nCa Report
The sheep-shearing season is just about to start and there would be plenty of fresh wool in Turkmenistan including from the Sarja sheep, arguably the best breed of the fat-tail aboriginal sheep in Central Asia.
Sarja is spelled in several ways – Saryja, Saraja, Sarjenski etc. it is a breed developed in the territory of Turkmenistan through long term selection of the Turkmen breeds.
The wool from Sarja lends to the production of a number of product lines including the high-end blankets and expensive purses, and of course, the legendary Turkmen carpets.
The most informative article about this breed was written by Seyitguly Batyrov in 2004 and subsequently carried by several publications throughout the years.
Here we are reproducing the article of Batyrov in its entirety:
Turkmen Saryja Wool: Basic Characteristics
Seyitguly Batyrov
One of the main breeds of sheep in Turkmenistan and in many ways the best breeds of the fat-tail aboriginal sheep in Central Asian is the Saryja.
The Saryja has the best combination of wool and meat production in a highly adaptable breed that can thrive in the desert and semi-desert regions conditions of Turkmenistan. This ability to thrive makes the Saryja the leading breed in Turkmenistan. The Saryja requires little pasture maintenance existing on natural forage, which makes this breed highly profitable in Turkmenistan.
The average live weight of the adult female sheep reaches 55 – 58 kg, with a clip of wool 3.0 – 3.5 kg and that of the rams 70 – 80 kg and 3.5 – 4.5 kg respectively. At the present time, in farmer unions of Turkmenistan the Saryja sheep make up 13 % of the total sheep livestock bred in the republic.
Link to Batyrov article
Turkmen Saryja Wool: Basic Characteristics
https://www.jozan.net/turkmen-
The very best part of Saryja wool livestock is concentrated at the sheep-breeding farms of the Ruhabat, Gokdepe and Bakharly etraps (districts). [This article was written in 2004. Since then, many other farmers’ association are also maintaining Sarja flocks. Ed.]
In terms of both quality and quantity of wool, the Saryja sheep surpass all the fat-tail sheep breeds. Its wool is categorized as “heterogeneous half-coarse type”. To the touch the wool is mild, sufficiently flexible, mainly white in color with satisfactory sheen. The Saryja wool for the most part is composed of approximately 80 % wool (fluff), 15 – 20 % Hair (intermediate hair), and no more then 5% kemp (barb/aristae).
The white long-staple wool of Saryja sheep is best suited for carpet weaving. World-renowned Turkmen (mainly Teke) rugs with their distinctive ornamentation are traditionally woven with this wool. Moreover, the Saryja wool is widely used in production of wool cloth, knitted garments, artificial fur, and blankets. The demand for Saryja wool is several thousand metric tons per year.
Saryja wool is half-coarse heterogeneous and in terms of colors is divided into white and light gray. The spring Saryja wool is classified according to the quality as Class I and Class II before arriving to the plants for initial treatment and according to the condition as normal, weedy, bur and weedy-bur-defective.
Fleece with braid-type (plait) texture is attributed to the Class I and is mainly composed of wool, hair and small amount of fine kemp. Wool is elastic with little sheen and small crimp. The kemp noticeably stands out above the wool mass. There is no dead hair.
To the Class II we can attribute wool consisting of longer and coarser staple wool than in Class I. The wool and hair fibers prevail over the kemp in terms of quantity. Only insignificant amount of dead hair on the fleece (its edges) is tolerated.
Incomplete fleece and uncontaminated fragments of wool weighing at least 100 grams and more are classified as the (complete) “fleece” wool, uncontaminated fragments of wool weighing less than 100 grams are classified as “fragmentary” wool.
Tensile strength of the normal “fleece” wool is high; easily removable vegetative litter, traces of mange, lesion caused by tick regardless of its location on the fleece and also vegetative litter (burs, sawing) on the secondary parts of fleece (neck, belly, thigh) – each separately or altogether are permissible on areas, not exceeding 10 % as of the total area or weight of fleece.
The high quality wool of the Saryja sheep distinguishes it from the other fat-tail sheep of Central Asia. This and quite high wool clip are main reasons why the Saryja breed is used all over the Central Asian region in improving the wool productivity of the local fat-tail sheep.
Rise in wool productivity is a matter of primary importance and depends mainly on the level of feeding and the condition of work on pedigree selection in flock.
Without proper use pastures and supply of feed, it is not possible to increase the clip and quality of wool.
One of important physical qualities of wool is its length inasmuch as this feature determines the use of wool in the carpet-weaving industry. The optimal is the wool with the fluff zone not longer than 50 mm.
In evaluation of the wool’s quality an important consideration is the degree of evenness along its width. The less is the difference between the total length of the lock of hair and the length of the fluff zone, the better the wool is.
In specific conditions of Turkmenistan, the most radical method of clipping the best quality spring wool is to restrict the process to April 15 – May 10 (the “green” period). Afterwards, the grass starts drying up, thus acquiring the ability of picking onto the wool and littering it.
The wool should not be littered with manure and urine. Such wool loses its physical qualities (strength and elasticity) and when washed remains yellow and does not allow producing cloth of desired coloration.
Properly organized, timely and quality clipping guarantees fine wool output and minimization of loss.
A well-balanced plan is devised before the clipping process commences. It must include: the clipping period, location where the wool is clipped, the number of sheep by gender and age, calendar plan for preparing flock for clipping, the number of clipping workers and additional personnel for taking care of sheep and classifying, gathering and packing wool.
In Turkmenistan, wool is clipped in the second half of April – the beginning of May and in autumn – from August 15 to September 10.
The spring clipping is commenced when warm weather is ascertained, inasmuch as after clipping sheep may suffer from cold. The clipping should not be started too early also because warm weather and green grass are highly helpful in wool growth and accelerates the process of “wool maturing”. This type of matured wool is easier to clip to the very skin, thus increasing the overall amount of output.
One should not be too late with clipping either for sheep suffer greatly when the weather becomes hot. Besides, the late clipping, as it was mentioned above, leads to wool loss caused by dried-up pasture plants.
With year-round pasture maintenance autumn clipping should be performed timely. If performed too late, sheep cannot grow up enough wool for winter.
Both spring and autumn clippings should be performed in comparably short period not exceeding 10 – 15 days.
To acquire highly valued felt wool, the fat-tail lambs should be clipped at the end of August.
To avoid wool littering, the place where clipping is performed should be cleaned thoroughly from manure and disinfected. The wool should be clipped on wooden floor or some sort of tarpaulin. It is categorically prohibited to clip on bare ground.
Before clipping, sheep should not be fed and watered for at least 12 – 14 hours; otherwise, volvulus (twisting of the intestines) might occur during clipping. Moreover, this way intestine will be purged in a natural manner and thus spontaneous wool littering from urine and feces will be minimized during clipping.
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Here is a relevant passage from a report published by the ministry of nature protection of Turkmenistan in 2002. The report is titled, “Country Study on the Status of Biodiversity of Turkmenistan.”
“The Sarja sheep is the onlykurdyuk (a type of fat-tailed) breed in Turkmenistan, and provides semi-coarse composite wool used in carpet making. The Sarja sheep has been considered as a means of improving the breeding of kurdyuk sheep in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Using this breed, many other breeds have been created including the Tajik breed, Altay meat-and-wool breeds, and the Kargamin group in Kazakhstan.
“Sarja sheep were bred by local people. There are different opinions on the origin of the breed.
For example, the local population believes this breed was created in the second part of the 19th
Century through the breeding of the kurdyuk Turkmen sheep. Some scientists consider that the Afghan kurdyuk breed and the ancient Greek and Mongolian breeds were used to create the Sarja sheep. Nowadays this sheep is mainly bred in Akhal velayat. Taking into account the great historic, national and economic value of this breed, the President of Turkmenistan issued a special Decree “On the Development of the Sarja Sheep Breed in Turkmenistan”. This decree provides for a dramatic increase in the number of sheep, general breeding, and further improvement of their breeding characteristics. Today there are over 3 million Sarja sheep.”
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In 2023, Turkmenistan sent a shipment of 17.4 tons of Sarja wool from autumn shearing to the Kurgan region of Russia for the production of blankets. The autumn shearing fiber is shorter in length. The shipment was subsequently delivered to a factory in Ivanovo, the huge industrial city in Russia.
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The entrepreneur brothers Rovshan and Dovran Begmammedov in Turkmenistan specialize in the production of blankets and cushions from the sheep wool and camel hair.
Their plant is located in the industrial zone of the Ahal province, with capacity of 1000 tons of products a year. The factory has two workshops – One workshop produces wool yarn for carpets, which is on high demand in local market, while another makes blankets and cushions. The variety of each type of goods is quite big. Well-processed and washed wool is used for beddings.
The starting steps of the processing, where special ecological precautions are exercised, is carried out at the Mary Initial Wool Processing Factory.
The brothers claim that the sheep wool has healing features, and relieves the pain during arthritis, sciatica and osteochondritis. It is believed that people using blankets made of sheep wool are suffering less from migraine and vertigo. In addition, the material keeps the warmth, repels the moisture as well as has antibacterial and organoleptic features.
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Some purses and handbags made from Sarja and other sheep wool, fine-woven carpet, are selling at Amazon at prices $120 to $2800. Of course, it is not just the wool that determines the price – equally important are the design, the inner lining, the quality of accessories and the effectiveness of the marketing campaign. /// nCa, 11 April 2024