Wool production and quality of Magra sheep under hot arid zone of Rajasthan Dass Gopal, Singh V.K., Chopra S.K., Ayub M. Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Arid Region Campus, Bikaner, Rajasthan Abstract Magra is most lustrous carpet wool producing sheep breed of India being improved at CSWRI, ARC, Bikaner through selective breeding. The data on 352 lambs born during 1999–2001 were recorded for first and second 6 monthly greasy fleece weights and 839 adults for spring, autumn and annual clips. A total of 461 wool samples collected from 6 months old lambs were analysed for wool quality parameters viz. diameter, hetero fibres, hairy fibres, medullation, staple length and crimp. The overall least squares means for adult spring, autumn and annual clips and lamb first and second 6-monthly greasy fleece weights were 976.2±13.19, 676.4±9.20, 1703.8±20.02 and 638.7±8.67 and 578.0±9.73 g, respectively. The effect of sex and year of lambing was found to be highly significant (P<0.01) on all clips except non significant effect on lambs clips. The overall lest squares means for fibre diameter, hetro fibre, hairy fibre, medullation, staple length were 32.31±0.1711, 31.32±0.72, 12.46±0.47, 42.67±0.91%, 6.16±0.07 cm and 0.86±0.02/cm, respectively. Sex showed highly significant influence on staple length and year showed highly significant influence on all the wool quality traits except significant (P<0.05) influence of year on hairy fibres. Wool production in different years although varied significantly still did not show any trend. The wool quality parameters indicated the wool to be of a good carpet quality with average diameter around 32μ while the average medullation of 43% was on higher side. As far as wool quality for carpet production is concemed there is need to reduce magnitude of hairy fibre through appropriate breeding programme. Top Key words Greasy fleece weight, Magra sheep, Wool production, Wool quality parameters. Top |