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Abstract
There is a marked decrease in the staple strength of wool offered for sale at both Christchurch and Dunedin as the selling season progresses. The staple strength of wool sold in the pre-Christmas sales is twice that of wool sold after Christmas. This decrease, which is more marked in the Crossbred than in the fine wools, may be assessed by hand testing staples for soundness, and can thus be measured by the wool trade without the need of any special testing equipment.
During the present investigations, as the selling season progressed, the break level rose to 40 per cent; the proportion of staples which could be hand broken reached about 75 per cent, while the amount of cotted wool rose to about 20 per cent. Over a period of 5 seasons, the unsound poor style wool sold at the last sale brought a higher price than the sound better syle wool in the first sale.
To obtain sound good style wool, sheep should be shorn either before lambing time or as soon as practicable after lambing.