Goats have come to be used for a wide variety of purposes by us over the millennia.
Today, we may think of them primarily as livestock, providing high quality meat and artisanal milk.
We usually more closely associate their sheep cousins with the making of fibrous clothes and materials, but in fact, there are a number of goat breeds that are incredibly highly prized for the quality of fiber that their coats can produce.
Today, we’re going to look at the ten best goat breeds for fiber—their descriptions, temperaments, and how we might use their fiber.
Let’s get started!
Angora
You would be forgiven for mistaking an Angora goat for a fluffy sheep.
Their fleeces make them look almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye, and indeed, Angora goats are actually the only goats that have only one coat of hair.
Most have two, which they may grow out or shed at certain times of the year.
Angora goats are famed as fiber goats because of the high-quality Mohair they produce.
Mohair is a very fine, and luxurious fiber easily dyed to any color you wish.
Its hair can form in flat locks, ringlets, or both. With a soft fuzzy look, mohair is used in a variety of products from garments to even furniture.
It is also popular as a knitting material or for crocheting and weaving.
Undoubtedly the most well known and favored fiber goat breed.
Cashmere
As you might have guessed from the name, the cashmere goat produces cashmere fiber.
These goats are found mostly in China, and are raised almost exclusively for their luxurious fiber.
The cashmere is incredibly valuable in commodities both domestic and international.
Medium size at 2-3 feet tall and around 120-140 pounds, they’re friendly and easy to keep.
They are somewhat curious, although individual temperaments can vary quite a lot.
They tend to be black, brown or white in color.
Cashmere is used in all sorts of materials, though it is most favored for luxury clothing items.
Altai mountain goat
If any of the goats on this list would strike most of us as wild, feral, and certainly not a goat that produces luxury fabric, it’s the Altai Mountain goat.
These goats are hardy and rugged since, as their name implies, they are native to rocky, mountainous regions of the Altai Republic in Russia.
They stand on tall legs and the bucks have large curved horns, with docile if a bit wary in temperament.
They are much more suited to larger homesteads and don’t do well on small pastures.
They are prized for their luxurious coats, and their coats are generally darker and this is favorable for much fiber production.
They can produce as much as 3-4 times the wool of similar-sized breeds.
They also produce cashmere fiber.
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Changthangi/Pashmina
Another producer of cashmere but also of pashmina, the Pashmina goat is found mainly in Tibet, Nepal but also some surrounding regions like Kashmir in India.
They produce an ultra-fine cashmere widely used in the production of pashmina fibers, and many claim theirs is the finest cashmere in the world.
They have distinctive long coats and long horns, with hair that often seems to cover their eyes.
They’re smaller in size than many other fiber goats, and so they do quite well in smaller homesteads.
They are often associated specifically with the world-famous Pashmina Scarf, only authentically found in this region of the world.
Don goat
Taking its name from the Don River area of the Volga region in Russia, the Don goats are another great producer of Cashmere fleeces prized for their luxury.
They are also used commonly as livestock, producing milk and meat for their farmers.
Some suggest, convincingly, that the Don goat produces the largest amount of wool fiber of any breed.
Their thick, long coats help them keep warm in the colder climates of the north.
The cashmere is of decent quality, and Don goat cashmere is commonly found in the best cashmere manufacturing markets.
Nigora goat
You might wonder about the signification of the term Nigora—it’s actually simpler than it sounds.
It’s just a portmanteau of Nigerian and Angora, the two breeds from which Americans in the 19th Century originally created this breed.
Depending on which subdivision of the Nigora goat you are dealing with, they may produce either cashmere, mohair or cashgora.
Again, cashgora is simply an amalgamation of cashmere and angora.
There are curious and generally docile, though sometimes exceedingly energetic.
They’re really great with pets and children, although under supervision, due to their size.
Pygora goat
If the Nigora goat is the cross of the Nigerian and the Angora goat, then the pygora goat, unsurprisingly, is the combination of the Angora with the Pygmy.
These fluffy little goats are absolutely great for the homestead, even if you’ve no wish to harvest their luxurious fiber!
They are a little bigger than pygmies, with the same energetic and curious disposition.
They produce, like the Nigora, cashmere, mohair and cashgora fiber.
They naturally have a lower overall yield of fiber, but what they produce is of excellent quality.
If you wanted smaller amounts for knitting, small crafts projects, or something similar, then pygora goats could be a really great choice for a small homestead.
Zhongwei goat
Another breed that you might easily mistake for a sheep at a distance, the Zhongwei goat is nothing if not multiplistic in appearance.
Some have long, white fleeces like a sheep’s that flows down past the knees.
They have short, straight horns.
Others have more sleek and smooth coats of hair, with great, twisting horns up to a foot from their head.
They originate from the Ningxia Hui region of China, and they are also found in the Gansu Province.
They are used for a variety of purposes including meat and milk, but they are indeed most prized for their fiber.
As I said, they tend to produce long, luxurious strands of cashmere and are typically completely white.
They can also be jet black.
They have a fairly run-of-the-mill temperament, being curious but also docile and generally friendly.
They aren’t particularly companionable, though, so they aren’t all that great as pets.
The cashmere they produce is again sold to be used in all sorts of garments, and it is prized for its softness.
Zalawadi
One of the more understated but nonetheless very strikingly appearing goats on our list is the Zalawadi, originating in multiple regions of India.
Indeed, this single breed accounts for 27% of all goats in the Surendranagar region.
Again, they are most commonly used to provide multiple means of profit or subsistence, from meat, milk to, of course, the cashmere they produce.
They are uniformly black, with white ears.
Their horns are short but curved and just straight up out of their heads.
Their muzzles are often white and grey, too, but their bodies are always black.
They are a fantastic source of cashmere and thus, of profit, for the local population.
It is goats like these that are the reason India maintains such a monopoly on cashmere production in the modern world.
Their temperament is generally calm and friendly, although they are again a bit more standoffish than some of the other breeds on this list.
They’re certainly good to keep as companion goats, but they are difficult to find if you are outside the regions of India they come from.
Kaghani
Finally, we have another beautiful goat hailing from India, which produces a fine cashmere enjoyed in clothing the world around.
Despite the luxuriousness of their coats and the high yield they can produce, they are most often kept as meat goats—they produce excellent quality meat.
Their coats are then kept as additional profits to the meat.
They are medium to small in stature, with long backs and legs.
Their coats are typically solid white, or white with brown spots.
The undercoat of the Kaghani is the prize of the breed, as they are often raised in colder, higher altitude regions where their coats are necessary for keeping them warm.
They can produce as much as 2 kilograms of hair in a year.
Goat fiber is a versatile and incredibly high-quality substance, then, and the goats we’ve looked at here are certainly the top of their game in terms of the fiber they produce.
Whether you’re thinking of raising your own fiber goats or not, it really is surprising how many of us don’t realize how much of our fibrous products are made with the thick, luxurious hair of these goats.
Picking the right breed is going to be a vital step, though.
Just like anything else, you’ll have to look at the goat’s needs first and foremost, and whether you can provide for them to begin with.
Then, look at the goat’s temperament and whether you think you can handle it. take all the necessary steps, and you’ll have a great relationship with your goat.
good job.good work. j.d cottingham,jr,d.v.m. thanks.