Visit to a cashmere goat farm
Yesterday I hopped into my trusty car and drove an hour to a cashmere goat farm. I ended up missing a turn, and accidentally turned onto a busy secondary highway. I had no idea that the area was so populated by Mack trucks. I kept on trying to find my turn-off, but was terrified due to the large trucks barrelling down the road behind me while I was driving my very small car.
Finally, I phoned the owner of the farm and was able to find my way to her farm.
The owners of this farm have three different kinds of goats- Spanish meat, Boer for breeding stock and cashmere. It turns out that there are only 17 cashmere breeders in Canada, and cashmere goats didn't come to North America before the 1970s. (I had no idea)
I spent at least two hours talking with the female farmer. She told me she'd done research on raising goats and was fascinated by all the different opportunities in the industry. One of the reasons for choosing goats was because she and her husband have two small children around, and goats, unlike bigger animals like cattle or horses, do not really pose a threat to children. In fact, her children spend a lot of time helping and playing with the goats.
Cashmere is collected between January and March. She brushed out a goat for me, and showed me how you collect the cashmere. It's all taken from the underside of the goat. Goat hair is like a dog's hair; it has a top coat and a softer under layer. THe cashmere is collected from the soft under layer that grows during the winter. The wool can be processed in a mill and turned into yarn, or can be given to spinners for hand spinning. She showed me some samples of cashmere that she'd collected. I couldn't get over how soft it was!
Not all goats produce cashmere, but all cashmere comes from goats. Apparently most people think it comes from other animals; my mom and I had a discussion about this when I told her I was going to a cashmere farm.
The three different kinds of goats had incredibly different temperaments. Cashmere goats are like deer; they run away when you come near them. Meanwhile, the Spanish and Boer were more like cattle or dogs, and didn't worry at all when humans entered their pen.
I also learned that llamas can be kept with goats to attack as guard animals. Llamas are so inquisitive that they deter predators. I'm not sure if the llama gets eaten in the process, but apparently it's fairly common in this area to keep llamas with goats.
After a while, the woman's five-year-old daughter came home from school, and we played with the bottle fed baby goats. Apparently the woman walks to the bus stop every day to meet her daughter, and three of the babies follow her, just like dogs. One of the bottle babies was named Birdie, and she was adorably cute and very social. She was a triplet that the female farmer found lying near death one day because her mama didn't have enough milk to feed all three babies. She now gets fed in the house and is paper trained. The woman said Birdie liked me because she kept on following me around and sat by my boot for a long time, which she does to anyone that she likes. I was smitten too.
Finally, I phoned the owner of the farm and was able to find my way to her farm.
The owners of this farm have three different kinds of goats- Spanish meat, Boer for breeding stock and cashmere. It turns out that there are only 17 cashmere breeders in Canada, and cashmere goats didn't come to North America before the 1970s. (I had no idea)
I spent at least two hours talking with the female farmer. She told me she'd done research on raising goats and was fascinated by all the different opportunities in the industry. One of the reasons for choosing goats was because she and her husband have two small children around, and goats, unlike bigger animals like cattle or horses, do not really pose a threat to children. In fact, her children spend a lot of time helping and playing with the goats.
Cashmere is collected between January and March. She brushed out a goat for me, and showed me how you collect the cashmere. It's all taken from the underside of the goat. Goat hair is like a dog's hair; it has a top coat and a softer under layer. THe cashmere is collected from the soft under layer that grows during the winter. The wool can be processed in a mill and turned into yarn, or can be given to spinners for hand spinning. She showed me some samples of cashmere that she'd collected. I couldn't get over how soft it was!
Not all goats produce cashmere, but all cashmere comes from goats. Apparently most people think it comes from other animals; my mom and I had a discussion about this when I told her I was going to a cashmere farm.
The three different kinds of goats had incredibly different temperaments. Cashmere goats are like deer; they run away when you come near them. Meanwhile, the Spanish and Boer were more like cattle or dogs, and didn't worry at all when humans entered their pen.
I also learned that llamas can be kept with goats to attack as guard animals. Llamas are so inquisitive that they deter predators. I'm not sure if the llama gets eaten in the process, but apparently it's fairly common in this area to keep llamas with goats.
After a while, the woman's five-year-old daughter came home from school, and we played with the bottle fed baby goats. Apparently the woman walks to the bus stop every day to meet her daughter, and three of the babies follow her, just like dogs. One of the bottle babies was named Birdie, and she was adorably cute and very social. She was a triplet that the female farmer found lying near death one day because her mama didn't have enough milk to feed all three babies. She now gets fed in the house and is paper trained. The woman said Birdie liked me because she kept on following me around and sat by my boot for a long time, which she does to anyone that she likes. I was smitten too.