Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["elderberryjam" <elderberryjam@zippytech.com>]

I think the Navajo Angora is probably a lot like other U.S. Angoras. They 
range their goats, and so like other American Angora goats, are probably 
crossed with other breeds to some degree, and bred back for the fleece 
qualities. I have a treasured picture I took of a Navajo herd 3 years ago 
when my DH and I were on our honeymoon. I didn't know at the time, of their 
preference to not have pictures taken. Their herds look very similar to 
others across the U.S..

The Angora goat was imported into the U.S. and descended from goats from the 
volcanic mountainous region of Ankara, Turkey. There is lots of rocky 
terrain there, and my understanding is that the original goats were small 
and more frail, with finer ringlet fleeces. A verse in the Song of Solomon 
refers to them. I first learned these things from a book, "Angora Goats the 
Northern Way," by Susan Black Drummond, whom I corresponded with before she 
died of breast cancer several years ago. I have read about these facts 
repeatedly since then in literature about Angora goats I happen across.

In the northern U.S., where I live, even those that have been crossbred for 
hardiness and bred back for the fleece qualities are much more frail than 
other breeds of goats. I have raised them, and found that they require quite 
a bit more attention than dairy or meat goats; or for that matter, any other 
livestock I've raised. They get more worms, more lice; their hooves need 
trimmed more often (some of them monthly), and they need shorn twice per 
year, unlike most sheep breeds which are shorn only once per year. Mohair 
dulls shear blades faster than wool. I have had up to 10 at one time, but 
currently have only 3 Angoras. They are much easier to raise in arrid states 
in the southwest in dry and rocky terrain. In the northern U.S., they 
require diligence, and I would only recommend them to the most studious and 
observant homesteaders, and only to those who are obsessed with them for the 
long haul.

I have had some success selling fleeces on Yahoo groups online to 
handspinners, but otherwise, mohair prices in the U.S. have not made raising 
them on a large scale worthwhile for a long time. Selling online requires a 
lot more computer and bookkeeping work. Angora goat farms in the north have 
dwindled from what they were about 14 years ago when I bought my first 
goats, and there was an organized northern co-op to buy mohair. It since 
fell through. Most farmers are getting out of them - their novelty has worn 
off pretty thoroughly. Some farmers get together and take a vanload to 
warehouses in Texas. The Aussies have a pretty good mohair industry going.

On the road trip we took on our honeymoon 3 years ago, we stopped by a 
Navajo shop not far into Arizona. There was a tufted mohair rug there. It 
looked just like fleece/skin from the top, but when turned over it was woven 
on the back. The mohair was a little coarser and wavier than the ringlet 
fleeces my goats produce; but that may have just been the goat the fleece 
came from for that rug combined with the tufting. It reminded me of the 
children's book, written about a Navajo woman and her goat, called "The Goat 
in the Rug."

I happen to love Angora goats, even if they are difficult to raise where I 
live. They have a more docile and more timid nature than other breeds, yet 
retain some mildly goaty personality. The ones I've had have been wonderful 
mothers and fathers. The Navajo herd I saw had only the novelty of being 
stewarded by Indians, and thus perhaps picked up on their personalities, but 
other than that, I think the breeding is not much different. Navajo Churro 
sheep - they are another story altogether.

There are labs you can send ANY home-raised fiber to, including wool, and 
they will measure the microns for you (the fineness of the fiber). Goats in 
the same herd, with similar breeding, will sometimes differ widely, and they 
differ by age also. I have never done this, but if you are serious about 
fiber animals, having smaller micron fibers is a good selling brag. With 
Angora's, their health is in greater balance because of the massive 
production of their fiber in one small animal. Goats fed higher quality 
grain and hay produce coarser hair also. Balancing health with fiber quality 
thus can become a challange. They are a labor intensive animal to have on 
your farm, as livestock go, and those buying any should keep this in mind.

They do like multiflora roses and kudzu - but then, so do shorthaired goats. 
Shorthaired goats don't get covered in burrs. Angora goats are beautiful 
creatures, but beautiful things sometimes require extra upkeep.

Gwen Giffen