Whiter wool from fleece to fabric

The natural cream colour and low photostability of Merino wool are impediments that affect the wool’s competitiveness over a wide range of apparel and interior textile products. In particular, these two properties need improvement if the wool is to match the performance of cotton and synthetics in the expanding market for trans-seasonal knitwear. The strategy adopted by the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Sheep Industry Innovation is to improve the whiteness of clean wool by genetic selection and to maintain whiteness through processing by developing a minimum-colour-impact route from fleece to fabric. Recent studies on the ‘Information Nucleus’ flocks established by the Cooperative Research Centre have confirmed the high heritability of clean wool colour and shown for the first time that photostability is moderately heritable using data from a new photostability test method. A pilot-scale commercial processing trial has shown that significant improvements in the whiteness of knitted products (up to 40 CIE Ganz units) can be achieved by selecting white fleece wools and optimising the processing route to avoid stages that may cause yellowing.