Farming Angora wethers is viable

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 42

Farming Angora wethers is viable

Farming Angora cross wethers is economically viable because they are cheap to buy, they control weeds, and their fibre shows good returns, according to Mr Brian Purchas, a farmer of Hawarden. Farmers can recover half the wether’s cost in six months and virtually the total cost in 12 months, said Mr Purchas, who is secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Mohair Producers’ Association.

Goats are complementary with sheep as they eat fibrous material that sheep will not touch. As well as having twice the life span of sheep, goats are easy to manage.

In Canterbury, Angora wether kids were recently selling for $25 to $5O, depending on quality and grade, said Mr Purchas. The G 4 (or first cross wethers) are ideal for farming in rough conditions. Their fine fibre does not grow long and is not easily pulled by blackberry, gorse

and similar weeds. Because their mothers were feral goats, these G 4 wethers adapt better to the rough conditions than more illustriously bred animals.

G 4 wethers sold for about $3O each last March and April and will produce about Ikg of fibre annually. A small portion of the fibre may grade Cashgora A, but most will be Cashgora B or D returning about $2O per animal a year. Second cross or G 3 wethers, which sold for about $4O, needed shearing in spring and autumn and produced fleece weights of about I.Bkg per year. The fibre was either Cashgora B, or B second doe grade and the annual return per animal was $27. Fibre from third cross or G2 wethers fell into the mohair grades because of its length and diameter of 23 microns plus. These animals sold for about $5O each and grew 2 to 2.5 kg of

mohair annually, of young goat or B second doe grades. This was equivalent to a return of $36 to $45 a year. Mr Purchas said G 3 and G2 wethers were ideal to farm on cleaner country, such as South Island hill country of either improved pasture or tussock with scattered scrub and weeds. G 1 and purebred wethers were hot generally available as they were usually taken on entire as potential sires. Wethers were ideal animals in. rough scrubby country where does would suffer nutritional stress during pregnancy and milking and

grow less fibre. Wethers produce fibre all year round. Mr Purchas said meat grades favoured young animals and those up to 11kg returned the best price a kilogram and were the most saleable on world markets. However the killing charges on lightweight goats left only a small financial return. The 11 to 18.5 kg animal provides the best return and is readily marketable. Once over 18.5 kg, the animal no longer commands good money as there is a limited market for heavyweight goat meat. It was sensible, therefore,

to sell mature wethers before they became too heavy, said Mr Purchas. As well, young goats produced the best return from fibre. The fibre got stronger as the goats got older.