Characteristics of Cashmere wool
The prized Cashmere goats are animals with very different characteristics from one another. For example, we can say that the cashmere fiber produced can vary greatly depending on the animal's age: the younger it is, the finer the fiber. Another varying aspect is the color of the cashmere: from cream to gray, from hazelnut to black.
All of this happens because, up to this point, genetic selections have not yet been carried out. We are just at the beginning of this type of selection, and in fact, such a practice has only recently started among European, American, and Australian breeders.
For now, the selection of goats is based on a particular characteristic: resistance to cold temperatures that are extreme for humans but not for the Hircus goat: minus 30° C. To reach these temperatures and thus produce high-quality cashmere fiber, the animal must necessarily have a strong and resistant fleece, but above all, it must have a dense and very warm undercoat: the thinnest and finest part that we now know, called "duvet."
Probably, if genetic selection or perhaps genetic manipulation is practiced on the animals that produce this precious wool in the future, what we already see in other fields of agriculture and animal husbandry might occur: the productive capacity of the farms will increase exponentially, but at the same time, there will be a significant reduction in both the selling price and the quality of the wool produced. For now, however, we must take advantage of the current quality standard of Cashmere.
