THE CASHMERE GOAT REGISTRY™
CASHMERE GOAT BREED STANDARD
Updated 2008
BREED CHARACTER:
The breed standard for the Cashmere goat is primarily designed to enhance structural correctness of the breeding goat, with an emphasis on fiber, function, and survivability of the commercial animal. Cashmere goats should be medium to large framed goats which produce high quantity and quality cashmere fiber.
BODY CHARACTERISTICS:
Head:
Head and ears well balanced and proportioned to the body, with a broad muzzle and a well operating jaw.
The teeth must be in anatomically correct positions. Over-or under bites are highly undesirable. Horns should show strong regular growth, be
symmetrical and be positioned well apart. Horns should curve gently back and away from the head. Horns are a natural part of the breed;
therefore intact horns are the standard. Disbudded or dehorned animals should have that noted on their registration. Naturally polled animals
not acceptable for breeding due to possibility of hermaphroditism.
Neck and Forequarters:
Neck should be of moderate length and in proportion to body length, with shoulders strong and smoothly blending into withers. Wide chest floor and large heart girth to provide for adequate heart and lung space. Forelegs should be widely set, perpendicular to the ground, well muscled and set slightly back to support a large frame. Feet should be pointing straight ahead; buck knees, knock knees, pigeon toed, weak pasterns or splay footed animals are not desirable.
Body:
The over all body should be long, deep, and wide, with a straight, level back with adequate muscle from shoulder to hip. The width and length of loin are important to volume of meat on a carcass. Ribs must be well sprung, adequately muscled, and long, to allow capacity for foraging, pregnancy and maintenance of body condition. A concave or swayback is undesirable as is a narrow or shallow chest, weakly attached shoulders, and a pinched heart girth.
Hindquarters:
Rump should be broad and long with a gentle slope from the hook bone to the pin bone. Tail should be centered, curving upward over the back. Width between the pin bones should be equal too, or greater than the width of the hook bones. A side view should show a straight line from the pin bone down past the hock and pastern to touch just behind the hoof. These angles are most desirable for correct free movement of the legs. Cow hocked, post legged, sickle hocked and weak pasterns are undesirable.
Does:
Does should be feminine but strong, with a feminine wedge appearance of the body from a top view. The udder should ideally be round, with good suspension (not pendulous), with teats that are easily nursed by a newborn kid. Both sides of the udder must be functional. Udders with split teats, cluster teats, fishtail teats, oversized or bulbous teats are undesirable. Cashmere does may be bred at 7 months of age if they have sufficient growth. Postponing the breeding of doe kids beyond 10 months of age may cause them to be less productive over their lifetime. Cashmere does have great mothering instincts, and rarely need intervention at kidding time. Twins are most common, does being bred the first time often have singles, and triplets are the exception. Breeding age females must show evidence of having kidded by the age of two years.
Bucks:
Bucks should be masculine with adequate muscling. A masculine profile with the heavier chest and fore body is a manifestation of testosterone. Testicles should be of equal size in a single scrotum with no more than a 2” split in the floor of the scrotum. Testicles should be smooth, and free of bumps or lumps. Pendulous testicles, single testicle, or testicles too small are undesirable. Cashmere bucks can reach sexual maturity at 3 months of age. They should be removed from the herd to prevent accidental breeding.
FLEECE CHARACTERISTICS:
Cashmere Fleece is made up of two very distinct fiber groups; down and guard hair.
Guard Hair:
The coarse, straight outer hair may be of any natural color. No judgment is made on the guard hair, except for the definition and yield.(F & J). Guard hair more than one inch longer than the down decreases the yield on shorn fleeces. Less Guard hair makes for better processing.
Down:
The fine winter undercoat grown for winter warmth and shed in the spring if not harvested.
The down has no or low luster and is non-medullated; medullated, having a core of air-filled cells. If the medulla is coarse, the fiber is hairy has irregular dyeing properties and is difficult to remove in processing. It is a blemish in a wool fiber.
A. Co-efficient of variation: Shall not exceed twenty four percent (24%). Variations over 24% affect the spin fineness.
B. Color:
All natural colors are expectable. White is most desirable. More goats of one color increase production lines.
Cashmere goats should be one solid color on all shear-able surfaces; this is most importance on white goats.
Spotted cashmere goats are undesirable, contrasting faces, feet, legs, and tail are expectable.
C. Consistency:
Consistency of color, diameter, length, and style, throughout the fleece is desired as this affects the end product quality.
D. Coverage/Density:
High coverage of down on entire body is ideal, excluding the legs and face. Higher percentage of down to guard hair provides more density and increases yield.
E. Average Fiber Diameter:
Fleece must not exceed the required Average Fiber Diameter (AFD) for the fleece being evaluated for registry to qualify for registry.
1st year 14.5 AFD
2nd year 15.0 AFD
3rd year 15.5 AFD
4th year 16.0 AFD
5th year 16.5 AFD
6th year 17.0 AFD
7th year 17.5 AFD
8th year 18.0 AFD
9th year 18.5 AFD
Bear in mind that the diameter tends to increase with age. By keeping the diameter requirement low we will encourage the quality and competitiveness of American cashmere.
F. Differentiation between Guard hair and Down:
Guard hair that test at 2x the AFD of down is desired. The greater the differentiation the better results during processing as coarse guard hair is removed quicker resulting in less damage to down and fewer stray guard hairs in the finished product. Residual coarse hair content standard is 0.5% for weaving grade fiber and 0.2% or lower for knitting grade fiber. Medullated fibers maybe the cause of residual coarse hair after processing.
G. Fleece Weight:
Combed raw fleece; Not less than 3.5 ounces/105gr
Shorn raw fleece; Not less than 8 ounces/240gr
H. Length:
Requires a minimum harvested length of one and one half inch/45mm. Two inches/55mm is ideal.
I. Style/Crimp/Curvature:
Individual fibers must exhibit three dimensional, irregular crimp entire length, with tested curvatures greater than 47 deg./mm. Angora influence results in curvature under 46 deg/mm. Good style has irregular crimp of relatively small magnitude and high frequency that does not lie in two dimensions but rather changes directions at irregular intervals along the length of individual fibers. Straight fibers or fibers containing bold (mohair-like) or two dimensional staple crimp (like very fine wool) are considered to have poor style. (C.J. Lupton, F.A. Pfeiffer, and A.R. Dooling report 1999 Texas A&M Research)
J. Yield
“The amount of useable down harvested from the goat.” Higher Yield is desired. Standard Yield calculations; Yield of an average shorn fleece is approximately 25%; Yield of an average combed fleece weight is approximately 65% of total combed fleece. Estimated percentages can vary depending on guard hair length, contaminates, and matting of down. To calculate a Yield; total fleece weight X estimated % =Yield. Fleece with yield less than two (2) ounces is considered undesirable. The goal should be to increase these yield percentages, record keeping and selective breeding to increase yield is important to profitability.
SUMMARY:
A Cashmere goat should be a well-balanced animal that grows large quantities of cashmere fiber on a solid frame. A Cashmere goat should have the ability to reproduce off spring that will also exhibit these characteristics. Do not forget to place half of the emphasis on the conformation and half on the fiber qualities to get a well balanced goat. Good records and reproduction history is the basis of any decision making process for the breeder and the buyer.
Reference: Bruce McGregor, Attwood; CaPrA; C.J. Lupton, F.A. Pfeiffer, and A.R. Dooling report 1999 Texas A&M Research; Cynthia Heeren; International Wool Textile Organization Test Method 8-89; Joe David Ross; Kris McGuire; Terri Sims, Diana Blair.
THIS BREED STANDARD MUST BE REPRODUCED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND THE NAME, ADDRESS, AND CONTACT INFORMATION MUST BE INCLUDED AT THE BEGINNING OF ANY REPRINT.
All information and photos copyright © The Cashmere Goat Registry and may not be used without express written permission of The Cashmere Goat Registry. TCGR is a Trademark of The Cashmere Goat Registry.
The Cashmere Goat Registry™
theregistry05@aol.com, http://cashmeregoatregistry.blogspot.com/
