Breed Profile: Pygora Goat
Ideal Fiber Goats for the Homestead

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The Pygora® goat has a registered trademark that can only be used for goats registered with the Pygora Breeders Association (PBA) and their products. While remaining a multipurpose goat for the homestead, the main breeding goal is for colored fleece. Fleece comes from a goat’s winter undercoat, which in most goats is a short, downy fluff that is shed in spring. The main coat consists of tougher guard hairs, which are renewed in summer.
Cashmere goats grow a thicker undercoat that can be harvested for cashmere fiber. There are various cashmere breeds. The Angora goat‘s undercoat is longer and requires shearing, yielding mohair, while guard hairs are sparse.
Pygora fleeces range between cashmere- or mohair-like coats.
History of the Pygora Goat
Origin
The Pygora breed was developed by Katharine Jorgensen in Oregon in the early 1980s. Jorgensen bred pygmy goats registered with the National Pygmy Goat Association (NPGA) for show and was a 4-H judge. She also enjoyed fiber crafts, spinning wool, knitting, and weaving. When visiting a Navajo reservation, she admired the colored angora goats kept there. Her own goats produced colored cashmere, but in quantities too small to harvest. She imagined the beauty of mohair in the blue-gray Pygmy goat coloration.
Breed Development
After consulting a geneticist on breeding for specific traits, she began crossing her NPGA Pygmy goats with Angoras registered with the American Angora Goat Breeders’ Association (AAGBA). She was aiming for a “mohair-type goat with the best traits of both breeds.” She wanted fine-colored mohair fiber for hand spinning. Her cross initially produced white kids whose fleece was intermediate between mohair and cashmere. However, she persisted in crossing and linebreeding until, after a couple of generations, offspring produced colored fleece. After five years, she achieved her dream of blue-gray fiber.

By 1986, her goats produced fleece in white, silver, and gray and fibers reached five inches long. Careful selection of registered animals has also led to fiber in caramel, brown, black, and in three types: Angora-like (type-A), cashmere-like (type-C), and an intermediate type (type-B).
In 1987, Jorgensen and Chris Utterback, together with eight other breeders, formed the Pygora Breeders Association. Breeders found that the lines bred true and established a standard and a registry. As well as fiber, Jorgensen aimed for a multipurpose goat for the homestead, breeding for good conformation, hardiness, robustness, and natural kidding skills.
Conservation Status
As a modern composite breed, it is not endangered or protected.
Characteristics of Pygora Goats
Description
A medium-sized goat with ample fleece ranging from cashmere to mohair in type. The goats are sturdily built, with balanced proportions, appearing square (back length equaling height to withers) rather than rangy or cobby. Movement should be smooth, graceful, and athletic. The long elegant neck and limbs are well-muscled, the barrel full, and the body appears pear-shaped from above. The udder is medium-sized with teats long enough for milking. The head is medium-sized and horned, with a convex profile, a wide and flat nose, and medium-long ears that are erect or slightly drooping.

The fleece covers the body evenly except for the lower legs and around the eyes, where there is no fleece, and the belly and inside of the legs, where fleece is reduced. The head may have a little fleece, particularly around the jaw and forehead, and beards are common.
Weight
Does average 80 to 120 pounds; bucks 75 to 140 pounds.
Height to Withers
Does average 22 inches, reaching a minimum of 18 inches at two years old. Bucks average 27 inches, reaching a minimum of 23 inches at 2½ years old. There is no maximum size.
Colors
The PBA accepts all colors present in the foundation breeds, Pygmy and Angora. These are basically White, Caramel, Black, Gray Agouti, and Brown Agouti. There may also be a dark dorsal stripe, dark or pale markings on the lower legs or face, and pale frosting on the ears and muzzle. There may be white patches, bands, or spots on the body.

Before the fleece grows and after shearing, the following patterns are seen:
- Caramel coats have red-brown hairs intermingled with white. Individuals vary in the shade of brown hairs and the proportion of white hair in the coats, with an overall appearance from white to dark brown. Lower legs are darker with a paler vertical stripe. The muzzle, forehead, eyes, and ears are paler.
- Agouti coats have brown or black hairs mingled with white. Individuals vary in the proportion of white hair in the coats producing an overall appearance of different shades. The lower limbs have solid color. The muzzle, forehead, eyes, and ears are paler.
- Some Black goats have paler markings on the muzzle, forehead, eyes, and ears, while Solid Black goats and Solid White goats have no markings.
The fleece itself comes in white, black, and shades of gray, brown, and caramel, and is paler than the guard hairs.
Temperament
An alert and inquisitive breed, they are readily trained and befriended, making affectionate companions who are easy to handle and work with.
Adaptability
With proper care and quality feed, goats should stay healthy. Shorn goats need protection from the cold, so adequate shelter and bedding must be available and, in some climates, coats may be required until the fleece grows back. Although Type-B and C shed at least partially in spring, remaining fleece will mat and attract parasites if not harvested. Care must be taken to ensure the doe is of sufficient size to bear the offspring of the buck.

Breeding can occur in spring or fall, with a maximum of three kiddings in two years, although this can be tiring for the doe. Does breed and kid easily, usually producing twins, but quads are not uncommon. They make good mothers, yielding about one quart a day. Kids are normally strong and vigorous.
Biodiversity
The breed combines genetics from selected NPGA Pygmy goats and AAGBA Angora goats, whose ancestors originate in very different environments but are long-established in America. The first cross must be recorded with PBA, but it is not considered Pygora until offspring breed true. Therefore registered crosses and Pygoras are bred to other registered Pygoras or back to NPGA- or AAGBA-registered goats. The ratio of pure Angora or pure Pygmy must not exceed 75% of the goat’s genetic makeup. PBA-registered animals also produce the approved type of fleece. They must also meet the standards for healthy conformation. A minimum height aims to prevent breeders from miniaturizing to excesses that diminish the animals’ strength.

Productivity of the Pygora Goat
Popular Use
Mainly kept for fiber for hand spinning, but may also provide food (milk or meat) for the homestead.
Yield
Goats produce one of three types of fiber:
- Type-A consists of long (averaging six inches), lustrous, silky ringlets similar to mohair. It is usually less than 28 microns thick. Silky guard hairs may be present. Each goat may yield up to three pounds.
- Type-B is strong, lustrous, curly, soft, and fine, averaging three to six inches long and less than 24 microns thick. There may be both stiff and silky guard hairs. Each goat yields an average of one pound.
- Type-C is very soft and fine (less than 18.5 microns thick), matte, and warm, with crimp. It is at least one inch long, usually one to three inches. Each goat may yield eight ounces or more.

From these yields guard hairs must be removed. These may take up to 40% of the yield and are easier to remove from type-C. Type-C fleeces have been accepted as cashmere by commercial fiber processors. As goats age, they continue to produce equally fine fiber.
To harvest the fleece, type-C can be gently plucked or combed when shedding in spring. Other coats will need removing with scissors, shears, or clippers, usually in spring and fall (depending on climate).
“Pygoras are friendly, playful, curious goats. They have the curiosity of a cat and experience their world like a two-year-old human; everything new must be tasted! They like to spend time with their people. It is important to note that, like any animal, a Pygora must be handled properly with love and respect for it to be a trusting, happy, sociable goat.” Pygora Breeders Association.
Sources
Originally published in the Winter 2024 issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.