The use of dyebanding for measuring wool production and fleece tip wear in rugged and unrugged sheep

Abstract

Forty fine-wool Merinos grazed sown pastures and 40 grazed on weedy unimproved areas for 2 years. The sheep were dyebanded at intervals, and the weight of wool lost from the fleece tip was estimated from sequentially harvested sets of staples. Half the sheep in each group were fitted with woven polyethylene coats. In year 1, an estimated 4.2% of wool grown was lost from the fleece tip of unrugged sheep and 7.0% in year 2; losses from rugged sheep were 1.2 and 1.8 respectively. However, rugging had no effect on the quantity of clean scoured wool harvested each year, as rugged sheep grew slightly but consistently less wool than the controls. Rugging increased the percentage of clean scoured wool obtained from fleeces in the poor environment by 6 percentage points, but did not affect it on good pastures. Little difference in processing attributes was found in wool from rugged and unrugged sheep when assessed in bulk for commercial processing, although rugged wool was valued at 9% higher in one year. The length between bands on staples retained on the sheep for 32 weeks was shorter than between corresponding bands on adjacent staples that were removed from the sheep and stored for 32 weeks. The reduction was 13–22% on unrugged and 3–14% on rugged sheep. Attempts to use length or fibre diameter measurements to predict the weight of wool grown were unsuccessful. Theoretical considerations in the technique of dyebanding are discussed, and details of a recommended procedure are presented as an appendix.