Laurel Farm’s Angoras, Alpacas and Chickens Hobby Farm Package
If you want to escape to the country like us, you might want to think about a rural lifestyle which can produce a supplementary income, and is a really interesting and paying hobby with a lot of avenues to explore.
Angoras
As you will have noticed our main website and indeed our business is devoted to alpacas, but in 2009 we started a flock of pedigree Angora Goats with quality stock from a local breeder including one of his Champion Bucks, Corrymoor Drake, who, amongst his many successes was Supreme Champion at the last Royal Show.
The angora goat is a very ancient breed with records of the use of goat hair used for clothing found as early as the 14th century BC. Many centuries after that there is a record of goats trekked to Ankara by Suleiman Shah, when fleeing Ghengis Khan. In 1550 a Dutchman discovered the goats and began to generate a demand for their fleece and in 1554 a pair of angora goats “were presented to the Pope in Rome”.
Mohair, the name given to the fleece of these goats is derived from the word Muhaya, meaning cloth of bright lustrous goat hair. The Sultan of Turkey placed a ban on the export of raw fleece and for several centuries the fleece and goats were incarcerated in Turkey.
Eventually in the 19th century, angora goats were imported from Turkey to Texas and South Africa. Imports to Australasia occurred during the 20th century, and the angora goat did not reach the UK until 1981.
Imports of angora goats to the UK were originally from Australasia then a few years later from Canada. Subsequently some South African bloodlines have been imported from Spain and France. The angora goat produces mohair at the rate of 2.5cm (1″) a month. Mohair is a soft, lustrous and hard wearing fibre, which can be used in fashion garments, fabrics, textiles and yarns. Mohair is shorn from goats twice a year, at approximately six month intervals.
We have found that these friendly and amusing animals are great fun and they can pay for themselves in a number of ways. They are fleece bearing—and need to be shorn twice a year with each goat producing around 3 kilos per clip of usable fleece which can be sold to BMM British Mohair Marketing or which you can have spun into your own wonderful mohair yarn. At the moment there is a world shortage of mohair and very few Angora goats for sale in the UK.
Living and farming in Devon we attract a lot of tourist interest and they love it when the Angora goats come over to see what they are up to. Children, particularly, love it when the kids have just been born because they are so small and cute. They definitely have the Ahh factor!
Angoras are mainly bred for their fleece but can also provide meat—this is normally where there is an excess of males—their skins can be tanned to make exquisite rugs or throws. Some people also milk the does.
There is so much choice in what you do with your Angoras.
As an amateur farming enterprise they are renowned for their diversity and with careful management and husbandry can definitely be a useful asset to your hobby farm.
Alpacas
You will find plenty of information about alpacas on other pages of this website, but as we have experienced they fit in very well with the angora goats and the kids are often seen creeping into the alpaca paddocks to find out if their grass really is greener.
Alpacas go very well with the goats as a Farm Start Up Package and with our free tuition and full after sales back up you should find such an enterprise both rewarding and great fun.
Chickens
Nothing can beat a hobby farm with its own hens and free range eggs. You can have just a few to meet your household needs as part of a self sufficiency plan or you can make them a bigger part of your enterprise and sell your surplus eggs and even breed your own chickens to sell on.
Amateur farming with your own Angora Goats, Alpacas and Chickens could be the start of a really great rural lifestyle with as much or as little work as you decide—governed by numbers, whether you decide to breed or just keep the animals as field pets.
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