We are considering purchasing a pair of Angora's for the mohair and for additional income (local fiber guild is very interested). However, we were also looking to get a couple Nubians for milk. We have plenty of land, 9 acres, and considered getting both.

Some thoughts: We could get the pair of Angora's and a couple of Nub does for milking and breed the nubs with the angora billy for meet and milk. Or we could hire the sire for a few days? Artificial insemination?

We could get the Angora's and milk them (hair and cleanliness concern). But I haven't been able to find any info on the milk of angora's (ie., milk fat content, taste, etc.)

Does anyone have any thoughts? Anyone breeding Angoras? Anyone cross breed an unusual pair? Any imput will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Christie Berry North Alabama

-- Christie Berry (cberry@iol-12.net), January 23, 2000

Answers

Christie, I spin, can tell you that just because a goat is an Angora, it doesn't mean it will produce good mohair. So maybe an experienced spinner from the fiber guild can do two things for you-some research on mohair defects and go with you to see the goats. Bad mohair is worthless to hand spinners. It has some small value at the pools, but those would mostly be in Texas. Two goats worth of mohair wouldn't make the shipping.

Angora's could be milked, they just haven't been bred for it. Lot of work for little return. Don't know anything specific about their milk, try contacting Texas ag college since that's the big angora goat raising area.

As to breeding, it is more a matter of what kind of billy you can find in your area. If you get either your angoras or your Nubians locally, then the breeder should have a billy you can use. AI is possible, but for only 4 goats you might have some problems finding semen. It can be fairly costly. Might need to pay a vet or more experienced person the first few times (at least). A lot of small holders end up using whatever breed (or lack thereof) billy they can find locally.

I'd suggest checking around for anyone raising goats in your area, especially anyone raising full blood goats. They'll know who has what billy goats, who is using AI, maybe you could pool together and take the does to a billy or the billy to the does. If you don't know anyone, ask your vet or at the feed store for help. If you already have a source for the angoras and/or the Nubians, spend some time talking to the owners.

I guess the worst case would be buy the 4 does, then don't breed the angoras (could even buy castrated males more cheaply) and just keep them as lawn mowers and fiber producers. Breed the Nubians to any billy you can find, plan on eating the kids. If you really like kid meat, you could also breed the angoras. But pregnant and nursing does will eat more. Pregnancy can also stress the does causing breaks in the fiber. They also may have problems related to pregnancy requiring vet treatment.

Hopefully, you have some goat breeders in your area. Around here I don't, with the exception of a few pet pygmy goats. So to raise goats, I'd pretty much have to have a billy. Haven't wanted to do that yet. Rabbits are the same, a few 4H projects, no angoras. So I'd have to buy does and a buck. Actually even cattle and swine are fairly limited to breeds around here. If I got into anything unusual, I'd have to plan on trucking the females for breeding or buying a male.

Don't let me discourage you. What you're thinking about sounds like a good idea. Just keep thinking about long range things before you actually start shelling out money. Good luck Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 23, 2000.

Christie, crossbreeding angoras with dairy breeds has been a dream of mine for years. I have seen a few crosses and they were fairly similar, even though they were thousands of miles away from one another.They tend to be bigger than an angora,and a little friendlier, with white hair. The hair is not long- as kids they look like most dairy kids. When fall nears, their coats start to grow longer.The ones that I saw had about the softest hair I have ever felt on a goat, it was nothing at all like mohair. It was shorter,maybe 2 inches long, and poofy, kind of like a cotton ball made of silk or cashmere. It was wonderful, made you want to pet one all day long! If the skins were tanned they would make a beautiful bedspread or a rug (I would hate to walk on it though). The one milking cross that I saw had a nice big udder and looked like she would be pretty productive.Because the hair was not as long,sanitation wouldn't be such a problem. But they milk sheep, they just shear them right before the milking season starts, after they take the lambs off. With the crossbreds, I'm not sure whether or not it would be better to shear or comb them. I don't remember seeing any long guard hairs as cashmere has. My advice on crossbreeding would be to select the angora does very carefully from a large herd, picking does or daughters of does that produce more milk, have bigger udders, or have been raising kids that are always bigger than the others. Then I'd select the buck from a line of proven milk producers, with mothers and daughters giving at least 3,000 pounds of milk per lactation. I would pick a Saanen, because of the higher production and they are from a cold climate where they lay on a down undercoat every winter. Alpines or Toggenburgs might work well too. But the Saanens are the biggest and a bigger goat usually gives more milk. The milk from an angora has higher butterfat,protein and makes more cheese than regular goat milk. Anyway, a buck like that is going to be costly, at least $400 and maybe more, depending on where you live. You might be able to get one for $2oo or less if you could buy one from a commercial dairy where they just kill the kids as soon as they are born.Probably if you went to the right place at the right time, you could get a baby buck for free and raise him up. We have been trying AI. It is a little tricky to do it yourself, though I have been doing it. A vet will usually charge $50 a doe, and you have to catch the doe at just the right time in her heat cycle. That is part of what makes it tricky. The semen ranges in price from $2- $125 a straw, the higher priced bucks are usually for people who are breeding show stock and for famous, dead bucks that can no longer be had easily. Magnum Semen Works has good semen at good prices.The problem is you are going to need a place to store the semen. If the vet has a nitrogen tank, you can probably rent space in his tank if he is going to do the work. It is NOT cold enoough in a freezer. It has to be -320 degrees F. I hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any more questions.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), January 24, 2000.

I have angoras and milk goats. I've only had the angoras for a year so am not an expert but have done a bunch of research. It isn't recommended that you mix angora with any other kind if you want the hair. For meat it works great. Mixing angora with dairy doesn't usually work because the offspring get the worst of both worlds. The hair isn't long enough and sometimes not nice enough. The milking quality goes down quite a bit as a rule. I've milked an angora before and it is difficult. They have very small teats and the yield is poor. I was milking since we had a reluctant nurser and our dairy goat hadn't freshened yet.

If you want meat and milk breeding a milking doe to an angora buck works great. Since you don't care that the kids don't milk or grow hair it doesn't matter what you breed the doe to. You just want her to freshen.

Dairy bucks can be very difficult to keep. They are often stinky and will do everything they can to get out of their pen to breed. This can quickly ruin your angora herd. Angora bucks are smaller and easier to handle. They also don't stink as much. Mine have never tried to break out and breed the dairy goats.

If you need to find a dairy buck check with the 4H dept of your county extension. They often know who has what. Or check with your local 4H group. Our 4H leader breeds our dairies for free and knows who else does too.

Good Luck.

Sharon

-- Sharon in NM (kaori11801@aol.com), January 29, 2000.

Thanks to everyone that has responded to my question. This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! My intent was to breed the billy angora to the milk goats for the milk and to get meat from the kids. Then the Angoras would breed angoras and the hair quality would be good (hopefully, Ive got to find good quality first before I can buy and breed!) When I need more milk goats my intent was to breed the milk goats with one of their own breed or AI.

I didnt know about the milking of an angora and again thanks, you gave me the info I needed. I really appreciate it!

Thanks, Christie

-- Christie Berry (cberry@iol-12.net), January 29, 2000.