Effects of Different Levels of Feeding of Pistachio Epicarp Silage on Wool Characteristics of Growing Afshari Lambs

Abstract

Sixteen Afshari male lambs (mean live weight 35 ± 1.21 kg, 10 month of age) were used to study the effect of different levels of pistachio epicarp silage (0%, 8%, 17% and 25%) on wool characteristics. The fleece weight (FW), staple length on shoulder (STS), flank (STF), back (STB) and rump (STR), true wool fiber (TW), modulated fiber (MF), kemp fiber (KF) percentage, mean wool fiber diameter (MD) and its coefficient variation (CVMD), breaking load (BL), wool tenacity (WT) and extension (E) were measured. These data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA using SAS software package. The total mean of FW, STS, STB, STF STR; TW, MF, KF, MD, CVMD, BL, WT and E of wool were 1622.2 ± 0.2 gr, 6.20 ± 0.26 cm, 6.80 ± 0.20 cm, 6.50 ± 0.20 cm, 6.90 ± 0.20 cm, 63.30 ± 1.6 mu, 8.30 ± 1.6 mu, 28.40% ± 2.5%, 37.0 ± 0.9 mu, 47.02% ± 2.99%, 7.60 ± 0.3 kgf, 3.40 ± 0.2 gf/tex and 31.1% ± 1.7% respectively, although there was significant difference among treatments on FW, MF, KF, MD, BL and WT. The results showed that feeding lambs with 25% pistachio epicarp silage of total dry matter intake affected wool characteristics and its effect was similar with the control group.