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Woolwise News Edition 2
31 October, 2000
Welcome to another edition of Woolwise News!
In this edition we look at the role of one of the long-standing players in the industry - the International Wool Textile Organisation, and also look at some staple strength work presented at the recent ASAP conference. Remember you can customise the type of information you wish to receive by visiting the Woolwise website, at
www.woolwise.com. If you would like to submit information for Woolwise News or if there are any areas of interest you would like to see covered in Woolwise News, please contact the Woolwise Administrator, at
woolwise@woolwise.com.
Unravelling the Staple Strength story
After mean fibre diameter, Staple Strength is the second most important raw wool trait in determining wool price. But improving staple strength by genetic and nutritional means has proven to be less straightforward than first thought. Norm Adams, Program Manager in the CRC for Premium Quality Wool, explains that this is because staple strength is essentially a measurement of material strength, with no simple biological basis. While SS is a very useful predictor of the processing performance of wool fibres, its usefulness for selecting sheep is limited by cost. For this reason researchers have looked for alternative indicators of SS which might be useful in breeding programs.
One of the most promising indicators is the total variation in fibre diameter generated by both ‘along-fibre variations’ and ‘between fibre variations’. This variation is measured at the same time as Mean Fibre Diameter and is expressed as the Coefficient of Variation of Fibre Diameter (CVFD) which is simply the standard deviation of fibre diameter divided by the mean fibre diameter (and expressed as a %). Sheep with a high CVFD tend to produce wool with a low SS. This created great excitement because for the first time we could select sheep with a low CV and thus a high SS. And it is a cheap measurement!
Unfortunately as is often the case in science, things have not turned out to be this simple. While there seems to be a strong genetic relationship between CVFD and SS, the relationship between CVFD and SS for individual sheep (known as the phenotypic relationship) is much lower. This has led some sheep breeders to question whether the genetic relationship is valid. Adams and his coworkers have therefore tried to tease apart the reasons for poor phenotypic relationships between CVFD and SS. What they have found is that in 3 different flocks, there were different relationships between SS and CVFD depending on other fleece traits such as mean fibre diameter, staple length, the proportion of midbreaks, the standard deviation of fibre diameter and clean yield. In other words caution should be exercised when comparing the SS of individual sheep or groups of sheep, because the underlying biological cause of the differences in SS may vary depending on the environment.
So, this complicated phenotypic relationship means that CVFD is not necessarily a reliable indicator of SS at any given time. CVFD won't replace the ATLAS measurement of SS for trading raw wool. Because the genetic relationship is much stronger, however, sheep within a mob with low CVFD can be used to breed progeny with genetically higher staple strength. The nutritional environment of the progeny will still temper the outcome.
Reference: Adams, N.R., Hewett, L.J., Schlink, A.C., and Briegel, J.R. (2000) Phenotypic correlates of staple strength, Proceedings of the 9th Congress of Asian-Australian Association of Animal Production Societies and 23rd Biennial Conference of the Australian Society of Animal Production, July 3-7, 2000. Pp289-292.
International Wool Textile Organisation
The International Wool Textile Organisation (or IWTO) represents the wool, and wool textile industries world-wide. It links participants of the entire wool pipeline, from producers of the raw material through traders and early stage processors, and on to the late stage spinners and weavers. Started in 1927, IWTO membership currently includes 23 countries. IWTO provides a forum for discussion of problems that affect the wool industry internationally, and the President acts as spokesman for its members.
The organisation lists its objects as follows:
- To represent wool production and the wool textile trade and industry in all branches of economic activity
- To promote, support or oppose measures affecting wool production and the wool textile trade and industry and encourage the study and solution of economic and commercial questions affecting the aforesaid interests
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To ensure the functioning of the International Wool Textile Arbitration Agreement in wool production
- To maintain a permanent connection between the organisations representing wool production and the wool textile trade and industry in member countries
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To oversee the development and correct application of scientific Test Methods and Regulations among its membership
IWTO holds an Annual Congress, each year in May or June, which is well attended, and changes venue each year. The 1999 congress was held in Florence Italy, 2000 in Christchurch NZ, and 2001 will be held in Shanghai China. Working meetings take place as preparation between each congress, including a regular winter (northern) meeting in Nice France.
Ensuring fairness of world wool trade is a key objective of IWTO. The congress allows for both buyer and seller nations and organisations to discuss, negotiate and agree upon the rules of trade for wool. These are laid down in the "Blue Book", along with procedures for dispute resolution through arbitration.
It is IWTO that develops the test methods for wool, and puts in place licensing schemes to ensure that wool testing laboratories worldwide can provide accurate and reliable wool measurements which allow trade in wool to proceed with confidence and credibility.
Having such a broad representation, IWTO has a number of committees to deal with specific items of interest to various parties, which fall into two main areas, namely Commercial and Technical. The technical meetings are held prior to the commercial meetings so that its outcomes can be implemented as need be.
The range of committees includes:
- Technical & Standards - chaired by Dr Allan de Boos (CSIRO, Australia)
- Economics & Statistics - chaired by Dr Lionel Ward (Wool CRC, Australia)
- Environment - chaired by Brian Whitaker (UK)
- Woolgrowers - chaired by Briers Bekker (South Africa)
- Traders & Early Processors - chaired by Guenther Beier (Germany)
- Yarn - chaired by John Ward (UK)
- Cloth - chaired by Peter Ackroyd (UK)]
- Innovation Group - divided into Merino Users, chaired by Paul Bicque (UK) and Crossbred Users, chaired by John Ward (UK)
- Commercial Regulation and Contracts - chaired by John Michell (Australia)
- Licensing Panel - chaired by Bob Quirk (Australia)
- Executive - chaired by the President of IWTO, Mr. Dieter Vollstedt
- Heads of Delegation Council
At each congress, the committees report to the General Assembly.
Reference: IWTO website - www.iwto.org
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