Cashmere goats

A cashmere goat is any breed of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the day length shortens and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.

The down is produced by secondary follicles, the guard hair by the primary follicles.

In 1994, China had an estimated population of 123 million goats and is the largest producer of cashmere down. Local breeds are dominant. In the past decades, breeding programs have been started to develop productive breeds. The cashmere goat is a fiber goat along with the Pygora goat, Nigora goat, and the Angora goat.

The foundation stock for the Australian Cashmere Goat was taken from northern and western Australia from the local bush goat population in the late 1970s. The production varies from herd to herd, with the most productive herds averaging 250 grams at a diameter of 15 µm. There is a breed and fleece standard, and active development of the breed continues with the University of Western Australia running a sire referencing scheme.

The Changthangi or Pashmina goat is found in Ladakh and Baltistan (Kashmir region). They are raised for cashmere production and used as pack animals. The breed is most often white, but black, gray and brown animals also occur. They have large, twisting horns. This bloodline produces the finest Cashmere with an average diameter between 12-13 μm and average fibre length between 55-60mm. It is very rare and constitutes less than 0.1% of global cashmere production.

The Hexi Cashmere has a long history in desert and semidesert regions of Gansu Province, China. About 60% of the goats are white. The Hexi cashmere can be found in the Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia provinces. A typical adult doe produces 184 grams of down at 15.7 µm diameter.

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