Abstract :
Cashmere fibre curvature (crimp) impacts on the softness and quality of cashmere textiles,
the efficiency of cashmere processing and cashmere production. This study investigated
the relationship between cashmere fibre curvature standard deviation (FCSD) and other
fleece attributes, and how this relationship differs with animal and farm attributes, for 10
commercial cashmere flocks in Australia. Data was analysed using general linear model
analysis. Nineteen parameters were recorded for 1168 goats. Following log transformation,
the best model for FCSD included farm, goat age, mean fibre diameter, fibre curvature,
fibre diameter standard deviation, cashmere yield, cashmere staple length and live weight
and the interactions between these terms. The percentage variance accounted for was 82%.
Mean fibre diameter and fibre curvature accounted for 55% of the variation in FCSD and farm
accounted for 41% of the variation. Cumulatively mean fibre diameter, fibre curvature and
farm accounted for 75% of the variation existing in FCSD. For the other terms, age added 2%
and the remaining measurements a further 5% to variation accounted for by the best model.
Environmental (farm-effects) on FCSD are large and may explain the difficulties cashmere
growers experience when they evaluate cashmere goats. Increasing the fibre curvature of
cashmere was associated with an increase in cashmere FCSD, but for some combinations
of farm and MFD the increase in FCSD was ≈35◦/mm while with other combinations the
increase was ≈5◦/mm as fibre curvature increased. At a given fibre curvature the response
of FCSD to mean fibre diameter differed substantially between farms, from strong negative
to strong positive. Increasing cashmere yield from 20 to 55% was associated with decline
in FCSD. Increasing fibre diameter SD from 3 to 5 mincreased FCSD by 6◦/mm, increasing
staple length and live weight were associated with small declines in FCSD. There was strong
evidence of an age effect that differed with farms, but there were few clear cut trends
in FCSD with increasing age. The results suggest that farm based influences are affecting
the point at which fibre keratinisation is completed and thus influencing the variation in
FCSD. We conclude that, because the differences between farms in the relationship been
fibre curvature standard deviation, mean fibre diameter and fibre curvature are great, it is
unlikely that crimp rate and crimp definition will be good indicators of cashmere fineness
across farms.
