Caring for
Our Precious AAGBA Angora Goats
We love our precious AAGBA angora goats dearly and strive to provide excellent care for them. On this page, I'm sharing some of the things we do in caring for our goats. Healthy, happy angora goats produce higher quality fiber and make better, friendlier companions!
AAGBA angora goats have been bred for generations to grow gorgeous, long, lustrous kid-grade mohair locks. Excellent genetics only go so far, though. They also require quality care. When someone acquires angora goats from us, we spend extra time with them going over the details of how to take care of these precious darlings to really get the best kid-grade mohair possible while also enjoying the sweet. gentle nature of the AAGBA angora goat. Don't worry, it's not really complicated, but there are a few details that we like to share with new goat owners.
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While we strive to care for our precious angora goats as naturally as possible, we recognize that they don't receive all of their nutritional requirements from just grazing the pastures. We supplement their feed with delicious brome hay when appropriate, and we also provide lots of well-balanced and specially formulated minerals all year to help assure our beloved angora goats stay healthy. The long black feeders are kept full and placed throughout the barn as well as at different heights on the stand under cover outside. That stand is very secure to the post that is drilled 4 foot into the ground. Don't worry! They won't be tipping it over! The yellow blocks are actually sulfur blocks and help the goats resist external parasites like ticks. Afterall, we do live in Missouri and ticks are a fact of Nature in this part of the country!
From late spring through early fall, the goats enjoy 15 acres of lush pasture. But, as the cooler weather settles in and the pasture becomes less fulfilling, we feed a high-quality brome hay. We put out lots of hay so there isn't crowding and everyone can get their fair share. In the main part of the barn, we utilize double-stacked hog panel to reduce spillage. In the stalls, we use small round barrels with holes. We really like the brome hay because it has a nice protein percentage (usually 12-14%) and the long grass stems aren't as messy in their fleeces as alfalfa.
A lot of thought went into the design of these hay feeders. They're designed to be moved around readily using the forks on Roger's small tractor. Why move them around? So they don't cause wear areas within the field and so the spillage can be spread to different areas throughout the field. There will still be some waste/spillage, but these are designed to minimize that. It's impossible to completely eliminate waste spillage and still allow the goats to pull out enough to eat.
In the past, when our herd was smaller, we would feed hay more in the barn, but the spillage buildup was terrible to clean out. Last year, we established a special hay feed area behind the barn and used the tractor to clean it out. That was better than in the barn, but it got really messy and was definitely not ideal. On top of that, we were wasting all this wonderful natural waste that could be composting/breaking down and feeding the pasture because when it was behind the barn or in the barn, it had a base of gravel for drainage. All that gravel couldn't be put on the pasture even if it was heavily mixed with spilled hay and goat poop. Now, all that good-waste stuff will go directly back on the pasture which will benefit so much from it!
In the past, when our herd was smaller, we would feed hay more in the barn, but the spillage buildup was terrible to clean out. Last year, we established a special hay feed area behind the barn and used the tractor to clean it out. That was better than in the barn, but it got really messy and was definitely not ideal. On top of that, we were wasting all this wonderful natural waste that could be composting/breaking down and feeding the pasture because when it was behind the barn or in the barn, it had a base of gravel for drainage. All that gravel couldn't be put on the pasture even if it was heavily mixed with spilled hay and goat poop. Now, all that good-waste stuff will go directly back on the pasture which will benefit so much from it!
Through my quality breeding program, my goats produce copious amounts of fine kid-grade mohair. Sometimes, if it isn't well-managed, this could result in "wool-blindness" where the fiber grows over their face and eyes and reduces their ability to see.
This precious girl is Amara. She could still see at this point, but if her fleece on her face had been left unattended, she would have become wool-blind. Wool-blindness can be dangerous. She could have become separated from the herd, or have gotten an eye infection, or any number of things could have gone wrong. So, to prevent harm or injury, we took care of her. We gave Amara a simple trim around the eyes and face. Now she can see just fine! The trimmings are still usable fiber too. And Amara was such a doll on the stand too! She just laid down and patiently waited for us to do what needed to be done. She even gave snuggles when we were finished! 💕 I love this girl! 💕
This precious girl is Amara. She could still see at this point, but if her fleece on her face had been left unattended, she would have become wool-blind. Wool-blindness can be dangerous. She could have become separated from the herd, or have gotten an eye infection, or any number of things could have gone wrong. So, to prevent harm or injury, we took care of her. We gave Amara a simple trim around the eyes and face. Now she can see just fine! The trimmings are still usable fiber too. And Amara was such a doll on the stand too! She just laid down and patiently waited for us to do what needed to be done. She even gave snuggles when we were finished! 💕 I love this girl! 💕
AAGBA angora goats grow about 1" of lovely kid-grade mohair every month! This means that they have to have a haircut on a regular basis or it will become very burdensome. We prefer to shear our precious AAGBA angora goats about once every six months which means that they will have about 6" worth of mohair on their backs at shearing time. It won't look exactly like 6", though, because it's really curly. With all the lock definition and curl style, most of the time, it looks like about 4.5-5:, but when it's washed and combed out, it will be 6-7" long. As you can see, Darius here, has a lot of kid-grade mohair on him! He really needed a haircut! We placed him on the shearing stand to make it easier to handle him and make him more comfortable, too. He also received a hoof trimming while he was on the stand. We take our time and assure that they receive quality care and a good, clean haircut without excessive stress for either them or us.
