INFLUENCE OF NON-GENETIC FACTORS ON QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF WOOL FROM SHEEP REARED AT RWALAKOT AZAD JAMMU & KASHMIR

Published: November 20, 2011

By: Muhammad Akhtar Qureshi, Shahazad Akbar Khan, Muhammad Shafique , Naveed Sabir and Gulzar Ahmed

Summary

The data on body weight and greasy wool yield was collected from 35 animals maintained in the HEC-sponsored project at Faculty Experimental Farm, during July, 2007 to July, 2009. The animals were weighed in the first week of each month and shorn annually in March. The wool samples were collected from different parts of body and analyzed for various parameters at NARC wool laboratory, Islamabad. The least squares means for annual greasy fleece yield, staple length, fiber diameter, medullation, clean yield percent, clean wool yield and wool bulk were 2.28±0.20 kg, 7.66±0.44cm, 26.23±0.60 percent, 69.67±2.34 percent, 1.59±0.14 kg cm3/gm, respectively. The analysis of variance revealed that the years of shearing and breed were the significant (P<0.05) sources of variation for greasy fleece yield, however, sex showed non significant difference. The least squares means for greasy fleece yield was 2.29±0.10 kg 2.84±0.91 and 2.34±0.09,kg during 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively. However, least squares means for Crossbred, Poonchi and Rambuillet genotype was 2.19±0.08, 1.92±0.12 and 2.36±0.091kg, respectively. The annual greasy fleece yield was 2.15±0.135 and 2.17±0.05 kg in male and female lambs, respectively. The differences due to year of shearing was significant (P<0.05), however, sex and breed were non significant for staple length. Least squares means for staple length (cm) during the study period (2007-09) was 8.75±0.58, 7.75±0.53 and 9.46±0.53 cm, however, 8.88±0.05, 7.89±0.67 and 9.00±0.48 cm, for Crossbred, Poonchi and Rambuillet genotypes, respectively. Males produced more staple length (9.01±0.78 cm) when compared with female lambs (8.09±0.29 cm). Least squares means for fiber diameter and medullation were 27.47±0.09, 26.77±0.65, 27.06±0.65 micron and 6.40±1.28, 5.77±1.17, 5.89±1.17 percent during 2007 through 2009, respectively. However, least squares means for Crossbred, Poonchi and Rambuillet sheep were 26.36±0.83, 27.93±0.58 and 20.02±0.65 cm and 3.08±1.49, 8.89±1.05 and 6.09±1.17 percent respectively. There was an over all improvement in greasy wool yield in crossbred lambs over that of the local Poonchi sheep. Crossing of local sheep with exotic Rambouillet results in the over all improvement in wool quality. However, it was recommended that the estimated environmental effects are important and needs more extensive study on a large volume of data. The base for this purpose has been established to study the magnitude of genetic and non genetic factors for improvement and planning in sheep breeding in future. Keywords: Sheep, Rawalakot, Non-Genetic Factors, Fleece yield, Staple length

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