The International Sheep and Wool Handbook

450 Pages·2010·37.13 MB·english

by  David John Cottle

World sheep population and production i
I
nternatIonal
S W
heep and ool
h
andbook
e dJ C
dIted by ottle
ii D. Cottle
Nottingham University Press
Manor Farm, Main Street, Thrumpton
Nottingham, NG11 0AX, United Kingdom
NOTTINGHAM
First published 2010
© DJ Cottle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing in any
medium by electronic means and whether or not
transiently or incidentally to some other use of
this publication) without the written permission
of the copyright holder except in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright
holder’s written permission to reproduce any part
of this publication should be addressed to the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
International Sheep and Wool Handbook:
Ed. DJ Cottle
ISBN 978-1-904761-86-0
Disclaimer
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the material in this book is true, correct, complete and appropriate at the time of writing.
Nevertheless the publishers, the editors and the authors do not accept responsibility for any omission or error, or for any injury, damage, loss
or financial consequences arising from the use of the book.
Typeset by Nottingham University Press, Nottingham
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press Ltd, Malta
World sheep population and production iii
F
oreWord
It is with great pleasure that the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO), the international body representing
the interests of the world’s wool-textile trade and industry, salutes David Cottle on this comprehensive coverage
and most informative handbook on the sheep and wool industry. The handbook will serve both as a reference work
to students and to those with a general interest in the sheep and wool industry.
IWTO membership covers woolgrowers, traders, primary processors, spinners, weavers, garment makers and
retailers of wool and allied fibres in its member-countries, as well as all kinds of organizations related to wool
products and the Wool Industry in general. Thus in this context the book covers the interests of all our members in
all parts of the World, from the production of wool at its source through to the finished garment sold in the retail
store.

We are indebted to Prof. David Cottle for producing such a comprehensive and interesting study of the sheep
and wool industry. This is something which we have not had in the past and thank him and his colleagues most
sincerely for the time and effort that they have put into researching and documenting every facet of our industry.
As the drive towards naturally sustainable and ecologically friendly fibres becomes more important, books of this
nature will become all the more relevant in showing the benefits of wool.
Günther Beier
IWTO President
iv D. Cottle
World sheep population and production v
C
ontentS
ForeWord v
preFaCe vii
MAJOR WORLD SHEEP AND WOOL 12 Weaner management 277
INDUSTRIES AJD Campbell
13 dIgeStIon and metabolISm 295
1 World Sheep and Wool produCtIon 1 DJ Cottle
DJ Cottle
14 FeedIng 331
2 auStralIan Sheep and Wool InduStrIeS 49 S Jolly and DJ Cottle
DJ Cottle
15 Wool groWth and produCtIon 373
3 neW Zealand Sheep and Wool GE Rogers and AC Schlink
InduStrIeS 73
AR Bray and E Gonzalez-Macuer 16 meat produCtIon 395
G Geesink and H Zerby
4 South amerICan Sheep and Wool
MANAGEMENT
InduStrIeS 85
I Abella, RC Cardellino, J Mueller,
RA Cardellino, D Benítez and R Lira 17 Sheep management 407
KJ Bell
5 South aFrICan Sheep and Wool
InduStrIeS 95 18 paSture management 425
SWP Cloete and JJ Olivier JE Pratley and JM Virgona
6 ChIneSe Sheep and Wool InduStrIeS 113 19 SuStaInable lIveStoCk produCtIon 445
JW Longworth, CG Brown and SA Waldron B Gardiner and N Reid
7 european Sheep and Wool InduStrIeS 153 20 Sheep health 471
C Popescu B Besier, C Jacobson, R Woodgate
and K Bell
BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES 21 Farm StruCtureS 489
PD Hanrahan
8 breedIng and SeleCtIon 165 PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
J Greeff, BP Kinghorn and D Brown
9 reproduCtIon 189 22 extenSIve graZIng SyStemS 507
SP de Graaf RB Hacker
10 pregnanCy, lambIng and SurvIval 223 23 CoarSe Wool produCtIon 533
P Celi and R Bush RMW Sumner
11 laCtatIon and lamb groWth 259 24 IntenSIve produCtIon SyStemS 565
KG Geenty G Gaunt, S Jolly and G Duddy
vi D. Cottle
PREPARATION, PROCESSING AND APPENDICES
MARKETING
a nutrIent CompoSItIon oF FeedS 711
25 Wool preparatIon, teStIng and b auStralIan Sheep enterprISe groSS
marketIng 581 margInS 717
DJ Cottle C auStralIan Wool and Sheep meat
prICeS 721
26 Wool proCeSSIng 619
d World Wool typeS 725
EJ Wood
27 the Future oF Wool aS an
apparel FIbre 647 gloSSary oF Sheep and Wool termS 733
P Swan
Index 751
28 SkInS 661
D Scobie
29 marketIng oF Sheep and Sheep meat 677
BM McLeod, AK White and WJ O’Halloran
30 proCeSSIng oF Sheep and Sheep meatS 691
DL Hopkins
World sheep population and production vii
p
reFaCe
This book is an expanded, updated version of the The book has been made more international in
Australian Sheep and Wool Handbook published scope compared to the earlier 1991 text. There is the
in 1991. The 1991 text was widely regarded as the collection of new chapters on the sheep and wool
definitive sheep and wool textbook and has been used industries in the major sheep regions of the world
as the reference text for sheep and wool subjects in which is unique to this book. There is also a wider
many Universities since then. In the 1990s there were range of references to global examples in the various
few sheep and wool textbooks available compared to
chapters. There are new chapters on meat processing
the situation in 2010.
and sustainable production and expansion of some
chapters, e.g. sheep meat and wool processing.
Many requests were received over the last 19 years to
produce a new edition. The amount of time required
The 1991 book was written at the time of the wool
to produce a new, substantive book caused some
reserve price scheme collapsing in Australia. There
trepidation but a rare window of opportunity to carry
has been much change in the meat and wool industries
out the task opened up in 2008-2009. One massive
but some would argue not enough change. All authors
change that has affected both the sheep and wool
were asked to crystal ball gaze about likely future
industry and the publishing industry is the advent of
developments. Perhaps this was a recipe for being
the internet with its search engines, word processing
proven incorrect in future but it was an interesting
software and the use of email. This has made multi-
exercise.
authored book writing easier and quicker on the one
hand but with the increased problem of possible
The Meat and Wool Boards were merged in New
information overload. Much of the value of this
Zealand and in 2009 the NZ growers voted to reduce
book for readers is the distillation of the mountain of
information available in the modern digital, electronic the wool levy to zero. Australian producers voted to
era by the chapter authors sifting through the various maintain a 2% wool levy in WoolPoll 2009 but there
sources of information and capturing it in one place. have been calls to merge the wool (AWI) and meat
Key websites for further information have been listed (MLA) organizations. What changes will the next 20
at the end of many chapters. years bring to the world sheep and wool industries?
DJ Cottle
vii

World sheep and wool production 1
W S W
orld heep and ool
1
p
roduCtIon
DJ Cottle
Woolshed, University of New England
E-mail: [email protected]
Early history for their fleece and as a medium of exchange. Some large
flocks were kept and subjects of the king of Israel were taxed
according to the number of rams they owned (Ensminger and
The word sheep is derived from the Old English or Anglo-
Parker, 1986). However, linen from flax, was the first fabric
Saxon (around 450 to 1150 AD) term scap, which is akin to
to be fashioned into clothing.
the Old High German (around 500 to 1050) scªf and probably
Prior to the invention of shears during the later Iron Age,
originated from Proto-Germanic or Gothic terms (around
wool was also plucked by bronze combs. In Roman times
300-700). Before 1200 AD, English spelling preferred
clothes were made from wool, linen and leather. Pliny the
scheap, and the shift to the currently used spelling did not
Elder recorded in his Naturalis Historia (77 AD) that the
occur until about 1280. The word ram derives from the
reputation for producing the finest wool was enjoyed by the
Old English rom and subsequently ramm (Barnhart, 1995).
town of Taranto in southern Italy (Isager, 1991).
The word mutton is derived from the Old French (around
1000-1300) moton, which was the word for sheep used by
the Anglo-Norman rulers of much of the British Isles in the
Middle Ages (400 to 1500 AD). This became the name for
sheep meat in English, while the Old English word scap was
kept for the live animal (Oxford English Dictionary, 1933).
Throughout modern history, mutton has referred to the meat
of mature sheep while lamb is used for the meat of immature
sheep less than one year old (see Chapter16).
In the Neolithic period (starting around 10000 BC) a
number of livestock species (e.g. goats, sheep, pigs and cattle)
were domesticated in the Middle East and Asia, as farming
spread during this period. Sheep were first domesticated
between 11000-9000 BC (Simmons and Ekarius, 2001). Figure 1.1. An early picture of woollen cloth from the
Initially, sheep were kept solely for meat, milk and skins, Tacuinum Sanitatis casanatensis, a fourteen-century
however some of the earliest human civilizations used felted or handbook on good living, based on the Taqwin al-sihha, an
woven wool for clothes and fabrics. Archaeological evidence eleventh-century Arab medical treatise.
from statues found at sites in Iran suggests that selection for Source: Wickersheimer (1950).
woolly sheep may have begun around 6000 BC (Ensminger
and Parker, 1986; Weaver, 2005) but the earliest woven wool In the middle ages / medieval times (476-1453 AD) wool
garments have only been dated at 4000-3000 BC (Smith et trading flourished. A series of six fairs in the Champagne and
al., 1997). The oldest known European woollen textile, found Brie regions of France, each lasting more than six weeks,
in a Danish bog, has been dated at ~1500 BC. were spaced throughout the year (at Lagny, then Bar-sur-
By the Bronze Age (2300-600 BC in Europe), sheep with Aube, Provins and Troyes). At their peak, in the late 12th and
all the major features of modern breeds were widespread 13th centuries, the Champagne fairs linked the woollen cloth-
throughout Western Asia (Ensminger and Parker, 1986). producing cities of the French Netherlands (the low lands
Primitive sheep could not be shorn and their wool was around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt and Meuse rivers) with
plucked out by hand in a process called “rooing”. Fleeces the dyeing and exporting centers of Genoa, Naples, Sicily,
were also collected from the field after shedding. This trait Cyprus, Majorca, Spain and Constantinople (Braudel, 1984;
survives today in more primitive breeds such as the Soay and Munro, 2003). The wool trade was the economic lifeblood
Wiltshire Horn. Soay, along with other Northern European of these Low Countries and of Central Italy with most of the
breeds with short tails, shedding fleeces, small size and horns, raw wool supplied by England and Spain.
are closely related to ancient, wild sheep. The English crown in 1275 imposed the first export tax
Originally, weaving and spinning wool was done at home on wool called the ‘Great and Ancient Custom’ at 7s. 6d.
with Babylonians, Sumerians and Persians all raising flocks per sack (Power, 1941). The tax was granted in Edward I’s
1
International Sheep and Wool Handbook