2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATURAL FIBERS

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CHARACTERISATION OF CASHMERE-TYPE FINE DOWN HAIRS OF NATIVE GOATS IN

TURKEY
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F. Gktepe1(*), G. Cilveli2, . Soysal3, B. Gk5 , M.E. Vural4
1

Textile Engineering Department, orlu Engineering Faculty, Namk Kemal University, Turkey
Ynsa Worsted&Woolen Production and Trading Co., Turkey
3
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Namk Kemal University, Turkey
4
GAP International Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Turkey
5
Konya B. Dada Agricultural Research Institute, Turkey
2

(*)

Email: goktepef@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT
Turkey has over 8 million indigenous goats, many of which have two different coats of fiber,
namely a fine down (cashmere-type) and a coarse guard hair. These goats are primarily kept
for their meat, milk, skin products and other traditional purposes while potential of their down
fibers are ignored. This paper describes a study undertaken to characterize the down hairs of
indigenous goats in Turkey and explore the value added potential of these fibers to use as
cashmere-type fibers in textile industry. For this aim, down hairs of native goats are collected
from various parts of the country and characterized in terms of their surface structure, number
of scales per unit length, scale pattern, average fineness and length values as well as the
distribution pattern of fiber fineness and fiber length. Our results show that generally these
fibers have fineness less than 18,5 micrometer indicating clear potential as valuable fiber
source.
KEYWORDS: Native goat down hair, cashmere-type goat fiber, luxury fibers.

1. INTRODUCTION

Most of the goat breeds have nearly all developed hair coverings consisting of an outer
coat of coarser guard hairs which protects them from the sun, rain and dust and an
undercoat of finer down hair which forms an insulating layer. However angora goats are
an exception for this as there is a single uniform layer of fibers in their fleece. So, the goat
fibers can be categorised in general as Coarse guard hairs, Fine down hairs, Mohair fibers (of
Angora goats) and Cashgora fibers (of Cashgora goats). There is a distinct difference between
the coarse guard fibers and down fibers as the down fibers are much finer and softer being a
valuable fiber source. The down hairs of cashmere goats, i.e. cashmere fibers, are such a
valuable source and used for high quality textile products while the down fibers of other
native goats are usually ignored and wasted which is the main subject of this work.
The main characteristic property of these fibers are their fineness which defines their
spinnability and use for high quality products. The down hairs are produced by secondary
follicules and contain no medulla with fiber diameter between 13-19 while coarse guard
hairs are produced by primary follicules and contain medulla with varying fiber diameter
between 60-90. For cashmere fibers, the standard of the Cashmere and Camel Hair Institute
(CCMI) of the USA is reported as 18.5mm 0.5mm (Franck, 2001).
2nd ICNF From Nature to Market

Azores/Portugal, 27-29 April 2015

On the other hand, the cashmere fibers are categorised in two main quality as 1st quality
(15.5 and below) and 2nd quality (15.5-19). However, typicaly the cashmere fiber fineness
can vary according to where they come from as shown below:
Chinese cashmere 14-16.5
Mongolian cashmere 17-18
Iran-Afghan cashmere 17-19
New Zeland and Australian cashmere 17-17.5 (Phan and Wortmann, 1996).
In Turkey, it is reported that there are over 8 million goats (TK, 2013). A significant
number of them provide down hair but go wasted without any industrial use. When one
considers the average yield of fine down hairs is between 40.00-51.42 g/capita (Dellal, 2009),
in fact, it has a significant economical potential for industrial use.
There are some works which explores the potential of these natural sources as a fiber (Dellal,
2001; Kulolu, 2010; Bolat, 2006; Dellal et al, 2010; Karaku et al, 2010), still there is a
need for a detailed study on fiber characterisation and their spinnability for potential industrial
use.
2. MATERIAL and METHOD
We obtained 16 different samples from different regions of Turkey (Figure 1) during MarchApril 2014 and they are de-haired manually before the analysis.

Figure 1. The regional distributions of the samples obtained

Figure 2. De-haired fibers obtained from native goats for analysis

The fibers are analyzed for their surface and scale characteristics by SEM analysis. Their
fineness is tested by OFDA test instrument while their length is tested in accordance with TS
1140. The fineness and length results are also compared with fine wool, cashmere and mohair
fibers.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The typical SEM view of down hair is shown in Fig.3. The fineness values of the samples are
shown in Figure 4b showing that the fibers have fineness less than 18.5 , except samples of

Editor: R. Fangueiro

2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATURAL FIBERS

code H, indicating their potential for industrial use. Similarly, the length of these fibers also
seem to be suitable for an efficient spinning (Figure 4b).

FIBER DIAMETER ()

Figure 3. Typical SEM views for goat down hairs obtained

40.0

36.5

35.0

30.8

30.5

30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0

19.0
14.4

17.4 17.6

14.9

17.0 17.0 16.3 16.5 17.6 15.9

19.4 20.3
14.7

15.9 15.6 16.3 17.3 16.4 17.3

14.1

10.0
5.0
0.0
A1 B1 B2 C1 C2 C3 D1 E1 E2 F1 F2 G1 H1 H2 H3 J1
SAMPLES

J2 K2 L1 M1 N1 O1 P1 R1

fiber diameter values

a commercial cashmere - 18,71 m

a commercial mohair -33,61 m

(a)
147.1

FIBRE LENGTH (mm)

160.0

141.1

140.0
120.0

102.6

100.0
80.0 58.2
53.4
47.1
60.0
40.7
40.0

37.0

48.1

38.6

46.5 41.1 50.3

61.0
33.0

42.1

47.7

57.0

47.8 44.4

32.2

44.9

37.5

29.6

41.6

20.0
0.0
A1 B1 B2 C1 C2 C3 D1 E1 E2 F1 F2 G1 H1 H2 H3 J1 J2 K1 K2 L1 M1 N1 O1 P1 R1
SAMPLES
fiber lenght (mm)

a commercial mohair- 71,9 mm

a commercial cashmere - 45,3 mm

(b)
Figure 4. Fiber diamater (a) and length (b) values in comparison with mohair and cashmere
fibers

2nd ICNF From Nature to Market

Azores/Portugal, 27-29 April 2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge Ynsa Worsted&Woolen Production and Trading Co.
(Turkey) for enabling us to use their laboratories. We also acknowledge Dr. O. Akda and Dr.
S. Ocak for their help in supplying samples from Balkesir and G.Antep region, respectively.
REFERENCES
Animal production statistics (annual) number of sheep and goat. Turkish Statistical Institute,
2013 http://tuikapp.tuik.gov.tr/hayvancilikapp/hayvancilik.zul
Bolat . Adana blgesinde yetitirilen kl keilerinde alt kl (kamir) retim potansiyeli, alt
kllarn fiziksel karakteristikleri ve tekstil sektrndeki kullanm alanlar. ukurova
University, MSc Thesis, Adana, 2006.
Dellal G. Antalya ilinde yetitirilen kl keilerinden elde edilen alt liflerin tekstil sanayii
asndan uygunluklarnn belirlenmesi. Tarm Bilimleri Dergisi, 2001, 7, p. 131-134.
Dellal G, Erdoan Z, Koyuncu, Sylemezolu F, Pehlivan E, Tuncer S. Trkiye'de kei lifleri
retim potansiyeli ve bundan yararlanma olanaklar. In : Ataolu C (ed), National Goats
Congress Proceedings. Onsekiz Mart University, anakkale, 2010 p. 431-437.
Franck, R.R., Silk, Mohair, Cashmere and Other Luxury Fibres, Elsevier, 2001.
IWTO-47-2013: Measurement of the mean and distribution of fibre diameter of wool using an
optical fibre diameter analyser (OFDA).
Kulolu B.H. Kl keisi olaklarndan elde edilen st ve alt liflerin baz fiziksel zellikleri.
Ankara University, MSc Thesis, Ankara, 2010.
Karaku F, Bingl M, Kor A, Tuncer S, Ylmaz A, Cengiz F. Norduz ve kl keilerinden elde
edile st ve alt kllarda baz fiziksel zellikleri arasndaki fenotipik korelasyonlar. In Ataolu
C (ed), National Goat Congress Proceedings. Onsekiz Mart University, anakkale, 2010 p.
438-442.
Phan KH, Wortmann FJ. Identification and classification of cashmere. Europ. Fine Fibre
Network, 1996, 4 p. 45
TS 1140 - 2005: Method of test for fibre length of wool and similar fibres using a single fibre
length measurment.

Editor: R. Fangueiro