Mohair production attracts farmers

Press, 9 March 1984, Page 22

Mohair production attracts farmers

Mohair and cashmere ! (reduction from goats as a orm of diversification from traditional fanning enterprises is certainly catching on in New Zealand. The Mohair Producers’ Association has reported a rise in membership by 240 in the past 12 months to 800. New members were joining at a rate of 30 a week, said the marketing committee chairman, Mr Richard Macdonald, of Geraldine. “Mohair production is the cheapest form of livestock diversification,” he said. “You don’t need two metre-high fences and special handling facilities to control the goats, and farmers are starting to

wake up to the advantages goats have as a means of ■veed control.” The association has recently bought a 6000 square foot warehouse at Pukekohe to cope with the rapidly increasing volume of fibre handled in each mohair marketing pool. Mr Macdonald said the most recent pool, the fourth since the system was started, totalled 21 tonnes - up 100 per cent on the previous pool. Average price for the fourth pool was >l5 per kg, up from the average >12.81 per kg realised six months earlier. The pool paid out an average of >lOOO to producers. The association’s chairman, Mr Dan Studholme, said prices were likely to fall back slightly over the next three years. “Nevertheless we are dealing with a luxury fibre that is in short supply. Even if prices do come back there is a very good margin. Unlike other animal products the value of mohair has continued to increase through the recession.” The next annual conference of the association will be held in New Plymouth from May 11 to 14. One of the items on the agenda is a review of progress towards a Goat Fibre Marketing Authority, which many established producers see as necessary to inject some discipline into fibre marketing. Among the problems in recent years have been the brief visits by overseas buyers who skim off the cream of the clip and leave the lower grades