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Understanding Wool Growth

Sheep lambing in winter produce more wool than those lambing in spring, and researchers want to know why. PhD student Paul Kendall has been studying seasonality and wool growth at AgResearch Ruakura in a joint project between AgResearch and the Department of Animal Science at Massey University.

Improving wool production in the national spring-lambing flock to the same level shown by the autumn- and winter-lambing ewes would improve production efficiency and fibre quality, benefiting farmers and the wool industry.

Kendall's role has been to pinpoint the periods of minimal wool growth in winter and spring lambing ewes, and relate these to changes in fibre characteristics and hormone concentrations. He has been determining how changing levels of maternal hormones prior to lambing affects ewe wool growth. He has already narrowed this minimal wool growth period down to the last two months of pregnancy, and it is hoped further tests will focus this even further.

A full year's growth will eventually be tracked using a more sensitive technique measuring wool growth of individual fibres in addition to measuring fleece growth rate. This fundamental research into wool growth should provide valuable information on positive ways of influencing seasonal wool growth.

The study involves managing sheep indoors on a controlled diet and under controlled lighting. Nutrition may play a part in the seasonality of wool growth, but controlling conditions of diet helps to eliminate this effect, so the study can focus on those other influences of wool growth.