I NEED INFO ON RAISING CASMERE GOATS IE WHERE DO I FIND THEM, CAN I SHEAR THEM, IS THERE REALLY A MARKET FOR THE CASHMERE, DO I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO SPIN IT?

-- KAREN MAUK (DAIRYGOATMAMA@AOL.COM), January 26, 2000

Answers

Cashmere goats are kind of rare and somewhat expensive. But I think that if you got some you could probably build up your herd and be selling breeding stock and make as much from that as from the cashmere. There is a magazine called Cash Mirror. I have a few hidden away somewhere and they have market and breeder info as well as articles. I'll try to find it and tell you the address to write to. Generally you do not want to shear them, because of the long guard hairs in the coat. If you shear them you then have to sit down and remove all those long guard hairs, and that is very labor intensive. Instead, they are combed, I believe this is done in the spring before they start shedding the down. The cashmere has a much greater value if it is combed than it would if sheared. I think there is a very good market for cashmere, especially right now, it is very trendy. Of course, that will fade somewhat, but the handspinners are always a good market, too, especially if you have colored cashmere to choose from. For the handspinning market, you would want to keep it extra clean of burs and stickers, straw, etc. Cashmere is so precious and costly that I would never advise learning how to spin with it. Instead, start off learning with some wool of a medium quality, not the best, it takes a while to get the hang of it and make yarn that doesn't have big lumps in it. If you are going to buy a spinning wheel, I had very good sucess with the Louet brand. It is simple, easy to use, and easy to understand, there are not all kinds of adjustments to be made all the time on it. I did not like the drop spindle method. It is very slow compared to the wheel. Spinning is a very nice, soothing pastime.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), January 26, 2000.

THANKS REBEKAH, SO DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE THE CASHMERE GOAT WOULD BE FOR PERHAPS, TWO DOE KIDS AND ONE BUCK KID??

-- KAREN MAUK (DAIRYGOATMAMA@AOL.COM), January 28, 2000.

I don't know what the current prices are, and it varies according to where you live and how uncommon they are and how much in demand. The ones that I have seen would go for $200 and up, depending on the quality of the cashmere.You might be ahead to buy a couple of bred does that are unrelated and start your herd from that. There is a lady near Kalispell Montana that raises them, but I don't recall her name.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), January 28, 2000.

Karen, I don't know any breeders' names or current prices on either the goats or the rabbits. What might help you is to go to events like county fairs, farm shows, state fairs, any sort of thing that attracts livestock raisers/farmers. Don't ignore spin-ins, sheep dog trials, the sort of thing that would attract people who work with fibers and the people who produce those fibers for them.

How good the market would be for your cashmere would be...don't know. If you can provide a good quality fiber, hand spinners will buy it, if you can get it to there attention. Spin Off is a good magazine for fiber information and lots of ads for individuals and larger companies selling fibers. Good general idea of current prices.

Cashmere can be sent off to be dehaired, but I don't know the costs or the quantities required. Again Spin Off would be helpful. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 28, 2000.

Karen, I have had goats now for about 10 years. I went looking for Casmere goats I found them to be $200+ each. Then I bought some Spanish goats(meat goats) and got the Casmere off them for free! Casmere is a fiber not a breed even though some people make money selling goats as such. There are quite a few breeds that can produce Casmere. I paid $100 for the Spanish goats(does).You can sell the fiber at farm auctions,(Md. sheep and wool festival). Herb

-- Herb Buckingham (mtairy@bealenet.com), January 30, 2000.

We started out with a pair of angora goats just last summer. Sheared them once already. We got the pair for $300 at the wool market. The male buck, got kindof fiesty once he settled in here and with the set of horns he had, was really sort of dangerous. I think the cashmere's you're talking about have horns too. It's something you have to consider. When I allowed the doe in with my two nubian goats (no horns) she started butting them and actually caused on of them a little brain swelling we think from the head butt. We've decided to go only with nubians and will not be perpetuating the angoras.

-- Porter (uraso2@ix.netcom.com), January 31, 2000.

Thanks for all the information. I had not considered the disposition of the Cashmere goats. My Nubians are very non-aggressive. It is one of the things I breed for in my goats. I am alone so a mean buck can do some serious damage. Hmmmmmmmmm,maybe this idea wasn't such a good one after all. karen

-- KAREN MAUK (DAIRYGOATMAMA@AOL.COM), February 01, 2000.

Karen, nasty disposition are generally not a breed trait in goats, but horned goats do tend to be more aggressive than disbudded or polled goats. the cashmeres I have seen have horns that are about 7- 8" long on average, while angoras horns can get well over 18" in a buck and a lot thicker too. The cashmeres that I saw were kind of timid and were running with dairy goats that didn't seem to be afraid of them. If your Nubians are not horned, you might want to look for some cashmere kids that have been disbudded or put castrating bands on the horns while the goats are young so the horns will fall off. And, while it is true that all goats produce cashmere in a small amount, cashmere goats produce a LOT more of it than any other breed I have seen. You can comb out small amounts of the stuff from your dairy goats in the spring though.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), February 02, 2000.

Karen,

I noticed a new website listing on Agdomain this morning when I was updating my site. Its about chasmere goats. Here is the addy: http://www.agdomain.com/web/14007 Hope this helps. You could also look up on the net information on goat search, addy is: http://www.members.aol.com/GoatSearch/whatuseek/index.html goat community web ring; http:www.alpinehs.com/goatring.html cybergoats at; http://www.cybergoat.com and finally the goat man at Goat Kingdom, I don't have his addy handy but if you like you can go to my website at http://www.AgDomain.com/web/geminigoats and to the links page, his addy is there, he has over 500 links of information and I saw chasmere goats on one. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Bernice

-- Bernice Raymond (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 02, 2000.

What does a cashmere goat eat? Will it eat weeds in a grass pasture?

-- Sure M. Hopeful (SureM@hopeful.com), September 16, 2000.