ANNFIELD FARM

Laury-Anne Boschman and Andrew Johnston are proud of their Scottish mohair yarn, produced from their own herd of Angora goats, as Helen Spedding discovers

ON THEIR family farm in Fife, just north of Edinburgh, Laury-Anne Boschman and Andrew Johnston raise a herd of characterful, adorable Angora goats, whose fleece is blended with local wool to produce a special Scottish mohair yarn range. We chatted with Laury-Anne and Andrew to find out what Angora goats are like to farm, and about the sustainable yarns in the Annfield Farm range.

How did you come to have a herd of Angora goats at Annfield Farm?

“Laury-Anne went to an agricultural school in France, and as part of her high school degree, she undertook a placement on an Angora goat farm. She totally fell in love with the animals, and has wanted them ever since. Andrew comes from a farming family, so when we looked at starting our own farming venture, goats were a fairly easy choice.

“We currently have 22 of them, but we’re expecting a number of kids to be born in April and so we should have between 35 and 40 by then. Our herd is very much growing, and 40 is not our end number in the slightest.”

What are Angora goats like to farm? “They’re the best, although we might be a bit biased! They all have names and their own personalities. Unlike dairy goats, they don’t scale fences to escape, so our fences have survived - that said, they do seem able to find the smallest holes and escape.

“They’re all very sociable, and we’ve trained them to come to us - it saves one of us being a ‘sheepdog’ and running around to corral them. Some like cuddles and scratches, some would rather we stayed away from them, and some are definitely more vocal than others! Overall they’re a great bunch of fluffy creatures.”

Do you shear your goats yourselves?

“We had someone shearing to begin with, and then tried it ourselves when our usual shearer wasn’t able to come; we’ve been doing it ourselves ever since. It was definitely a massive learning curve, which started with a YouTube tutorial and a very, very patient goat - our first time probably took nearly an hour to do one goat.

“We’ve gotten quicker and better now, but it’s still definitely a work in progress. Laury-Anne is currently the main shearer. The goats aren’t shorn on the backside like sheep, they’re shorn standing up, a bit like a dog at the groomer. This makes it a lot easier physically as we aren’t having to wrangle them.

“They’re shorn twice a year, usually in March (before kidding) and October (before breeding); that way, they have most fleece in January and February which tend to be the coldest months in Scotland. An adult goat can produce up to 5kg of fleece a year, so that’s quite a few skeins of yarn right there! We sometimes call them our yarn makers, and they definitely work hard to make lovely yarn.”

Where are your yarns processed, spun and dyed?

“All our yarn is processed by the Halifax Spinning Mill in Yorkshire. Paul has been absolutely incredible with us, he has helped us, advised us and guided us with our fleeces and what to do with them.

“We do all the yarn dyeing at home. Laury-Anne is the main dyer because she works exclusively from home, but we decide on all the colours together. At the moment we have 12 colours, including an undyed natural, and as our stock grows we are looking to add more shades.”

What would you say are the highlights and challenges of your day-to-day work?

“Our main challenge is that we both work full-time outside the farm, then do ‘goaty’ work in the evenings, weekends, holidays, and then all the yarn side of the business on top of everything else. Our goal is to farm full-time, but in the meantime our work-life balance is definitely a challenge - and probably not very balanced! We do say that we’ll actually have a quieter life when we farm full-time, which seems crazy considering the hours that can come with a farming life.

“The highlights are absolutely the people we’ve met since we’ve started this yarn adventure. From all corners of the UK and much further, we’re definitely creating a network of incredible people around us, and that’s absolutely amazing. We couldn’t have dreamed of the response we’ve had to our yarn and goats, it has been wonderful.” Can you tell us about your environmental and sustainability principles?

“A bit like limiting food miles, we want to limit yarn miles. Our goal is to produce a yarn with as low a carbon footprint as possible. We’ve tried to think about every step of our process, and we want to make something that will entirely biodegrade if thrown in the bin.

“We don’t mix our yarn with any sort of plastic (nylon or acrylic) and never will

Male Angora goats have distinctive horns