Breeding Problems with Angora Goats

OINCE its domestication the goat has served man well. As a source of milk, meat, mohair, and skins it has furnished him both food and clothing, and because of its brush-eating proclivities, has spared him untold amounts of hard labor with the brush hook. Since 1900 the Angora goat industry in the United States has undergone rapid expansion. At present it is confined largely to the Southwestern States, nearly 90 percent of all Angoras being produced in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The estimated average yield of mohair per goat in 1935 was 4.4 pounds although the average yield in some of the better flocks was probably twice as great. Practically all improvement has come about through practical breeding. In comparison with other farm animals, little in the way of scientific research has been done with the Angora goat. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station is the only place in the United States where experimental work is now known to be conducted with this breed. Research is badly needed on problems pertaining to the development of strains yielding larger amounts and a better quality of mohair. Techniques have been developed for the study of mohair that, combined mth the proper genetic research, öfter possiblities of improvement yet unrealized. It is quite certain that the goat was one of the first domestic animals. In all probability, it was first domesticated in western Asia, and from there it was brought into Africa and other countries. After centuries of selection, the domestic goat is very different from its w^ild ancestor. The goat is probabl}^ descended from the pasang or Grecian ibex {Capra hircus aegagrus)^ a species of wild goat found in Asia Minor, Persia, and contiguous countries. It appears unlikely that any wild species other than the pasang had an appreciable part in the ancestry of the domesticated goat, although for some breeds, as the Malayan, Cashmere, and Angora goats, the evidence is not so convincing that this form was the sole ancestor. It is possible that the ibex and markhor may have been represented in the ancestry of these breeds, for Lydekker (,9)^ states that both of these forms will breed readily in confinement with domesticated goats. The development of the long-haired type of goats was accomplished centuries ago, principally in Asia Alinor, where the Province of Angora gave its name to the best known of such breeds. How the short hair of the pasang and other possible ancestral forms developed