HAIR IN WOOL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19443, 31 October 1925, Page 23 (Supplement)

HAIR IN WOOL

TROUBLE IN ROMNEY FLEECES. An interesting statement regarding the controversey as to hair in Romney fleeces, is made by Mr. G. P. Reed, wool expert, just returned from a trip to England, where he attended a conference between Dominion woolgrowers and the Bradford Chamber of Commerce. Air. Reed said there was no doubt that Air. Akroyd had gone carefully into the question and could prove his case. At the conference Air'Akroyd had produced samples of New Zealand Romney wool with hairs amongst the wool fibres. This means a big loss annually to woolgrowcrs, because w T ool containing hairs has to be graded lower than otherwise for manufacturing purposes. Air. Akroyd’s theory was that a bad strain of Romney blood had got into Dominion flocks, and careful selection of rams over a long period would be the only solution. Mr. Reid added that for many years he had held the opinion that much of the local Romney wool was not of the highest quality, and he believed that there were few flocks in the district which would not show hair fibres. It was hard to accurately estimate the losses to grow’ers every year, but they must be very considerable.