A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the days get shorter and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.

The goat or domestic goat is a species of domesticated goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the bezoar ibex of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the family Bovidae, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. It is one of the oldest domesticated species of animal - according to archaeological evidence its earliest domestication occurred in Iran at 10,000 calibrated calendar years ago.