Economic Evaluation of Color in Domestic Wool

Excerpts from the report Introduction: The purpose of this report is to give to producers and processors of wool the results of research investigations on nonscourable color in wool. The work was undertaken to resolve questions of economic and physical properties pertaining to off-color in domestic wool. Producers and processors of domestic wool have found color of wool to be a market factor, but one which was not mutually understood and agreed on in wool marketing circles. Grade standards for wool consider directly only the median fiber diameter of wool and the staple length. Color is one of several other quality factors contributory to the buyers' judgment of the value and therefore the bid price for producers' wool. It is a major point of distinction between wools from the same breed of sheep produced in different geographic and climatic areas of the United States and under different methods of husbandry, such as range, feeding pen, and farm flock. Efforts in this research were devoted to the objective measurement of degrees of color defect found in a cross section of domestic wool and to evaluate the economic effects, primarily marketability and price differentials, associated with these varying intensities of color in wool found by the physical measurements. Another important objective of this study of color in wool was to give necessary information for evaluation of new or different methods of color removal. Costs of new color removing reagents and processing techniques must necessarily conform to or be less than the gain derived from the improvement by color removal. Prior to this study, no objective measure of the economic importance of color in domestic wool had been made.