Everything ESONILE covers starts in the ground. For mohair, the ground is the Karoo: semi-desert, sparse rain, and a veld of hardy, edible succulents that angora goats thrive on. Wetter regions breed more parasites and ticks; the dryness is the advantage.
The farming year runs on two clocks:
- Shearing, twice a year. Goats are shorn roughly every six months. The first two shearings — the kid hair — are the finest and most valuable. A young goat gives about 1 kg at its first shearing and around 1.5 kg at its second; fibre coarsens as the animal ages.
- Dipping, in between. Goats pass through dipping tanks to control parasites, and conditioning baths help set the curl in the growing locks.
- The cold snap after shearing. A freshly shorn goat has lost its coat. Shelter and timing matter; sudden cold rain after shearing is one of the industry’s oldest killers.
- The bale. Sorted fleece is baled and sent to Gqeberha for auction — and from there, for most of it, overseas.
Some of these farms have bred angoras since the 1860s, in families now in their seventh generation. The question Soil will keep asking: who else gets to own a piece of this land and this trade?
Read the full story: The Golden Fleece Leaves Home.