KEY POINTS:
The reputation of angora goats as a viable farming proposition - tarred by 1980s investment fever - is bouncing back as rock-bottom wool and lamb returns force sheep farmers to broaden their horizons.
Goat farming suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1980s when an unsustainable angora boom crashed and burned.
Although goat meat is fetching only slightly more than lamb, it is demand for the angora goat's mohair fibres that has sparked interest.
This time it is not city-based investors fuelling a bubble but sheep farmers looking at ways to circumvent the high New Zealand dollar and what some consider to be questionable marketing structures.
Next to wool - now earning an average less than $2/kg - the appeal of mohair is clear, commanding on average $17/kg and sometimes up to $30/kg.
"Amid all the doom and gloom about sheep, the unsung hero among meat and fibre producers is the mohair goat," said Federated Farmers' Keith Kelly.
"It's something worth diversifying into and getting a better return," he said. "Lamb at the moment is down - it's not going to stay down forever but the more diversification you've got, the better."
The goat industry talks of a "crazy" time in the 1980s when investors seeking exposure to the corporate farming sector traded goats like shares.
To meet insatiable demand, thousands of animals were sourced from Australia, with some bucks selling for more than $100,000 at the height of the fever.
As the number of angoras farmed in New Zealand expanded exponentially, feral animals were redomesticated and angora bucks crossed with other breeds, ultimately leading to variable-quality mohair. At its peak, New Zealand produced almost 500 tonnes of rather low quality mohair. But a change in taxation rules burst the bubble, leaving goat farming's reputation in tatters.
Despite that, some 800 mohair farmers have persevered and are now producing around 80,000kg a year of much higher quality mohair.
Gary Boyle runs about 1800 angora goats alongside 800 cattle and 1000 sheep on a farm near Waipukurau.
He said the animals sourced from Australia back in the 1980s exhibited inferior qualities when compared with today's specimens.
For example, the amount of fleece each animal produced a year had doubled to 5kg to 6kg through breeding with South African stock, and undesirable fibre qualities had been reduced appreciably.
Boyle said returns from lamb and wool were so poor that he cut sheep numbers every year. "The last time I got paid decently for wool was 1988."
He did not believe that would change within his farming lifetime. But he recognised great potential in angora, on several fronts.
First, there were the returns of up to $30/kg for superfine mohair from kids. Even the urine-stained fleece outstrips wool, earned more than $3/kg.
In addition, goats were "extremely complementary to cattle", conditioning the pasture by keeping it free of weeds and thistles.
"I can save $10,000 to $20,000 a year on weed spray," he said.
World production of mohair peaked in 1986 at about 26 million kilograms, but after the bubble burst it has stabilised at between 6 and 6.5 million kilograms.
While the United States, South Africa and Turkey dominate world mohair production, droughts in South Africa have slashed its exports and less now comes out of Texas, presenting greater opportunities for New Zealand.
Traditionally demand has come from Japan and Italy, but England and Belgium - and more recently China - are now major buyers.
However, the major hurdle for those who would expand into mohair is a lack of breeding stock. But embryo transplants are an option and pure-bred mohair can be bred up within five generations, Boyle said.
Leslee McGovern, who farms 500 goats alongside 100 beef cattle near Cambridge, said that while there might be huge demand for fibre, there was not enough stock around as most goat farmers had small numbers on lifestyle blocks. "We need people with bigger blocks."
She said returns from mohair had weathered the currency fluctuations that had devastated sheep and had held up well over the past 18 months.
Mohair New Zealand chairwoman Dawn Pirani, who farms goats between Tauranga and Takanini, said industry research into improving immunity to parasites and footrot would be released next month, as would the latest production figures.
Kelly said that great strides had been made in solving problems that historically made goats difficult to farm.
"Goat is coming on in leaps and bounds but it's in such small numbers they need a boost."
While Kelly was keen to encourage diversification, he was clear that farmers should not forsake sheep ahead of talks between New Zealand and its British counterparts next month aimed at solving the situation of meagre returns.
"If you stick to your industry, it will come right. The goat industry is a prime example that with dedication and hard work you can pull your own industry through."
