter after each one, and the feed bill against what the clip brings, and ask the seller when the animals were last shorn and how the herd is housed through the weeks that follow.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.