RE: [AlpacaTalk] fleece stat averages
Hi Emaly,
I asked Ian Watt a question about the fiber stats.averages, etc. He told me
the fiber stats should be finer in a white than for the colors.with an
expectation of progressively less fineness (adding a micron per color) as
you move from white, beige, fawns, browns, grays to the blacks. So, you
might want to see a 14 micron white for a top quality weanling.but the same
quality might be a 17 micron black at the same age. They just have not
progressed as much with keeping micron counts in colored animals as fine as
the whites, probably because of the South American emphasis on whites over
all other colors in their original breeding programs before we imported to
USA.
Ian also told me that the "benchmark" year is the tui or second cutting
fleece. While we all enjoy the very buttery, fine cria fleeces.it is that
second fleece that is more accurately indicative of the animal's overall
ability to have a fine, dense fleece.
We look for a Standard of Deviation around 4.0 and expect to have it stay
under 5 if we are going to buy that animal who is just coming into maturity.
I also like to see a Coefficient of Variation which remains under 19..and
frequently you will see that number be higher the first year, then less as
the animal matures to the second year. It is the variation which will give
an overall feeling of softness and non-scratchiness to a fleece which may
not be as fine as your hand tells you it is. If the fleece has very
little variation, the micron may not be as low as the overall quality feel
makes you believe, so having the whole fleece be consistent is almost the
most important characteristic. There is an interplay between the two
numbers so if one rises, the other falls somewhat. If you have a very old
animal with lots of fibers over 30 micron.the CV gets LESS.because the whole
animal is coarse, so the variation is small!
Also, as the animal ages, having a low variation over all the fleece makes
even the coarser fleeces seem to have a nicer feel. Prickles come from
feeling coarser fibers next to soft ones. When we are looking at breeding
stock I like to see histogram figures over several years and I look more for
a small but consistent "decay" in the figures as the micron count creeps up
with maturity and pregnancy. If there is a sudden "blow out" of micron
count or either SD or CV.then look to outside factors to see if there were
stressors to explain the sudden degradation of the fleece.if a Mom has an
exceptionally greedy cria..then her own fiber stats may show some extra
losses.but those can be explained by that added stress. On the other hand,
if a herdsire suddenly jumps in his micron count and his numbers decay.but
he's not suddenly tripling his time on herdsire row. maybe he's not the
right animal for your breeding program!
Ian is a really wonderful mentor..you should ask him also for more
information.
learned.
We were truly blessed this winter when one of our new crias was a solid bay
black girl with a starting micron count of only 15.3.we doubt it will last,
but it is extremely fine for a dark cria and if she even comes close at a
year..it will be worth watching her closely. I hope you have even more luck
than that!
Best Regards,
Allison
From: AlpacaTalk@yahoogro
Behalf Of Emaly Leak
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:45 PM
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogro
Subject: [AlpacaTalk] fleece stat averages
I am on the search for a new fiber alpaca, and want to make sure that I'm
getting the best fleeced animal that I can find. What would you estimate to
be averages for a fleece shorn at 1 year old, 2 years old, & 3 years old?
What about microns at each year? Even rough estimates would be greatly
appreciated- I don't know much about the particulars of alpaca fleece! For
reference, this would be for a gelded white huacaya male (I know color can
make a difference in microns). Thanks for any information you can share.
Emaly Leak
Autumn Hill Llamas & Fiber
llamapyr25@earthlin
www.autumnhillllama
Fairland, IN
Llamas, Alpacas, German Angora Rabbits, and Fiber Items
Female & Male Llamas For Sale
Outside Breedings available to ALSA Halter Champion Male
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
posted by Chaddo at 11:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home