Angora goats are notable for their small stature and high wool production. Fluffy Angora are undemanding and hardy, for which they are popular with pastoralists all over the world. We will learn how to breed these woolly goats, and what are the features of their maintenance.
History of the origin of the breed
Originally Angora goats from Turkey. It is believed that the name of the breed comes from the ancient name of Ankara, and its age is about 500 years. Angora found themselves in Europe in the 16th century. They were brought here by a nobleman - he gave them to the Roman emperor. The goats were interesting in appearance - small and hairy, they did not make a special impression on European herders.
The popularity of the Angora began in the 19th century, when goats were massively raised in South Africa for wool. Angora goats were the main supplier of raw materials for wool production. At the same time, the breed was brought to the United States. Over time, Kemel goats were also massively bred here - this is the second name of the breed. Most Angora farms are located in Texas.
In Russia, Angora have been bred since the beginning of the 20th century. First, the breed was brought to Transcaucasia. But goats were not widely spread in the USSR. They did not take root in a humid climate, they were sick a lot and reproduced poorly. The breeders decided that breeding them in the USSR was inappropriate. Male Angora were bred with native white goats to produce offspring that were adapted to the local climate.
Main characteristics of Angora goats
Angorkas, representing a medium-sized goat tribe, hold the record for the supply of mohair wool. These animals also provide skin, milk, leather, wool, down.
Appearance
Small goats are covered from head to toe with shiny hair, wavy and curly. The entire body of the animal is covered with wool, except for the ears, muzzle and lower legs.
Features of the appearance of Angora:
- color - usually white, but individuals of black, gray and silver color can be found;
- the head is small, elongated, the nose is humped;
- males and females have a beard;
- the body is of medium size, sits firmly on strong legs;
- tail - small;
- ears - long, oblong, hanging down;
- the neck is of medium length, merges smoothly into the body;
- females' horns are small and thin, bent back;
- the horns of goats are large, bent, helical;
- the chest is poorly developed;
- legs are well developed, hooves are amber.
Characteristics of wool
Usually goats are sheared once a year, and Angora twice, in autumn and spring. Features of angora wool:
- it stains well without losing its original characteristics;
- it spins well, therefore it is used to make velvet, knitwear, plush, drapery fabrics;
- male wool is distinguished by thicker hairs, it is used for the production of blankets and carpets.
It is believed that the quality of the Angora fleece was influenced by the special natural conditions and diet. This confirms the fact that animals living in similar conditions - on the territory of Turkey, have wool that has approximately the same quality as that of Angora.
Productivity
The main product obtained from angora goats is wool. Its cut depends on the sex of the animal. The larger the individual, the more hair. In terms of wool and meat, goats are more productive than females.
Productivity of angora goats:
Productivity characteristics | Description |
Sheared wool from a goat, kg | 2,1-4,1 |
Sheared wool from a goat, kg | 4,5-7,2 |
Height at the withers goat / goat, cm | 64-65/74-75 |
Strand length, cm | 22-36 |
Mohair input,% | 64-79 |
The number of haircuts per season in warm / cold countries, times | 2/1 |
Milk yield per lactation, liters per year | 62-100 |
Fat content of milk,% | 3,8-4 |
The number of kids in lambing | 1 or 2 |
Angorkas are sensitive to cold, after cutting, they are not taken out of the barn for 1.5 months.
For the sake of milk and meat, keeping Angora is impractical - it is only a by-product of growing this breed. The milk produced is often not enough even for feeding the offspring. The female gives no more than 15 liters of milk per month. The meat yield is also small - no more than 20 kg from one individual, which is 40-45% of the total mass. The meat tastes good, it is tender and without a specific "goat" smell.
Advantages and disadvantages
Benefits of angora goats:
- They digest various foods well.
- They quickly adapt to different climates.
- Undemanding to care and maintenance.
- They are highly immune to brucellosis and tuberculosis.
- High wool productivity.
- High quality wool.
- Delicious and high quality meat.
Disadvantages of the breed:
- The maternal instinct is poorly expressed.
- Sensitivity to high humidity.
- The quality and texture of the wool depends on the weather and natural conditions.
- When shedding, the amount of wool is reduced.
- Low fertility.
Watch the video below for an overview of the Angora goat breed:
Features of the content
The Angora breed cannot be called capricious or demanding in terms of keeping conditions. They agree to graze in the poorest pastures, but if they could choose, they would prefer hilly terrain.
Terms
Not only wool productivity depends on the quality of the Angora content, but also its quality. In poor conditions, animal hair loses its shine, becomes tangled and dull, its color changes for the worse. Also, with an unfavorable content, meat and milk productivity falls.
Optimal conditions for keeping Angora:
- Temperature and humidity. Animals, having thick wool, tolerate cold weather well. The average temperature in the stable is at least +8 ° C. They do not tolerate heat, high humidity and temperature changes.
- Neighborhood. Angorkas are peaceful, get along well with other species. They can be kept on the same walk with other livestock.
- The number of the herd. The maximum number of individuals in one herd is 30 goats. It is advisable to keep females separately from males.
- Area rate. For one animal, 4 sq. m.
- Walked. Animals should be outdoors every day, except for the coldest days. Walking mode for winter time - 2 hours several times a week. In summer, goats are kept on free grazing.
When females and males are kept together, the taste of milk deteriorates.
Shed and corral arrangement
In summer, goats are kept in a free enclosure, and for the winter they are transferred to a specially equipped room in a capital building. Stable requirements:
- The room should be dry, light, well ventilated, warm enough in winter.
- The arrangement of the barn depends on the climatic characteristics in the region. If the winters are very cold, it is recommended to make a corridor between the entrance doors and the room.
- The floors in the goat's house are made of wood, and the top is lined with straw, sawdust and pine needles.
- Inside, the room is periodically whitewashed with lime - for disinfection.
- Animals should be provided with a sufficient number of feeders and drinkers.
Goats must be outdoors, keeping them locked up leads to the development of diseases and a drop in the quality of wool. If it is not possible to graze goats in the pasture, in summer they are released into an open pen. The territory is fenced off with a fence or netting. Angorkas jump very high, so the height of the fence is at least 2 m.
We recommend that you read a separate article on how to keep goats in winter.
How and what to feed the Angora goat?
Kemel goats graze excellently on the hills covered with herbs and bushes. They happily eat the branches they can reach. Most of all, Angora loves oak branches and acorns. These goats can be used to clear bush from pastures.
Angora are picky about food. They often refuse, for example, from damp feed. In winter, goats are fed with waste from the kitchen. Goats are especially fond of peeling potatoes mixed with mixed feed and a little salt. Unsprouted tubers can be fed raw. Also, cleaning is added to the mash - they are steamed with breadcrumbs, oats, the remains of beets and carrots.
In summer, goats feed mainly on grazing. In winter, you have to make adjustments to your diet. Grain provides the animals with the necessary nutrients, but the coat becomes coarser.
Read the article on feeding goats in winter.
The optimal diet for the Angora breed:
- corn silage - 2 kg;
- legume hay - 0.5 kg;
- root vegetables - 0.5 kg;
- mixed grass hay - 0.4 kg;
- compound feed - 0.4 kg.
When feeding angora, the usual dietary norms for goats are observed, taking into account the effect of nutrition on wool quality. In free grazing, when goats eat fresh herbs and other plant foods, their wool becomes denser and heavier. When replacing greens with hay, the coat becomes light - the amount of lubricant secreted by the sweat glands decreases.
The longer the Angora graze in the pasture, the higher the quality of their wool. If it is impossible to graze goats all year round, for the beauty of the wool they should be given:
- corn grain;
- alfalfa;
- special compound feed for goats.
Daily value of trace elements for goats:
Trace elements | Minimum amount, ppm (pro-per-mil) | Maximum amount, ppm | The goat's response to deficiency |
Magnesium | 1800 | — | Occurs when feeding juicy feed. Ends fatally. Symptoms are convulsions, gait disturbance. Treat with the introduction of magnesia. Prevention - feeding hay before pasture grazing. |
Potassium | 8000 | — | Occurs when switching to concentrated feed. The problem disappears with an increase in the share of roughage. |
Sulfur | 2000 | 3200 | There is lacrimation, increased salivation, molting appears at the wrong time. The reason is the increased consumption of feed with non-protein nitrogen. |
Iron | 50 | 1000 | Dairy kids usually suffer. Animals are lethargic, anemic. |
Cobalt | 0,1 | 10 | Contained in table salt. With a shortage, productivity falls, anemia develops. |
Copper | 10 | 80 | Appears when there is an excess of molybdenum. The hairline is discolored. Other symptoms are diarrhea, deformed bones, anemia. |
Manganese | 40 | 1000 | The reproductive qualities of females are deteriorating. Animals move little, limb deformation is observed. |
Zinc | 40 | 500 | Growth slows down, animals become lethargic, wounds on the skin, sometimes baldness. Goats are especially affected - their sexual activity decreases. |
Iodine | 0,5 | 50 | Causes the birth of weak offspring. With an excess of iodine, lacrimation and a number of symptoms characteristic of poisoning. |
Selenium | 0,1 | 3 | Poor appetite and stunted growth. With excess - lameness, drop in visual acuity. |
ppm (pro-ppm) concentration unit, ppm. 1 ppm = 0.0001% = 0.000001 = 10−6, and 1% = 10000 ppm.
Prospects and features of breeding
The largest producers of mohair are South America and Turkey. Angorok is also bred in countries with a suitable climate and relief - South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Greece. In Russia, this breed is grown in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, as well as in a number of other regions.
Breeding the Angora breed looks like a profitable business, but for Russian farmers it is fraught with some difficulties. And the main problem is sales. It is difficult for small farms to find a buyer for small quantities. The solution is seen in the unification of small-scale production in communities in order to sell large quantities of goods in an organized manner.
The main purpose of Angora breeding is wool, but meat and milk represent a certain source of income. Since the meat is odorless, which is why many people dislike goat meat, it is in demand. The Angora farm is organized so that the animals provide all three components of productivity.
For the official organization of the farm, you must go through the standard procedures:
- Register a business. It is best to take the status of an individual entrepreneur (IE) - it is taken for a business that involves a small volume of production.
- Having a registration number in hand, they submit an application to the relevant government agencies for the purchase / lease of a land plot. Technical documentation is drawn up, the plot is measured, and it is assigned a cadastral number.
- Rospotrebnadzor gives a sanitary conclusion, which permits economic activity.
- Receive certificates from the environmental and fire department.
Mating, gestation and lambing
The period from one hunt to another is the sexual cycle. The average duration of the sexual cycle in Angora goats is 21 days, less often - from 17 to 23. The duration of the hunt for mating is 36 hours. Mating should take place in a day and a half. When the goat begins neuro-reflex excitement, the goat will be able to approach it. This period is determined by the restless behavior of the goat, a deterioration in its appetite and sleep.
Ovulation occurs 30-34 hours after the start of the hunt. If during this time the goat is not covered, you will have to postpone mating until the next hunt - it will begin in about 10-12 days. The first hunt for goats occurs in the 4th month of life. But it's not worth it to happen right away, you need to wait for the animal to gain weight about 30-40 kg. Goats gain this weight by 7-9 months.
Obesity in females should not be allowed - it will be difficult for them to happen, and then to get offspring.
Types of coverings
For fertilization of the Angora breed, the following types of mating are used:
- Free. The simplest option is that individuals are simply kept together, in one herd.
- Harem room. One breeding male is kept together with specially selected queens. One goat - at least 20 females.
- Manual. A pair - a goat and a womb is chosen by a man. Their mating is controlled by the host.
Artificial insemination is also used to fertilize goats. It is it that is considered the most progressive, effective and safe. With artificial insemination, there is no danger of spreading infections, parasites, etc.
Pregnancy and lambing
Pregnancy in Angora lasts 151 days, less often - from 143 to 154 days. Milking is stopped 1-2 months before lambing - the goat is "started". Having counted the prescribed number of days, you can know the time of the goat with an accuracy of several days.
Prepare for lambing in advance. You will need:
- Rags, clean rags. Everything should be clean, washed without chemicals.
- Iodine, potassium permanganate or furacilin.
- Laundry soap 72%.
Immediately before childbirth, the udder of the goat and the space near it are cut and washed with a warm solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per 1 liter of water). The female usually copes with childbirth on her own, without additional help.
Problems can arise in young females - it happens that the fetus is larger than the birth canal, and then the animal needs the help of a veterinarian. A caesarean section may even be necessary, but this rarely happens. After giving birth, a person should make sure that the afterbirth comes out within 1.5-2 hours.
Angora females are unproductive in terms of reproduction. They don't bring more than two kids. If pregnancy can harm her health, the goat has a miscarriage - she herself provokes it.
Causes of miscarriage in goats:
- lack of vitamins in feed;
- insufficient amount of feed;
- a sharp drop in the weight of the animal.
Every seventh cub dies. Twins are rare in the Angora breed. Females are not very interested in their offspring, but they feed regularly - up to 6-7 months of age.
Goat care
There are two ways to feed kids:
- Under the uterus. This is the most convenient option for animals and for the farmer. The kid gets the udder of the mother goat at its disposal. He feeds on breast milk for up to 3 months. To prevent the goat from developing mastitis, after the kid has eaten, the remaining milk must be decanted from the udder. When the kid grows up, salt and chalk (10 g) are introduced into its diet - from the third week. At 3 months, the supplement is increased by 50%.
- Artificial feeding. If it is not possible to feed a kid under the uterus, he is taught to drink from a bowl. If there is no mother's milk, the kids are fed with artificial formula.They are composed of milk powder, fats, vitamins and minerals. This method of feeding often leads to slow development of the kids.
The kids are taken away from the mother if the goat needs to be returned to working condition. In this case, newborns are immediately carried away from the woman in labor. Rub them with a dry cloth and feed them during the first 40 minutes of life. But this is an extreme option, it is better to leave the kids for natural feeding.
Features of keeping kids:
- The room is spacious, clean, dry and well ventilated. High humidity is not allowed.
- The premises are regularly cleaned. There must be a litter on the floor - preferably from the straw of grain crops. The use of fresh straw is not allowed - the kids can chew it, and the ingestion of rotten straw can lead to digestive upset and even death.
- From 5 months, the kids are transferred to the stall regime. They are given 1.5 kg of hay, up to 300 g of concentrates and 1 kg of root crops.
- The kids' drinking bowl should always have fresh and clean water.
Frequent diseases in the breed
Angora goats suffer from all types of diseases - infectious, invasive, non-infectious, parasitic. Most often, Angora women are faced with:
- Scar tympanum and poisoning. A veterinarian should handle the diagnosis and treatment.
- Respiratory diseases. The breed is extremely poor at dampness. In the cold season, the risk of ARI increases. As a result, the entire herd can become infected and deaths are inevitable.
- Diseases of the hooves. The problem begins with lameness, then the animal may completely lose the ability to move. Veterinarian assistance is usually needed.
Angora are also prone to parasitic diseases that require methodical treatment under the guidance of a veterinarian. The latter should be called in regularly for routine inspection of the herd.
You can learn more about goat diseases from this article.
What to look for when buying?
It is recommended to buy new goats for the herd in the spring - before shearing, or in the fall - when the young are already grown up. The grown up kids are used to judge the productive qualities of the goats - their mothers. Healthy kids should be moderately well-fed, with thick and long hair.
Rules for selecting goats when buying:
- Individuals must be of standard size. You should not take not only deliberately small goats, but also too large. Large individuals have large skins, but they probably have reproductive disorders.
- Females should have a wide body. The girth of the chest behind the shoulder blades is large. The head is small, the loin is wide.
- Males should be horned. Legs - straight, thin, but strong and stable. Hooves are small, amber in color.
- A healthy individual is evenly covered with hair. It should hang in wavy or curled strands. If the coat sticks out, then it is too hard - this is a drawback.
- The beard should be fluffy. If the animal has a thin beard, then it is likely that the belly also has a low density of wool.
Usually Angora are snow-white in color. Their wool is silky, shiny. If there are contrasting spots, then there is mixing of rocks. This will certainly affect the quality characteristics of the wool.
Where to buy Angora thoroughbred goats?
In Russia there are many private farms and specialized nurseries selling Angora goats. It is recommended to buy angora from proven farms that are professionally engaged in raising thoroughbred goats.
Farms offering Angora:
- Nursery "Serebristaya Reka" (Kolomna, Moscow region).
- Kennel of Angora goats "Moya Derevnya". (station Medvedkovo, Moscow).
The cost of goats depends on the quality of the livestock. On average, a kid costs 2,000-3,000 thousand rubles, adults - 5,000-8,000. It is recommended to buy goats in spring or autumn.
Helpful hints
Helpful tips from experienced goat breeders:
- Starting from the age of one month, if the weather is warm, the youngsters periodically walk - the kids will be happy to nibble the young grass.
- For prevention, give the kids 5 g of fish oil per day.
- Twice a year - in the spring and autumn, give the goats antihelminthic prophylaxis.
- Eliminate the possibility of watering from reservoirs with stagnant water.
- Return the herd to the pasture after two months, not earlier.
- Examine the limbs and hooves of animals regularly. If there are lame ones, isolate them from the herd. Make copper sulfate baths for prevention. Just place the bath with the solution in front of the entrance to the pen - the goats will independently "go through" the procedure.
Reviews of the Angora goat breed
Valeria Shch., 46 years old, amateur goat breeder, Rostov region I have been breeding the breed for the fourth year. Goats are unpretentious, hardy, they behave well in grazing. I myself am a veterinarian, so there have been no problems with the kids - almost everyone survives. The main thing that angora needs are complete food and a warm dry barn. I noticed that the quality of wool and its appearance is highly dependent on feed.
Roman I., 55 years old, farmer, Kostroma region I began to breed Angora for the sake of profit, I kept them for wool and meat. The animals are very calm and friendly. I cut it twice a year, if I don't cut it in time, the goats suffer from the heat in summer, the hair falls off, and the yield decreases. Special thanks to the goats - they fully fulfill the role of leaders in the herd. The goat itself "builds" the whole herd, and even looks after the cows and sheep so that no one runs away.
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When breeding Angora goats, the main problem is the increase in the number of livestock. This highly productive breed is preferable to breed in dry and warm climates. If you create favorable conditions for Angora, the investment will pay off after the first haircut.
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