Angora goats on show at the Royal
Students and staff members from the Grootfontein Student Angora Stud will be bringing their prize-winning Angora goats back to the Sheep & Wool Expo at the Royal Show this year.
Surrounded by a range of mohair products in the Expo, the beautiful Angoras with their soft ringlets of hair show the very beginning of an incredible value chain in which the South African mohair industry has become a world leader.
The presence and knowledge of the Grootfontein students has been massively valuable to visitors over the past few years — for those who are generally interested in how mohair products are produced, and for those who are specifically interested in farming Angora goats and becoming mohair producers themselves.
It all starts with the beautiful
Angora goats, whose coat of long, soft ringlets of fine and lustrous mohair is shorn twice a year to become luxury mohair fleece.
Mohair fibre is known for its high lustre and sheen, for its ability to take dye exceptionally well, and for its excellent insulating properties (providing warmth in winter and remaining cool in summer).
Mohair is also durable, elastic, flame-resistant, and crease-resistant, and is a renewable resource. Its rare and natural qualities are therefore highly valued in fashion, interior design, and crafts, as well as for use in industrial fibres.
The quality of mohair depends on the age of the Angora goat. Younger animals provide finer and softer hair for scarves and shawls, and older animals provide stronger hair for carpets and heavy fabrics.
South Africa’s mohair industry has a proud history spanning nearly two centuries, and we are now the world's largest producer of mohair. South African mohair is globally acknowledged as one of the finest natural fibres money can buy, and the majority comes from the Eastern Cape Karoo, an ideal environment for Angora goats, where they thrive in the hot, dry summers and colder winters of the semi-desert landscape.
This environment, combined with over a century of institutional knowledge at the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute (GADI), is also what makes the Grootfontein Student Angora Stud, located near Middelburg, the ideal training ground for those wishing to enter the mohair industry by learning how to farm Angoras.
The friendly Grootfontein students are on site at the Sheep & Wool Expo throughout the Royal Show, and visitors who want to find out more about Angora goats, mohair or mohair products are welcome to come and chat with them. It is an ideal opportunity for those who are considering tertiary training in farming Angoras to find out what Grootfontein offers, and what their courses involve.
• The Royal Show is open from 9am to 9pm on May 26 and 27, from 9am to 6pm from May 28 to June 1 and from 9am to 9pm from June 2 to June 4. Tickets are R80 for adults, R60 for pensioners and R50 for children aged six to 12 years old. Under sixes enter for free. Tickets can be bought at the gate or online at www.tickets. royalshow.co.za