Influencing Factors and Correlation Analysis of Wool Traits of Hetian Sheep

Objective A total of 697 Hetian sheep were used in this study to investigate the effects of age, gender and feeding system on wool-use traits, as well as the correlations among these wool-use traits of Hetian sheep.

Methods All individual identification records were collected and sorted. Wool samples were taken for laboratory measurement of wool-use traits, including clean wool percentage, wool-braid length, under-coat length, average down-fiber diameter, coefficient of variation, standard deviation of fiber diameter, average compression-resilience, whiteness, glossiness and yellowness. The GLM procedure of SAS 8.1 software was adopted to analyze the effects of age, gender and feeding system on wool-use traits of Hetian sheep.

Results Age, gender and feeding system exerted extremely significant effects on down-fiber diameter (P<0.01). Gender and age had extremely significant effects on whiteness and glossiness (P<0.01), and significant effects on wool-braid length, standard deviation of fiber diameter and compression-resilience elasticity (P<0.05). Gender and feeding system showed extremely significant effects on clean-wool percentage and yellowness (P<0.01). Age and feeding system imposed extremely significant effects on the coefficient of variation of fiber diameter (P<0.01). In addition, age only had significant effects on under-coat length and yellowness (P<0.05). Different feeding systems produced extremely significant effects on wool-braid length, under-coat length, standard deviation of fiber diameter and average compression-resilience elasticity (P<0.01), and a significant effect on glossiness (P<0.05). Correlations of varying degrees existed among wool-use traits.

Conclusion For the Hetian sheep population, rams exhibited better wool-use traits than ewes; yearling sheep out-performed adult sheep; grazing sheep were superior to stall-fed sheep for most wool-use indicators, accompanied by drawbacks including reduced fineness uniformity and increased yellowness. Varying-degree correlations existed among wool-use traits of Hetian sheep. This study can provide references for breeding improvement of wool-use traits and optimization of rearing modes for Hetian sheep.