Changes in fleece characteristics of yearling Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat

The Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat is a subpopulation of the Inner Mongolian Cashmere goat which produced a very fine cashmere. In the last years, textile industry addressed particular attention in the cashmere produced by the youngest cashmere goats especially on changes in fleece characteristics during the first year of life. This study described the coat development in Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat kids in the first year of life, from three months of age until the first combing season. Twelve does born on January 2009 were selected at random from the herd located in the Station for Livestock Improvement of Alashan. Fleece sampling started at April 2009 and was repeated monthly till February 2010. The analysis of variance showed that the length of down hair and guard hair, the cashmere diameter and coefficient of variation of diameter were significantly influenced by the age. Furthermore, the study revealed that the kids bear the down hair from birth. The length of the down hair increased for the first five months of life until the first moult in June-July at around 5–6 months of age. On the contrary, no shedding of the guard hair was observed. In fact, the guard hair of the kids continued to increase in length until the goats were 13 months old. These results suggest an asynchronous pattern of moulting of the birth double-coat. Moreover, the baby down hair shedded during the first moult was finest (on average <1 μm) respect the adult cashmere. Our results suggest that between June and July breeders should practice early combing of the 6 months old goats separately from older animals in order to collect lots of finest cashmere.