The agricultural industry in the UK is under increasing pressure to diversify its forms of production. One of the potentially most viable options suited to hill and upland farms is the production of cashmere, the fine undercoat produced by down bearing goats. Currently no breed of cashmere goat exists in the U.K. which meets market requirements, however, i.e. large quantities of fine, white cashmere. This paper presents results from a crossbreeding trial with Scottish Feral goats and several exotic lines of cashmere goats, the first step in improving production, and it considers future selection plans for improving cashmere production traits.

Cashmere fibre production was evaluated on Scottish Feral goats (F) and on goats imported from Iceland (I), Tasmania (T), New Zealand (N) and Siberia (S), and on two and three way crosses between the F and exotic lines. These goats are owned by a group of commercial farmers, along with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, forming a group known as Cashmere Breeders Limited.