Dozens of curly haired kids browse under the watchful eyes of their nannies at Joseph Burstons' Angora goat farm in North Canterbury.
Their shiny ringlets will eventually be used to make Italian suits or will be spun into knitting yarn.
The goats are shorn twice a year with the younger animals producing up to three kilogrammes of fibre annually while the highest producing bucks and wethers often top six kilogrammes.
"The fibre starts off at about 22 micron for a kid and ends up at 30 to 33 for an adult when they're at the end of their productive life, which might be 8 or 10 years," Joseph says.
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Joseph, who is also head of science and agriculture at Oxford Area School, started farming Angora goats 10 years ago as there was a ready market for the fibre and excellent prices that have continued to rise.
He says currently the adult fine-grade fibre pays about $25 a kilo while the finer kids' fibre can sell for double that.
In mid-2021 the clip from his farm was up 30 percent on the previous year's.
The fibre is purchased by a mohair and wool broker in Christchurch. From there it's sold to overseas buyers for processing.
"It generally all goes to South Africa where it's scoured, spun into tops, which are lengths of fibre that are used for the fine suiting industry and knitting yarn."
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Over the past few years Joseph has been trialing a regenerative, multi-species crop to see how it fits with a goat farming operation.
The goats have done so well on it he's drilled another 4 hectares.
"What you put in you get out," he says. "So the more protein you can put in the better qualilty and more goats' fibre you'll get."
He also has sheep and a few head of cattle and says goats work really well in a mixed farming system because they keep paddocks clear of weeds.
"They are generally browsers rather than grazers...they'll pick out many of the weed species, so dock, thistles, dandelions and gorse and broom as well".
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
