LPT 312: Abattoir Practices and Animal Products Technology (1+1)

DETERMINATION OF FLEECE DENSITY

• The sheep to be weighed individually and sheared and the weights recorded. The relative density is obtained on the hip. This was done by opening the fleece on the hip with one hand and applying the Neale Density Meter with the other hand.
• A lock sample was then taken from about the same place on the hip for unstretched staple length measurement which was expressed in sixteenths of an inch. The fleeces were then shorn, weighed, and the wool scoured. Clean fleece weights were corrected to a standard basis in accordance with the ASTM (1951) procedures.
• The instrument, which is 12 ½ inches long, is forked with two prongs which are maintained at a constant pressure by a spring. When the prongs are open, the distance between them is one inch. The prongs are placed against the skin and pressure is applied so that the prongs close on the wool.
• The wool prevents the prongs from closing entirely, and the distance between the prongs under pressure is read from a dial scale calibrated in ten thousands of an inch. This measurement indicates the amount of wool in the space of an inch. This device does not measure the number of fibers on a unit of skin area. It only measures the combined thickness of the fibers that grow on a given area when they are compressed together at a constant pressure.