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The amount of information available on a Merino ram has evolved since the early days when what it looked like was the only thing to go on through to now when there are literally hundreds of pieces of information available on some rams. In the middle of that evolution was the early years of measurement when we could first measure mean fibre diameter or 'micron' as we often call it. In addition to this mean fibre diameter these tests could tell us about the variability of fibre diameter in individual animals. This is useful information to know. Somewhere along the track the concept of comfort factor came into vogue. Comfort factor is the percentage of fibres in a sample that are above 30 micron. This number was chosen because testing shows that in an average human, it is the fibres over 30 micron that may irritate the skin because they don't bend as easily as lower micron fibres. For some reason this number became the focus of some ram breeders, ram buyers and the rural press particularly latched on to it with comfort factor being mentioned on almost every ram sale reported on each year. This video runs through some things to watch and aims to focus our attention on the two things that make up comfort factor because these are a lot more valuable and are actually part of the sale price of wool - comfort factor is not. At neXtgen Agri we help ram breeders and ram buyers to focus on the traits that will lead them to profit.
15 окт 2024
