Abstract
ABSTRACT The current study investigated the possible application of the FibreLux Micron MeterTM (FibreLux) instrument for the on-farm measurement of the diameter of greasy mohair staples. Initially, the effects of arrangement of the fibers in the specimen holder and that of solvent cleaning were investigated. It was found that a random arrangement of the fibers in the specimen holder produced more accurate and reproducible results, than when the fibers were aligned parallel (to the length of the specimen holder). The solvent cleaning had a statistically significant effect (p < .05) on the results, with the average of the mean fiber diameter (MFD) for the clean staple samples being 1.21 µm lower (finer) than that for the greasy staples. A good correlation (R = 0.95) was found between the FibreLux greasy staple results and those of the OFDA100 clean staples, the latter being used as the reference. The FibreLux values were, on average, some 0.80 µm lower than those of the OFDA100. It was concluded that the FibreLux holds significant promise for determining the fiber diameter of greasy mohair staples, but this should be validated by further trials, preferably “on farm” field trials, to determine the number of staples that need to be measured for each goat.
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