Types of Goats

 Shush will yuh, I know, I know. Subconscious, you really can be a pain. I'll admit, my post haven't been as educational as this blog is suppose to produce but teaching takes time, lots of it and I've been buried under. Not buying it? Well, here then, just to hush you up and keep you from continually tapping on my shoulder saying huhm... as you stare disapprovingly at me while I type, I'll tell the difference between goats. You'll have to be satisfied with brief, my house is still a disaster area since Kirk and I were both gone last weekend and I was behind on my chores before I left. You really should be giving me a break you know, I'm doing as much as I can. I did make strawberry jam and I'm going to make ice cream tomorrow. Maybe I'll even show these nice folks and give a tip or two.

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 This is a angora goat. Granted an extremely unusual angora goat. Toni and I stood transfixed at its hair, a black lock, then a white lock, and a black lock and a white one etc.  We've never seen anything like it. The owner admitted it was a flook of color. It's gorgeous.

I'm use to white angora',s as most are white, but Angora goats come in colors too. In this pen at the fiber fair, there was a brown one as shown on the left and there was a gray one and a spotted one. Makes me almost want Angora goats again. Mine were white and named Annie and Mary. Cute little buggers that acted more like a dog than a goat. Finally I had so much mohair, since you shear them twice a year, that it would take years to spin it all. I passed them on to my sister and I can't remember where the babies ended up.

See, I'm being educational. Now you know you shear Angora goats twice a year and they produce mohair. Of course some of you already knew that.

So I'll move on to cashmere goats.  They produce a soft wooly under coat that is wonderful to the touch. To register a goat as a cashmere, you have to take 32 samples from specified areas of the animal for inspection and they must meet specific guidelines and that is only part of the stringent rules you have to follow.


 Those horns are a pain admitted the owner of this cashmere goat. If I owned her. I'd be tempted to remove them for they aren't shy about using them. But if removed, the animal would die in the summer from heat exhaustion. The cause is the heavy cashmere coat its wearing. The horns release heat and since a cashmere goat does not enough sweat glands for the heavy coat it's wearing, horns are a critical asset.

Then of course there are dairy goats of many shapes, sizes, and colors. Milk of course is their major contribution to mankind. I know I'm a show off but look at this pretty udder of Chicory's.

There you have it, an educational blog. Now I really must get back to cleaning up the kitchen.