Goats: Raising Angora Goats

Reader Contribution by Janice Spaulding
Published on March 11, 2013
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Although we haven’t had Angora goats for many years, they are still near and dear to my heart. Angoras were the very first goats we purchased 24 years ago!

These ethereal creatures, although work intensive, are so much fun to have around. They are laid back, calm, quiet, gentle, and contrary to popular belief excellent mothers. They are very protective of their young!

One very interesting thing we observed in our Angora goat herd was the use of “baby sitters”. One of our older girls “Lily” always stayed behind will all of the babies while their moms went off to browse. She would just lay and watch all of the little ones run, jump, climb, and make general nuisances of themselves, always with a little smile on her face.

When the moms would get ready to head out, you could hear lots of talking between them and their kids.  It would almost seem that they were telling the little ones to stay with “Aunt Lil! y” and behave themselves. Then the moms would leave, browse and return about a half hour to an hour later. In the meantime, Lily would calmly keep peace and order out of that gaggle of tiny, curly white darlings.

In order to harvest the very best fleeces, though, you must keep after these goats as their hair grows. Mohair fleece grow about one inch of each month! The goats are shorn twice a year, spring and fall. Our rule of thumb was to shear just prior to kidding in the spring and just prior to breeding in the fall. This schedule worked out fantastically for us. The spring shearing would insure removal of hair from around the udder and the teats so that once the kids were born, the little ones could find the teats easily. Close trim around the butts made for an easy post-partum clean up. By shearing prior to breeding we were assured that the fleece would stay clean during the breeding process. The bucks can be rambunctious sometimes. And, by making sure the boys were shorn, it was less likely they retained the “eau du buck&! rdquo; scent once they had bred all of the girls.

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