Remember your mum’s scratchy old mohair jumper from the seventies? You know, the one hanging in the back of the cupboard. Well, thanks to the hard work of Australian Angora goat breeders like Helene Ypma, scratchy jumpers are a thing of the past. Through careful selection and breeding over the course of forty years, Helene’s Angora goats now produce the softest mohair, much sought-after by fleece buyers from Europe and around the world. On top of that, today’s mohair also locks up carbon credits making it the sustainable choice.
Helene has been breeding goats for over forty years at the Rivers Stud in Brogo on the rolling green hills of the Bega Valley. She first started showing goats at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1997 and since then has won the Supreme Champion ribbon four times as well as picking up the top honour for her fleece four times. But, it hasn’t been an easy journey to the top:
“Australia’s had goats for over a hundred years, but the… quality of mohair was very low. We started off in the early 1980s with Australian goats but we realised we had to do something to improve them. So we travelled to Texas to look for genetics over there and also got some South African genetics because they were way ahead in their breeding programme. I think we’ve caught up now and we’re happy with the quality of the mohair that we produce.”
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Australian Angora goat breeders like Helene, Australia’s mohair has a bright and itch-free future.
