Camelids
Upcoming Events
New York State Fiber Conference
June 9, 2024, 9:30 to 4:00
Butternut Hill Campground, 6893 US Route 20, Bouckville NY 13310
For conference agenda and registration:
https://caahp.ccext.net/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=193
Advance registration required by June 3, 2024. Conference is limited to the first 50 participants.
New York Veterans' registration fee reimbursed by the Farm Ops Program.
Registration questions: contact Dara Boudreaux, tff24@cornell.edu
Quality Matters
Beginners as well as more experienced fiber producers are sure to gain valuable hands-on skills and knowledge with respect to fiber quality and what to look for. You will be physically touching, feeling and seeing the difference between various fiber and fleece types in the presence of an instructor. The instructor will display and demonstrate what you need to look for in a quality fleece or fiber. You will also learn how to skirt a fleece and what the best uses are for the different fibers. There will also be a sheep shearing demonstration with a commentary on what needs to be done at this stage to insure the best quality.
Participants will go away with an understanding of the different certification programs and how they might be beneficial to their farm business.
About Sheep & Goats
Sheep and goats are well suited to take advantage of the forages that grow in New York state. The abundant grass for hay and pastures, along with existing farm buildings that can be adapted for use by sheep and goats makes them an appealing farm operation for many families.
Sheep and goats are very versatile, producing meat, milk, and fiber. Many people are not aware that sheep milk is used to make cheese and yogurt and goat fiber is used to make cashmere and angora textiles.
Getting started in sheep and goats is less expensive than larger livestock and they are nice size animals for a family project. On a larger scale, they can be an efficient commercial operation and even take advantage of grazing solar arrays. The northeast has a big market for lamb and goat meat which is quite different from the markets in other parts of the country.
While sheep and goats are decreasing nationally they are increasing in New York State (As of Jan 2022 18,000 meat goats, 11,700 milk goats, and 80,000 sheep in NYS - according to USDA-NASS data).
Sheep are used to graze solar arrays, ski slopes, and parks to save on mowing.
Sheep tails go down and goat tails go up.
Some sheep have wool and are sheared once or twice a year and some have hair that doesn’t require shearing.
Goats are thought of as dairy animals but cashmere is the soft undercoat from cashmere goats and angora is the long curly locks from angora goats.
Goats and sheep have singles, twins, triplets, and even quadruplet babies.
