The Angora goat, the cashmere goat, and the goats that feed most of the world.
Mohair comes from the Angora goat, named for Ankara in Turkey. Shiny and strong, it takes dye brilliantly. Angora goats came to the United States in 1849, and Texas's Edwards Plateau became the world's second great mohair region. (Angora yarn, confusingly, comes from the Angora rabbit.)
The goat behind fuzzy, glowing yarns.
Cashmere is the fine down that goats of cold highlands grow under their coarse outer hair, combed out each spring. A single goat gives only a few ounces a year, which is why it is costly. Mongolia and China produce most of it; overgrazing by cashmere herds is now a serious problem on the Mongolian steppe.
Luxury yarn with a hidden cost to grasslands.
Most of the world's goats are kept for milk and meat, not fiber. They browse brush that cattle will not eat, which makes them useful for clearing land, and goat milk cheeses come from almost every herding culture.
The world's most common farm animal in poorer countries.