Effect of shearing time and location on vegetable matter components in the New South Wales woolclip

Abstract

Four shearing times, summer, autumn, winter and spring, were examined in relation to the quantity and type of vegetable fault in Merino wool in seven districts of New South Wales in 1974 and 1975. Shearing time did not affect total vegetable matter (VM) content in six of the seven districts surveyed. Shearing in summer in the Central-West Slopes and Plains lowered (P < 0.05) VM compared with autumn and winter shearing; levels of burr and seed were also lower (P < 0.05). In other districts, burr or seed components were decreased at particular times of shearing, but there was no effect on total VM content. Seed contamination was lowest with spring and summer shearing in all districts in survey 1. Thus, in most districts, shearing time did not reduce VM, but in particular areas such changes may be of considerable value in reducing contamination from individual species. Wools from the North-West Slopes and Plains, Central-West Slopes and Plains and Western Division were heavily contaminated with burr and seed, whereas in wools from the Tablelands and Southern Slopes, seed was the major contaminant.