N.Z. angoras sell well in Europe’s first auction

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 9

N.Z. angoras sell well in Europe’s first auction

Angora goats from New Zealand were among those auctioned at Europe’s first angora goat sale held in Staffordshire in Britain on Saturday. Of the 180 goats offered at the auction, most were New Zealand stock or had New Zealand blood-lines, said the president of the Mohair Producers’ Association of New Zealand. Mr Richard Macdonald, last evening. Although the stock had been described as being of a low standard, with many of the animals only recently out of quarantine, prices fetched were very high, said Mr Macdonald.

The total sale price for the 180 animals was

$596,955 with the top buck fetching §19,500 and the top doe, which had a kid at foot, fetching $18,900.

In other categories, 32 pedigree does averaged $13,716, 23 pedigree bucks averaged $11,709, and two G2 does averaged $4860.

Mr Macdonald said the sale was great news for New Zealand angora goat breeders because it showed that exported animals could get very good prices.

While New Zealand has had an angora goat breeding industry for some time, it is still new in Europe, he said. “The population of angora goats in Britain until this shipment arrived was

only about 30 or 40 animals,” he said.

In contrast, there are about 4000 members of the New Zealand Mohair Producers’ Association. Mr Macdonald said interest had increased in the last six months partially because of a restructuring in the European agricultural industry which meant many dairyfarmers were fanning angora goats as well.

He did not see any harm in selling breeding stock to other countries because “the only problem with mohair is that there is not enough production so it is in our interest to have more production.”