The effect of cold exposure on wool growth in Scottish Blackface and Merino × Cheviot Sheep

Abstract

(1) Nine Scottish Blackface and four Merino × Cheviot ewes were shorn and given an acute cold exposure (at approximately −18 °C) in climate chambers. Individual exposures lasted up to 10 h. Because they were shorn, the sheep subsequently received 4 weeks of mild cold exposure, although kept indoors at an ambient temperature between + 8 °C and +15 °C. Skin and wool samples were taken before and after treatment. Twelve unshorn control ewes were also sampled.(2) Wool production in the Blackface sheep was depressed following the treatment, and this was accounted for by a reduction in both the mean length and the mean diameter of the wool fibres.