What is "cashmere goat"

A cashmere goat is any breed of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the day length shortens and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.

The down is produced by secondary follicles, the guard hair by the primary follicles.

In 1994, China had an estimated population of 123 million goats and is the largest producer of cashmere down. Local breeds are dominant. In the past decades, breeding programs have been started to develop productive breeds. The cashmere goat is a fiber goat along with the Pygora goat, Nigora goat, and the Angora goat.