Yak wool
As yak wool is defined as the wool of yaks is obtained. The yak is the only type of cattle that has a layered and particularly thick coat of hair. A distinction is made between the firm, long outer hair, the coarser wool and a fine and spinnable lower hair, which is also known as fine wool or fluff. Between 0.3 and 3 kilograms of coarse wool and 0.4 to 0.6 kilograms of fine wool can be obtained per year and yak.
When keeping yaks, the focus is on the production of yak milk and yak meat . Similar to yak leather, yak wool is more of a by-product. In the breeding of yaks, which has been pursued in a more targeted manner for several years, the focus is increasingly on wool production. The mating with wild yaks, as it was carried out on a trial basis in China, increases the wool yield.
The wool is obtained both by shearing and by combing . As a rule, the shepherds comb out the animals in the weeks before a planned shearing so that too much fine wool is not lost. This also reduces the need to shear the animals very early in order not to lose too much of the fine wool that is naturally lost by the yak from the beginning of summer time. The fine wool of white yaks is particularly valuable because it is easy to dye. It is called Kulu by the nomads in western Tibet.
supporting documents
literature
- Jürgen Lensch, Peter Schley and Rong-Chang Zhang (eds.): The Yak (Bos grunniens) in Central Asia , Gießener Abhandlungen zur Agrar- und Wirtschaftsforschung der European East, Volume 205, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08443-8