Farm Diversification

Cashmere is the valuable fine undercoat found to varying degrees and qualities on all goats, except the Angora. It grows as a winter down which is shed in early spring when it is harvested either by shearing or preferably by combing.

More than 3,000 tonnes of cashmere is produced worldwide, the majority coming from China and Mongolia with smaller amounts from Iran, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand.

The British Cashmere goat was developed by The Macaulay Institute about 25 years ago by gathering together the very best cashmere bearing goats from around the world and selectively breeding for quality and volume. By the time the project finished in 2006, there was a nucleus of high quality goats producing cashmere which grades as fine as the best Mongolian fibre. Initially the project hoped to provide a way for Scottish farmers to make extra income from marginal land and it set up a central marketing body to buy, grade and sell raw fibre from producers. It was quickly realised however that economic pressures make competing with China and Mongolia in the international open market unviable and this route to selling was abandoned.

Today the British Cashmere goat has a good and potentially viable future in three areas.

1. As a producer of fine fibre. There is a small and committed core of breeders who strive to maintain the highest fibre quality. Genetic material from these goats is currently being exported to Norway and Canada to improve their home cashmere flocks. Individual farmers are responsible for their own fibre but there is an informal arrangement for buying and processing through Devon Fine Fibres which has the largest flock of Cashmere goats in the UK. Marketing of cashmere yarn and finished goods has begun and has proved popular with British consumers who are able to source an ethically produced luxury product grown entirely in the UK.
2. As a meat animal. There is a growing interest in goat meat in the UK which is not just restricted to ethnic communities. Increased travel and the desire for novel tastes has made goat far more common on the menu in restaurants and in quality butchers than it once was. Producers of cashmere goats find the animal grows to slaughter weight (25-30kg) in approximately 6 to 9 months on the minimum of supplementary feeding. This contrasts favourably with Boer goats which require large amounts of supplementary feed to achieve their larger size. First crosses with a Boer sire and cashmere dam give an excellent meaty yet still cheap to produce carcass. As with the cashmere fibre, marketing must be farmer-led but prices around £8.50-11 per kg may be achievable.
3. As a valuable land management tool. The cashmere is particularly suited to rough grazing. Goats are browsers, not grazers and will by preference eat scrub rather than grass. They are routinely used on bracken or gorse slopes as well as steep inaccessible areas. Bracken poisoning is extremely rare. There is potential for hiring of goat flocks for land management. For an agreed rent a keeper takes a number of goats plus an electric fence and stays with the animals for a few days while they graze out a rough area. This is already very successfully carried out in North America.