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Angora hair or Angora fibre refers to the downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit. While the names of the source animals are similar, Angora fibre is distinct from mohair, which comes from the Angora goat. Angora fibre is also distinct from cashmere, which comes from the cashmere goat. Angora is known for its softness, thin fibres, and what knitters refer to as a halo (fluffiness). It is also known for its silky texture. It is much warmer and lighter than wool due to the hollow core of the angora fibre. It also gives them their characteristic floating feel.
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word "cashmere" deriving from an anglicisation of Kashmir when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century from Colonial India. Common usage defines the fiber as wool, but it is finer, stronger, lighter, softer and approximately three times more insulating than sheep wool. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes.
Kashmir mainly refers to the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent claimed by China, India, and Pakistan.
The Nigerian Dwarf is an American breed of dwarf goat. Like the American Pygmy Goat, it derives from the West African Dwarf group of breeds of West Africa.
A cashmere goat is a type 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 Pygora goat is a breed of goat that originated from crossing the registered NPGA Pygmy goat and the white AAGBA Angora goat. Pygoras, along with the Angora goat and Cashmere goat, are fiber goats. Pygora goats produce three distinct kinds of fleece.
The Nigora is an American breed of small or medium-sized dual-purpose goat, raised both for its milk and for its fiber. It is the result of cross-breeding Nigerian Dwarf bucks with does of mohair breeds such as the Angora.
The Changthangi or Ladakh Pashmina is a breed of cashmere goat native to the high plateaux of Ladakh, India. The cold temperatures in the region are the primary factor in the growth of the fine pashmina grade of cashmere wool for which they are reared. It is also used as a pack animal and for meat.
The domestic goat or simply goat is a subspecies of C. aegagrus domesticated from the wild goat of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the animal family Bovidae and the subfamily Caprinae, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. It is one of the oldest domesticated species of animal, according to archaeological evidence that its earliest domestication occurred in Iran at 10,000 calibrated calendar years ago.
The Altai Mountain goat is a breed of domestic goat bred for wool production. The breed was developed during the years from 1944 to 1982 in the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic region of the Soviet Union, by cross-breeding the Don goat with local goats for a high wool yield.
The Chengde Down is a Chinese breed of cashmere goat. It originates in Hebei Province in northern China, on the border with Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. If hornless it may also be known as the Yanshan Polled.
The Dutch Landrace is a traditional Dutch breed of domestic goat. It has been known in the Netherlands since the seventeenth century, and was formerly numerous there. It came close to extinction in the 1950s, but was saved by cross-breeding with unrelated goats, and by 2020 numbered over 2000 head.
The Hexi Cashmere goat breed from desert and semidesert regions of the North Gansu province of China is used primarily for the production of cashmere fiber. 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 micrometres (µm) diameter.
Jining Grey is a goat breed from the Shandong Province of China, used for the production of its kid pelt and cashmere fiber.
The Zhongwei (Chung-wei) is a breed of goat from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province of China. It lives on arid desert steppes, and is adapted to a diet of salty and sandy plants and shrubs. It is used primarily for the production of kid pelts, and secondarily for cashmere fiber. The breed has low genetic variability, likely due to the historic selection of pelt production traits. It is closely related to the Funiu White, Hexi Cashmere, Luliang Black, and Taihang breeds.
The Xinjiang goat breed from the mountains of Xinjiang in China is used for the production of milk, cashmere, and meat.
The Icelandic goat, also known as the 'settlement goat', is an ancient breed of domestic goat believed to be of Norwegian origin and dating back to the settlement of Iceland over 1100 years ago. This breed of goat was on the verge of extinction during the late 19th century, but recovered prior to World War II, only to precipitously decline again. As of 2003, there were 348 goats in 48 flocks distributed throughout most parts of Iceland. At the end of 2012, the herd had increased to 849. Since this breed has been isolated for centuries, the Icelandic populations are highly inbred. The Icelandic goat is very rare outside its native land. Under its coarse, long guard hair, the Icelandic goat has a coat of high quality cashmere fiber. Icelandic goats are kept mainly as pets and their economic potential for meat, milk, cashmere and skin production remains to be explored. The Icelandic goat is currently of little economic value.
The British primitive goat is a landrace of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region. It is considered a rare breed, existing as several, isolated feral herds, as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves, and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts. As few as 1,200 individual British primitives may remain. The variety is also referred to as the British native goat, the old British goat, the old English goat or the British landrace goat, among more specific names It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era, around 3,000 BCE. It is classified in the Northern breed group of goats. A population in Northumbria is sometimes referred to as the Cheviot goat. The British primitive is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat. The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.
References
- ↑ Breed data sheet: Ziwuling Black/China. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed June 2014.
- ↑ Porter, Valerie (ed.), Ian Lauder Mason (2002). Mason's world dictionary of livestock breeds, types, and varieties 5th edition. Wallingford: CABI ISBN 085199430X. p. 160.
- ↑ Y.H. Ma, Y. Jiang (1992). The effects of improvement and genetic analyses on crosses of Zhiwulin Black with Liaoning Cashmere goats. Xu mu shou yi xue bao = Acta veterinaria et zootechnica Sinica. 23 (1): 39-43.
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