PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Mark Langford, president of the Mohair Council of America, checks on goats at his ranch between Adamsville and Rumley. The number of Angora goats in Texas has declined to 225,000, down from about 1.1 million in the 1990s. Cattle ranchers aren't the only agricultural producers affected by Texas' rapid urbanization and demographic changes.

As large properties sell and both herd size and the number of Angora goat producers decrease, the mohair industry also has had to diversify.

Although Texas produces most of the United States' mohair exports, the number of Angoras in Texas has declined from 1.1 million in the 1990s to about 225,000.

At the same time, the mohair industry is aging.

"We don't see many young people coming into the business," said Mark Langford, president of the Mohair Council of America. "They can make more money in the city."

The Mohair Council of America, a producer organization based in San Angelo, is trying to counter that trend by developing products to supplement income from the kid mohair sold to fashion designers.

After studying a variety of value-added products, the council launched Christoval Carpets, a luxury rug and carpet company based in West Texas. Christoval Carpets uses adult mohair, the thickest of the three mohair types, to generate income from a fiber not often sold to fashion buyers.

In addition, the Mohair Council's three-year-old company The Mohair Exchange produces saddle blankets and cinch cords. Mohair works well for the cords, Langford said, because although soft, it is the second-strongest natural fiber.

"Our push in both of the companies is to promote young goat and adult mohair," Langford said.

"The kid and finer fibers usually take care of themselves in high-end fashion."

Since beginning his term as president in January, Langford has focused on strengthening the Mohair Council's two new companies. He will travel to China and the Philippines in October to check on Christoval's hand-tufted carpets. Contact with manufacturers in Belgium and Mexico, and with carpet yarn producers in Peru, also keeps Langford busy.

An Angora goat produces only about 10 pounds of mohair per year. In addition, the costly "worsting" process -- longer and more complicated than the method of processing wool -- tends to result in high prices for products made from all grades of mohair.

Although he considers them "high end," Langford believes the carpets, rugs and equine products marketed by the Mohair Council are finding a niche among American consumers. Christoval Carpets projects about $1 million in sales this year.

"It seems like our products have been really well received," he said. "We were concerned about the downturn of the economy, but it really hasn't affected us in the least."

The decline in Angora numbers, however, concerns many ranchers. At the mohair industry's peak, sometimes as much as 20 million pounds of fiber sat unsold in warehouses across the state, Langford said. Now, producers struggle to get enough mohair to market, he said.

"Our big push has been marketing, but now the concern is production," Langford said. "We just don't have the supply."

Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's extension service in San Angelo, the Mohair Council is educating new landowners about opportunities in mohair production.

While ranchers still face the traditional challenges -- maintaining fences, guarding their animals from parasites and protecting goats from predators -- the decline in mohair production also leaves ranchers with fewer options for shearing their goats and storing mohair.

Langford, who has been raising goats in Lampasas County for about 25 years, said 10 to 12 shearing crews used to serve the Central Texas area. Now he knows of only two crews and hires workers from Rock Springs for the twice-annual shearings at his ranch.

"Used to, we'd call and tell them when we wanted to shear," Langford said. "Now we ask them when they can come and shear. We're sort of at their mercy."

The closure of small-town warehouses also has forced ranchers to transport their goods farther than in years past. Although Lampasas and Lometa used to have wool and mohair warehouses, the closest warehouse now is in Kerrville, Langford said.

Many ranchers supplement their mohair income with profits from other undertakings, he said. Along with operating his ranch and leading the Mohair Council, Langford runs a small trucking company and sells blood from his goats to a firm that supplies serum and cultures to major pharmaceutical companies.

"It's been a struggle to stay in the mohair business, like all agriculture," Langford said.

"I always tell people I run the trucking company to support my ranching habit. A fellow has to be diversified these days."