Variation in fibre diameter profile characteristics between wool

Two experiments were conducted to examine the variation in fibre diameter profile (FDP) characteristics between staples. The mean values of all the FDP characteristics were not significantly (P> 0.05) different between staples prepared using the same and different staple preparation techniques. The residual correlation coefficient’s between staples prepared using the same staple preparation technique for all FDP characteristics ranged from r = 0.60 to 0.96. The correlation coefficients between staples prepared using different staple preparation techniques ranged from r = 0.37 to 0.97. These results indicate that it may not be sufficient to segment a single staple for estimation of certain FDP characteristics to examine differences between individual animals. One staple is sufficient to estimate the average FDP of a group of animals. FDPs generated using different staple preparation techniques can be accurately compared for most FDP characteristics