Cashmeres

Cashmere Goats are our major enterprise. We generally run 1000+ cashmeres, although the prolonged drought in this part of Australia has seen us reduce our numbers at the present time out of necessity.

Through selective breeding programs, continued pressure has been placed on the flock for increased cashmere down production, at a finer micron. As a result we keep on moving the goal posts; what would have been an exceptional animal (on fleece test results) 5 years ago is pretty much the average nowdays. Still, we are continually striving to breed better animals.

Our cashmeres produce long cashmere with a high tensile strength, which is suitable for worsted spinning. Hence length of cashmere has been an important fleece characteristic in the selection process. Other fleece characteristics which we have placed importance upon are micron, cashmere down weight, density of cashmere, coverage of cashmere and evenness of the cashmere across the animal. Selected animals must also be of sound conformation and robust constitution.

Licorice Allsorts

At this stage colour of the cashmere is of no concern to us in our does. We do use coloured bucks, however these are usually all black. Our best animals are coloured and as they frequently give us pure white offspring, we see no reason to cull them from our herd.