Lloyd Short, an Angora goat farmer and owner of Borden Farming in Robert Sobukwe Town, South Africa, has won first place at the 2026 Daïdoh Championship Mohair Awards. The ceremony was held in Robert Sobukwe Town on 12 November, alongside the Angora Stud Breeders Society's stud ewe auction and gala dinner.
The awards go to the South African Angora farmers whose summer kid mohair clips fetch the highest average prices. They mark a decades-long relationship between Mohair South Africa (MSA) and Daïdoh, a Japanese textile and apparel company that buys South African mohair for its premium collections, and have been running for more than 30 years.
Short told Farmer's Weekly he has entered the competition for 15 to 20 years and has been classing mohair since 1988. A good summer kid clip, he said, takes about six months of work, from the birth of the kids to preparing their fibre for shearing, with consistent genetic selection and careful preparation of the animals. He classes the clip himself. "I do that myself to make sure the right fibre ends up in the right bale," he said.
His advice to other farmers was to stick to the fundamentals: "Invest in good-quality genetics, get your hair sorting right, and pay attention to dipping and preparation."
Second place went to David Short of David Short Farming, also of Robert Sobukwe Town, third to Bernard Delport of Delport Broers Boerdery in De Rust, fourth to Paul Webber of PF Webber in KwaMaqoma and fifth to Jordi van Hasselt of Van Hasselt Farming in Prince Albert.
MSA chairperson Chris Hobson told the gathering that international partnerships are fundamental to a sustainable future for the industry, and MSA general manager Marco Coetzee called the evening a proud moment for one of South Africa's most prized agricultural exports.
Photo: EricFuchs / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa
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