CARPET WOOL PROJECT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30568, 10 October 1964, Page 8

CARPET WOOL PROJECT

TJEADERS of these pages * will recall that in the past year or so two references have been made to the work being done with special carpet-wool sheep known as Drysdales or N-type Romneys to evaluate their usefulness under farming conditions and also to test further this type of wool under manufacturing. The investigations are being made by Overseas Carpets (New Zealand), Ltd., and Massey University in conjunction with farmers in Southland, Otago and the Manawatu.

One of the properties where these sheep are being bred is that of Mr R. J. Reid, at Outram. His sheep were inspected this week by Professor A. L. Rae, of Massey University, and Mr -R. C. Edwards, spinning mill manager for Overseas Carpets, writes an Otago correspondent. Professor Rae recalled that Dr. F. W. Dry had done some notable work on the hair of mice before becoming one of the first members of Massey’s staff, and, when subsequently at Massey he joined a group studying the problem of hairiness in apparel wool, he tackled it from the genetic viewpoint. He was particularly interested in the N-type strain in Romneys in which the inheritance of wool type was governed by one

gene, which made it particularly suitable for wool inheritance studies.

What are now called Drysdales are descended from a particularly hairy ram lamb with which Dr. Dry was presented about 30 years ago. It was realised that the fleece produced might be useful as a carpet wool. In the first stage of the manufacture of good quality carpet yarns, different types of wool are blended. New Zealand exports crutchings and second-shear wool to the United States for carpet manufacture and imports Scottish Blackface wool. Overseas Carpets, a consortium of British exporters formed to manufacture in this country, wished to establish its own source of raw material.

When the company was refused Government permission to import a basic flock of Scottish Blackface sheep to produce carpet wool, Massey agreed to make Drysdale rams available for evaluation of the type under farm conditions. Mr Reid and Mr V. C. Chewings, of Mossburn, were approached by the company in 1962. They agreed to establish flocks and Mr Reid received three rams which were mated with 300-odd Romney ewes. Some of the lambs born that October had coats practically indistinguishable

from those of their dams; others had coats as coarse as those of their sires. Shorn as lambs, they yielded about 3i lb of wool—as much as was obtained from Romneys under the same conditions. All ram lambs were castrated and those which threw to the Romney sent for slaughter. The rest were run on the higher tussock as Mr Reid considers it quite important that, with carpet wool commanding a premium, the wethers should be worth keeping for wool production. The first ewe offspring, mated as two-tooths, are now lambing. It was these lambs which Professor Rae had come to see as it is only in the first month that the true Drysdale progeny can be distinguished. Similar So far, Mr Reid says, the Drysdales seem to have much the same characteristics, apart from their fleece, as other Romneys. The mature sheep carries less fat, is leggier than the Romney and has a clear face. The rams and some of the ewes have horns.

He is in an excellent position to study the performance of the Drysdales as he runs a basic Romney ewe flock bred to Romney rams for replacements and to Southdown rams for fat lambs. The risk of these getting mixed with the Drysdales is negligible as each Drysdale has an ear tag and is permanently marked as well.

Mr Reid plans to go on until he has 1000 Drysdale ewes. Overseas Carpets had used the Drysdale wool in producing super-white yarn and found it ideal, Mr Edwards said. It was unlikely that the Drysdale wool would ever be as coarse as that of the Scottish Blackface, but it was the most suitable available in Australia and New Zealand. Drysdale had two advantages over Blackface, he said. It was free from kemp and coloured fibres, both of which were a problem with the imported wool.