AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE DIAMETER OF WOOL FIBRE

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the dynamics of age-related changes in the
diameter of Jalgin merino wool fiber of different lines. Experimental studies were carried out
in 2015-2017 years in the Agricultural Production Cooperative "Plemzavod Vtoraya Pyatiletka"
of the Ipatovsky District of Stavropol Territory on 3 groups of haggerels of Jalgin merino breed,
derived from the ewes lines of "fine", "medium" and "strong". The average diameter of wool
fibers was measured on the device OFDA-2000. It was carried out among all animals aged of
4, 10 and 14 months with the calculation of the standard deviation and the variation factor in
the diameter of wool fiber, comfort factor. It was determined that the wool coarsening rate was
faster among young cattle of the 3rd group, which had the largest diameter of wool fibers at
four-month-old age. The least change of the wool fiber diameter had sheep from the 1st group.
In the 2nd group the process of fiber coarsening was intermediate. During the experimental
period, the diameter of wool increased in the 1st group by 2.2 microns or 12.4%, in the 2nd group
– by 2.94 or 15.6%, in the 3rd group – by 4.15 microns or 20.5%. It was found that there was an
age-related increase of imbalance in the diameter of wool fiber. At the same time the wool
fibers diameter of animals of all groups remained well-aligned in the staple at age of 14 months.
Comfort factor, which showed the proportion of fibers with diameter of 30 microns or less, was
in the 1st and 2nd groups 100 and 99%, in the 3rd group – 92.2%. It was concluded that the
dynamics of the wool diameter change was determined by the genotype of parents and the wool
fiber diameter of young cattle before ablactation.