WOOL CLASSING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19864, 11 June 1927, Page 21 (Supplement)

WOOL CLASSING

SAMPLES OF FLEECES A GUIDE TO SUCCESS. An interesting study for winter evenings can be made of the peculiarities of the wool from a farmer’s own sheep, and, especially in the case of the small flockmaster, valuable information may be obtained. In order to undertake this study, it is necessary for the farmer at shearing time to take a fairly wide range of samples from the fleeces o f his breeding flock. As a rule two small samples should be taken from each fleece which he wishes to study—one from the shoulder and one from the breech — and the fleeces from which the samples are taken should cover every type of ewe embodied in his flock, as well as samples from the fleece of every ram which he is using. To save time in taking and labelling the samples during shearing, the farmer should have ready to his hajid in the shed an ample supply of small blank luggage labels such as one can buy by the gross for a shilling or two, and through the eyelet of each should be secured a small rubber band. As the two samples arc taken from each fleece which it is desired later to examine, they are secured each by a separate loop of the rubber band and all details regarding age, condition, block on which wintered, and whether the ewe is wet or dry, should then be scribbled on the label and the sample tossed into a box or other receptacle and carefully put aside when shearing is over. The Fanner’s Job at Shearing. This entails the owner being in the shed and on the board during the whole of the shearing time, and that is where every farmer should be who wishes to improve his flock. In the shed from morning till night he can see how his sheep are coming out of the wool, put a cull mark on those which are obviously weak in wool or constitution, see that the sheep are properly shorn with no 11 second cuts’’ to reduce the value of *his produce, and that the animals are not cut or knocked about by careless shearers or shed hands. Besides these advantages, his continual presence in the shed has a salutary effect on wool rollers, pressers and shed hands, ensuring that the wool will be well skirted and neatly rolled and baled. Presuming that the farmer has taken the trouble to collect and accurately label these wool samples, and has at the same time taken one or two samples of each class into which he has graded his clip for sale, his business in the winter evenings is first of all to sort his samples roughly into the classes they would occupy in his bins. These classes will probably have been made for fineness and strength of staple, and perhaps in some instances for length (or il combing’’ quality) as well. The only technical knowledge that is essential to his study is an understanding of the terms “tops” or counts.” A “count” or “top” is the amount of scoured wool necessary to spin into a thread 560 yards long, thus a very coarse Lincoln fleece, generally about a 32 “count,” would spin thirty-two tops each 560 yards long or in all 17,920 yards of thread to the pound weight of clean scoured wool. The actual spinning quality of the wool depends largely also on the length and soundness of the wool staple, as short stapled or unsound wool will not spin into such a fine or long thread as long sound wool, but in modern usage the term is taken to apply solely to the fineness or coarseness of the fibre. Wool Counts of Various Breeds. Ordinary Lincoln wool (not the very coarsest) will usually go about 36’s; English Leicester, about 40’s; RomneyLincoln first cross about 44’s, and pure Romney about 46’s to 50’s. Finer wools such as Corricdale, Ryeland, Southdown, etc., range from 50’s to 60’s count, while Merino ranges from 60’s to 80’s, and in a few instances to 90’s. An eighty top or count in ’ merino would spin to 14,800 yards of thread, or over 25 miles. The “count” of his wool is only of interest to the grower in that it indicates to him through his wool returns the class of sheep which is most profitable on his farm, but in making this decision it must be remembered that fine wool, on account of its extra spinning quality, and the greater variety of material into which it can be woven, is considerably more valuable, per pound, than coarse wool. Against this, sheep clipping wool of comparatively low count usually cut a greater weight of wool per sheep than do fine wooled sheep. If the same number of fleeces are regularly put into each bale—say 45 or 50 as may be found most suitable to fill the bale —it is an easy calculation to find from the broker’s returns whether the fine-woolcd or strongwooled sheep are producing the greater return per head for wool, irrespective of the price per pound at which it is sold. Sub-Classing for Soundness. With the wool samples arranged before him in classes corresponding with the lots sent forward to the brokers for sale, the farmer should first of all sub-class his samples for faults in the wool indicating delicacy of constitution. These faults may also possibly be caused by extremely unseasonable weather conditions, and are indicated by breaks in the wool fibre or by general 11 tenderness,” or weakness throughout the whole length of the staple, and are frequently but not always accompanied by a tendency to “cott” or felt. The examination of the wool for “breaks” or tenderness should first of all be made by testing the strength of a small lock from each sample between the finger and thumb of each hand. If the wool is sound, a sharp tug will make a sound like a taut bowstring, while if tender or broken, the fibres will part at the weakest spot. The examination for soundness is usually confined to the shoulder sample from each sheep, and the percentage of tender or broken wool in each class should be carefully noted as this is a