A domesticated ruminant mammal, sure footed and happy living in difficult areas such as mountains and deserts. They are herded for their milk (therefore cheese and yoghurt,) meat, and for their hair, which is either shorn or collected from the spring moult.
The quality of goat hair improves with hardy conditions, as goats grows a thicker finer protective coat close to their body, beneath the longer guard hair. Goats provide the textile world with its most luxurious natural fibres: cashmere, pashmina and shatoush. The coarse guard hair makes up into extremely hard wearing and durable floor coverings such as dhurries, and as the vital ingredient in the bomb proof Tretford cord (TM).