Alpaca Journal

This article discusses blow out of micron as it relates to an alpaca’s age. The amount of micron blow out correlates fairly closely when two year old measurements are taken and not as closely when measurements are used from younger animals. The article goes on to discuss micron count as it relates to color. The main findings on mean fiber diameter were:

• mean fiber diameter increased to 7.5 years of age

• correlation between the mean fiber diameter at ages 1.5 and 2 years of age with the mean fiber diameter at older ages are much higher than correlation made at younger ages

• fiber diameter blow out (increase with age) is highly correlated with the actual mean fiber diameter at ages of 1 year and older

• farm management (origin) affected mean fiber diameter

• there were important interactions between origin and year and origin and shearing age

• the effect of breed varied with live weight

• there was no effect of sex

• white fleeces were finer than fleeces classified as dark

The main findings on coefficient of variation of mean fiber diameter were:

• CV(D) declined rapidly between birth and 2 years of age reaching minima at about 4 years of age and then increasing

• CV(D) measurements on young animals were very poor predictors of CV(D) at older ages

• Suris had a higher CV(D) than Huacayas on most properties

• mean fiber diameter, live weight and sex did not affect CV(D)

• darker fleeces had higher CV(D) than whiter fleeces in two of the four years

Click here to read the article.

Original Publisher- http://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ajar

Related Links:

• Micron Madness