Angora goat: description and birthplace of the breed, features of wool and content

Goat breeding is a popular area of domestic and industrial breeding of farm animals. Breeds of domestic goats can be divided into dairy, meat, wool. Among domestic goats there are also universal animals that give different products. A well-known and popular breed in the world is the angora wool goat or angora. Today, these animals are bred on every continent for their wonderful fur.

History

Angora is a highly specialized wool breed. The exact time of the appearance of the breed is not known. It is assumed that this happened about 4 thousand years BC.The place where these goats first appeared is Asia Minor. It is now part of present-day central Turkey.

The breed got its name from the Turkish city of Angora, or Ankara in modern pronunciation. The wool of these goats was called moger or mohair. The first representatives came to Europe in the middle of the 16th century. They were brought to the Roman Empire by the traveler Ogier Ghislain d'Bubec.

From the beginning of the 19th century, Angora goats from Turkey came to South Africa, where they are bred to this day. In the middle of the XIX century, these animals were brought to the territory of Texas, USA. Today, this state ranks first in the country and second in the world in mohair production.

The breeding methods for breeding Angora goats are also not fully understood. Most likely, their ancestors were coarse-haired goats. This confirms the similarity of the hair of newborn kids with the hair of adult coarse-haired animals. Further changes in the coat, most likely, was the result of a random mutation.Later they were fixed by folk selection.

Description and characteristics of the breed

The height of females at the withers is 0.6 m, and males - 0.7 m. The average weight of queens is 40-50 kg, adult goats can weigh 50-60 kg. The head is elongated, hook-nosed. Ears hanging, rather long. Both females and males have a beard and horns. Goats have small horns, they are bent back and slightly diverge to the sides. The heads of the goats are adorned on both sides with fairly long, double-twisted horns. The neck looks pressed into the body, the chest is rather flat, the limbs are short. They end in amber-brown hooves.

Animal fur deserves special attention. It is curly, thick and soft, covering the entire body except for the legs, muzzle and ears. On these parts, the hair is very short, while on the body, long hair falls almost to the ground.

Important! If you do not cut it, then in the process of spring molting, the wool will fall off by itself.

Wool is characterized by the following indicators:

length - 20-25cm;
strength - about 14 km of breaking length;
number of short, up to 6 cm, hair - no more than 2%;
output of pure fiber - up to 80%.

Dense scaly layer of transition hair gives the coat its famous sheen (chandelier).

Pros and cons

Like any breed, Angora goats have their pros and cons.

Pros include:

unpretentious to feed, eat and digest different foods;
quick adaptation to different climatic conditions;
good immunity;
excellent quality wool;
high wool productivity with two shearings a year.

In addition to all of the above, these animals give good milk with a fat content of up to 4.4% and a pleasant taste of meat without foreign smell.

Among the cons are the following:

humidity sensitivity;
drop in productivity with lack of care;
problems with fertility and maternal instinct.

A pregnant angora, if she feels a threat to her he alth, can drop the fetus.

Care and maintenance of the Angora goat

When arranging a barn for keeping Angora goats, it is necessary to provide an area of at least 4 square meters per head. It is advisable not to keep more than 30 animals in one room. It is necessary to provide for the separate maintenance of females and males.

Basic content requirements:

dry room with good ventilation;
the presence of a wooden floor with a bed of straw, sawdust, pine needles;
regular whitewashing of the premises for disinfection.

For maintenance in winter, you need to make windows through which natural light will flow. The temperature regime in the barn with goats in winter should be about +8 degrees. In warm weather, goats can be kept in a free pen. To do this, a walking yard is arranged around the premises. It is surrounded by a fence of at least 2.0 meters in height.

A yard or paddock is also useful for walking goats in winter, as Angoras need regular exposure to the open air. Feeders and drinkers should be arranged in such a way that animals have free access to them.

Eating mode

In nutrition, angora are unpretentious. In the summer, it is desirable to organize grazing. If possible, it is better to do this not on a flat meadow, but where there are small hills or slopes. This breed is contraindicated for grazing in wet and marshy places. Goats should be supplemented with hay before and after grazing.

When stall keeping goats are fed:

hay;
tree branches;
compound feed;
grain;
bran.

As a top dressing, use s alt, chalk, meat and bone meal, special premixes. In summer, goats are watered at least 2 times a day, in winter - 1 time.

Prospects and features of breeding

The breeding of Angora goats is a promising direction in animal husbandry. This is due to the fact that if milk and meat go to the domestic market, then high-quality mohair is in demand in other countries.In addition, it does not apply to perishable products and can be stored for quite a long time.

Angor farm owner will earn income from three types of products:

wool;
meat;
milk.

Moreover, income from the sale of meat and dairy products will not yield to income from the sale of mohair. Animals with black, brown, red hair are now bred. Breeding colored animals has its own perspective.

Disease prevention

The main prevention of contagious and non-contagious diseases is the correct maintenance and good feeding of livestock. Angora goats are quite susceptible to anthrax.Prevention consists in annual vaccination of animals and regular disinfection of the premises. Angoras and brucellosis are sick. This disease is dangerous with premature miscarriages, decreased productivity. Prevention consists in acquiring livestock that has been tested for this disease and has documentary evidence.

In order to prevent diseases such as tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth disease, listeriosis, it is necessary not only to buy he althy animals in prosperous farms, but also to keep newcomers in quarantine.

How to choose a good goat when buying

When choosing an adult goat, it is important to check its teeth so that the seller does not slip an old animal. To do this, grab a hard cracker and give it to the selected individual. A young animal will chew on a treat in a few seconds, and an old one will procrastinate it for a long time.

It is important to examine the coat of the animal, push it apart in several places. The skin should be clean, without scratching, wounds. Do not buy an animal that has deformed hooves covered with a dull stratum corneum.