Alpago Cashmere goats live their entire lives with us. In Tambre, in the province of Belluno, in our beautiful mountains at 900 meters above sea level.
We choose as our basic principle to dedicate ourselves exclusively to the development and enhancement of their attitude: the cashmere fibre.
Through mating management, in addition to improving the fiber, we decide the number of births to avoid an exceeding number of kids.
An entire life spent with us, constant and daily care of nutrition and monitoring of their health (through prevention health protocols).
The goat breed on our farm comes from Central Asia and is particular because it is different from the Italian tradition of the most common dairy or food supply chains. But this goat in Italy found its valorization thanks to the renowned history of Made in Italy in the fields of fashion and crafts.
The Alpago Cashmere flock was born from pure-bred animals, selected over the years by a genetic improvement project developed in Italy.
Each goat has a name, which very often recalls the names of the mountains or the places that surround us.
This “identity” is a choice to make people understand the close link that has existed for thousand of years between the fundamental grazing activities of animals and the maintenance of biodiversity.
Goats promote the care of our land, understood both in the sense of tidiness and order, but also in the sense of integrity of the many species of flora. At the same time, thanks to grazing, the fertilization of the soil is also archieved. The goat grazes the grass and returns it to nature in the form of fertilizer, which improves the pasture in the following period.
Identity because we experience cashmere on a daily basis, because first we are breeders, and then we are also the artisan who work the yarn into the finished products.
Martina
We manage the flock in 2 groups, the female goats on one side and the male goats on the other, who live separately during the year. Once a year, respecting the natural reproductive period of the animals, we bring together the best breeders with the aim of perpetuating, maintaining and improving the genetics which brings with it the most noble qualities of one of the finest fibres in the world: cashmere.
In this way we can also decide when the birth occurs, anticipating it before the combing period begins.
The results from the analysis of our cashmere, in collaboration with an important Italian University, allow us to have the essential information for choosing the females and males to mate.
This allows for an improvement of the cashmere fiber, through the reproduction of the best genetics. Furthermore, in this way, we always manage to know which is the father of the new kids that are born, thus allowing us over time to know the family tree of each goat (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc….) .
The success of the grazing activity is a team effort between the goats and us farmers. In fact, we are the ones who decide where to place the fences that define the grazing area (non-extensive grazing), also to avoid damaging crops, neighborhood vegetable gardens or trees that need to be protected. In fact, goats are especially fond of undergrowth flora and tree bark.
For this reason their grazing must be managed wisely. The case is different when their activity works in team with men, for example when we decide to include some trees in grazing areas with the intention of cutting them down for wood: the goats eat the bark and the plant dries up and is ready to be cut by man.
Grazing activity is fundamental, especially in the mountains where we are, because it helps to contain the excessive growth of the forest.
Pictures from a few decades ago portray our territory rich in meadows used for grazing and fodder for feeding animals during the winter season. With the sharp decline or even dropping of the grazing activities, over time the territory has been colonized by thick woods. With the consequent approaching of wildlife and their predators closer to urban centers. Our territory is inhabited by roe deer, deer, chamois, foxes, hares and wolves.
From late spring to early autumn the goats spend their days inside mobile electrified fences that we install on a weekly basis to move them from one pasture to another as soon as they have finished all the grass in the plot. This system allows the delimitation of the area and also the control of parasites thanks to the frequent rotation of the grazing areas.
Winter:
The goats with protection dogs remain in the same place. Each group spends their winter days in a stable that we keep open, giving the animals the opportunity to “do what they want“. Winter is the peak season fot the growth of cashmere, so they so not suffer from being exposed to cold winter temperatures, which here can also reach -10 degrees below zero. The snow is not a problem for them, so goats and dogs spend their time outside enjoying the white landscape. Obviously the area available to them outside the stable is always surrounded by mobile electrified fences, to protect from predators. During the winter (generally in January – February) kids are born. All our mothers are very competent and dedicate themselves with care to newborns. We do not isolate them in any way but let the mothers introduce the newborns to the rest of the group and facilitate integration, starting from the second day after birth. During the winter the goats feed on hay, which we prepared during the summer.
Spring:
It is the long-awaited season, both for the awakening of nature and vegetation, and for the combing of cashmere which we carry out from March to May. When the days begin to get longer and mild temperatures begin, cashmere goats molt, i.e. they shed their precious undercoat.
Summer:
It is the season of the pastures which we change on a weekly basis and of the fodder. It is important for us to be able to be self-sufficient in the procurement of hay, the only winter food resource. This allows us to be sustainable and above all to be aware of what our animals eat, taking care of the processing ourselves. At the same time, just like the action of grazing, fodder is also an activity that contributes to the care of the territory and the enrichment and conservation of its biodiversity.
Autumn:
The days are increasingly shorter, the grass is less and less abundant, and for this reason we move the goats more frequently into the pens. The leaves of the trees change color and the autumn landscape becomes a painting. The leaves are also useful as food.
