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Effects of Chemical Shearing on Wool Fleeces

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Abstract

Recent publications have pointed out that sheep shearing is becoming a serious problem because of the shortage of experienced shearers in many areas (Dolnick et al., 1969) and that the possibility of chemical shearing offers a number of advantages over conventional shearing (Terrill, 1969). In 1968, Homan, Zendzian and Busey induced wool loss in two Suffolk sheep, poodle dogs and Angora rabbits after intravenous doses of cyclophosphamide. Tests of cyclophosphamide ⁴ as a possible defleecing agent were then made at Beltsville, beginning in June 1968. As a result of these studies, further work was conducted to determine the relative advantages, if any, of chemical defleecing over conventional shearing. Fleece quantity and quality were studied, with specific emphasis on length of staple, top length and variability, and the amount of top and noil produced in processing of individual fleeces.

Materials and Methods

Fifty-five unshorn western crossbred wethers were purchased and shipped to Beltsville in 1968.

¹ Sheep and Fur Animal Research Branch, Animal Husbandry Research Division, A.R.S., Beltsville, Maryland.

² Biometrician, Biometrical Services Staff, A.R.S., Beltsville, Maryland.

³ The authors thank Dr. H. Leo Dickison, Bristol Laboratories, Syracuse, New York, for providing the cyclophosphamide. The assistance of Benjamin F. Gadsden, Jr., and Dale Harper in processing and measuring the wool samples is also gratefully acknowledged.