the fibre glossary

Micron - equivalent to 0.001mm and is expressed for sheep as the average diameter of the fibre.

Opening up the wool – The movement of opening the fleece on the sheep

Style – The style of the wool is an overview of the wool. When something has ‘stylish wool’ they are encompassing all aspects including colour, length, crimps, coverage, density, lock structure and more.

Breakage – Where the fibre has not had enough nutrients and causes a weak point in the wool. Can lead to it falling off the body of the sheep or the fleece may continue to grow

Shearer – The person taking the wool off the sheep

Penner/ penner-up – The person that puts the sheep into the pens for the shearers to grab and other pens behind that.

Roustabout – The person that collects the wool and may also do the skirting of the wool

Skirting – The removal of the undesirable parts of the wool

Classer – In the shed, this is the person judging the wool based on a number of qualities

Presser – The person that collects the fleeces once they are sorted and condenses them into a bale with the correct labelling

Full crutch – The wool taken off from around the breech, tail and back legs as well as the heard

Sale crutch – A smaller amount of wool taken off from around the breech to ‘tidy’ the sheep up for sale

Dag – A condensed ball of facies, dirt and wool

Breech – The area around the tail and down towards the tops and backs of the back legs of the sheep

Bale – A wool pack that has 40-60 fleeces in it and will weigh around 120kg to 204kg

Yield – The amount of clean fibre that is expected

Colour – The amount of yellowness in the wool

Staple length – The length of the wool from base to tip

Staple strength – How strong it is and how hard it is to pull apart

Worsted wool – Longer length wool

Woollen wool – Shorter length wool