Orenburg goat
The Orenburg goat (Russian Оренбургская коза ) is a breed of domestic goat that was bred in the 19th century with the aim of breeding to obtain a long and soft coat with fine downy hair. The production of Orenburg scarves is closely related to this breed of goat.
The Orenburg goat breed is the most common goat on the market for fine goat fluff in Russia. A similar breed is the cashmere goat , which is also bred to obtain its fine, soft downy hair.
The breeding of the breed was shaped by the particularly harsh continental climate of the region around Orenburg: strong winds, severe frost, hot and dry summers. In addition to the long-term natural selection, cashmere goats were introduced into these areas at the beginning of the 20th century and crossed with the Orenburg goat.
distribution
The Orenburg goat is common in a very large area in southern Siberia ; held it is mainly in the South Ural , in Orenburg , Chelyabinsk Oblast , the Republic of Tatarstan , the Republic of Bashkortostan and in the region Aktobe (Kazakhstan). It is also widespread in the Powolschje region, in the areas around Rostov , Voronezh , Astrakhan and Volgograd , as well as in the Altai Republic and Khakassia .
In 1992 there were 184,600 Orenburg goats. Since then, their number has decreased significantly, which is why the price of an Orenburg goat and its downy hair has also increased.
description
Around 90 percent of Orenburg goats have a black coat, the rest are red-brown, gray or multicolored. However, goats with white fur can also be found. The Orenburg goat differs from other goat breeds by its rich, long, soft and thin hair. It is larger than other breeds kept for the production of goat skin or goat wool (woolly goats) and has a robust constitution. The weight of a goat in spring is 44 to 45 kg (rarely up to 65 kg), the billy goats weigh 70 to 75 kg, some even up to 100 kg. The bone structure is well developed, the legs are not very long but strong and the fur is monochrome. Both sexes usually have horns. They give birth to one or two young each year; 30 to 40% are twin births. During the six-month lactation period, the goats give an average of 200 to 250 liters of goat milk , according to other sources, 85 to 100 liters; both would be relatively little for a dairy goat. Their milk has an average fat content of 3.9% (3.2 to 6.1%). In the case of a woolly goat, however, milk yield is not the focus.
The height at the withers is 68 to 70 cm in the males and 63 to 65 cm in the females. The mean fertility is 130 to 140 percent. Goats between the ages of five and six in particular give birth to two to three young goats per litter more often (65%) . Two year old goats give birth to 10 to 15% of twins and triplets, three year old goats to 16 to 20% and four year old goats to 25 to 40%.
Wool
The downy wool of the Orenburg goat is very thin compared to other goat breeds, but also shorter. The wool of the Orenburg goat is very soft and elastic. The wool fleece consists in the top layer of wool from 12 to 18 cm long fibers and the wool down from 6 to 9 cm long fibers (according to other information 5.7 cm with a range of 3.5 to 8.0 cm). For comparison, the finest sheep wool (merino wool from merino sheep ) has a fiber diameter of 14.5 to 23.5 micrometers. Top grades of merino wool from New Zealand reach 11.8 microns while human hair is 30 microns thick.
The top layer of wool from Orenburg goats is usually black and the wool down below is gray. Approximately 35% of the wool obtained is fluff and 65% long fiber wool.
The average fiber diameter (. Tightly average fiber diameter ; AFD) is 17 or 18 microns (according to other sources 14 to 16 microns); this corresponds to the outdated Bradford system (named after the city of Bradford ) for determining the thickness and quality of wool fibers of an 80 quality. The thinnest wool fluff is obtained from one-year-old goats, after which the fiber diameter becomes thicker, only to decrease again from the age of five.
In order to gain the downy hair, it is combed out of the fur. The annual yield of the valuable fluff is on average 250 to 380 g per animal, the best goats give up to 800 g of wool down, and up to 350 g of the coarse goat hair, billy goats give 580 to 610 g of coarse goat hair. The wool yield and the quality of the wool depend heavily on the diet, the type of husbandry and the time at which the wool was obtained. The age of the goat also has an influence. In the first three to five years of life, the goat wool yield increases, after that it remains constant and decreases again from the age of seven. The quality of the wool also decreases and the fibers become more brittle.
The wool fluff grows particularly strongly in autumn and winter, while the long wool fibers of the cover coat grow particularly intensively in summer and autumn. The breaking strength of a fiber of the fluff is 6 kg on average, depending on the fiber thickness it varies between 4 and 10 kg.
The coarse hair of goat wool is mostly processed together with sheep wool, rayon or synthetic yarn. They are used to manufacture technical fabrics , drive belts , wool felt , border tape , painters' brushes , clothes brushes and shoe brushes .
Wool goats
Other goat breeds for obtaining soft downy hair in Russia are the downy goat breeds: Altay mountain goat (Gornoaltajskaya goat) and Pridonskaya goat (or Don goat) - it is widespread in the areas of the Don and its tributaries - the regions around Volgograd , Voronezh and Rostov .