No, a fleece will not always grade the same. Environmental factors,
type of feed, and aging can all affect micron.
Yes, fleece quality is genetically influenced. And yes, color is
genetic too. My Black Welsh Mountain carries a dominant black gene and
will always produce black when bred with other BWMs. If I breed to
white, I'll get a black lamb that will gray out. I can only get moorit
from those that carry the moorit gene. Even Shetlands have broken down
their variety of colors by genes. Maybe I don't understand the "luck
of the draw" for the breed you're referring to.
When you get an OFDA2000 histogram done on a 12-months growth lamb
fleece, you'll receive back a graph showing the micron along the whole
staple length. You can divide up graph into 12 (for each month) and
see how various things throughout the year affected the sheep.
For instance:
Your graph comes back on a lamb's fleece. The left part of the graph
is the tip end, the right end of the graph is the cut end. Where it
first starts out on the left, that is their genetic potential. That is
a measure of the micron of the wool that they were born with. From
there, there is usually an increase in micron for the next couple of
months from the milk while nursing. Once they're weaned, the micron
decreases. It may not come down to what it was at birth, it may go
lower. Ram lambs usually see an increase when those hormones kick in
and they start breeding, which is why wethers can maintain a lower
micron than rams. If the sheep is sold and transported to another
farm, you can see sharp decline in the micron because of the stress.
Same can happen with illness, or sudden feed changes. We know, without
looking at a micron count that this can cause a break in the fleece.
But, it is neat to see it on paper.
Gabrielle Menn
www.fanfarefarms.com
Once the fleece on a particular sheep has been tested, will it always
grade the same or do the fleeces get coarser as they get older? And is
the fleece quality transferred genetically or by "luck of the draw"
like
coloring?
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