- The Suri should grow a very lustrous silky dense fibre, which hangs in individual locks, vertical to the body (similar to that of a mohair goat). These locks come in various types, with the ringlet formation and the wave with twist being the most popular. more »
- I confronted my own confusion regarding the terminology that we apply to the feral fibres that we are all trying so hard to eliminate from our fleeces. You know, the ones that cause prickle factor, the ones we hear judges rail against as “medullated fibres”, the ones we learnt about in skin histology as “primary fibres”, the ones dismissively cast out with the skirtings as “guard hair”. more »
- In the article are introduced the fine structural characters of sheep hair, alpaca hair and mohair, and tested and compared their functions of strong stretch, crimp and friction. The result shows that the scale of alpaca hair and mohair is thin and dense. Alpaca hair has interrupted or widely-bodied pith cavity, whose scale is not as clear as the other two. Mohair and alpaca hair own a high initial mold and strength, little crimp and friction factor and worse fulling ability. Although they are hard for spinning, yet their product is of fine elasticity, crease resistance and size stability. more »
- The bending evaluation of the softness of single fiber is important information for both the basic investigation of fiber bending properties and the textile softness. A single fiber axial compression bending measurement is presented. The resistance to bending behavior of wool and alpaca fibers has been compared by a column buckling method. It shows that alpaca fibers have a much higher resistance to bending namely higher bending stiffness than wool and the softer feeling of alpaca fibers mainly due to the lower surface frictional resistance namely easy to slip between fibers. more »
- A study of liveweight changes of alpaca adult males, females, and their progeny, was conducted through 3 seasons under continuous grazing on natural grasslands on the Mediterranean range of the Chilean Central Zone. Liveweight changes were positive and highest in spring (100 to 200 g day-1), moderate during winter (50 to 100 g day-1), and negative only at the end of summer and in fall (-110 to -150 g day-1). Weight gains of new born alpacas were greatest (110 to 150 g day-1) in the first 90 days after birth and then decreased slightly, reaching values of 75 g day-1 at 8.5 months old. Weight gains stabilized at 10 to 20 g day-1 at 3-years of age. The average annual fibre production was 1.57 and 2.36 kg in females and males, respectively; staple length varied between 8 and 10 cm. more »