This study was conducted to investigate the hair production and fleece characteristics of hairy goats according to the sex and age of animals. The material of the study consisted one total data of 73 hair goats, which were between more than one year-old and one year-old Lori goats from both sexes (26 males and 47 females). The overall fleece weight, fiber length, lock length, washing yield, hair fiber diameter, coefficient of variation f diameter, breaking load, tenacity and elongation were 429 ± 23.7 g, 6.2 ± 0.3 cm, 8.9 ± 0.4 cm, 73.9 ± 0.6%, 82.6 ± 1.8 micron, 24.3 ± 0.8%, 7.6 ± 0.3kgf, 10.2 ± 0.4 gf/Tex and 14.0 ± 1.0%, respectively. It was found that age and sex had a significant effect on fleece weight and lock length. Furthermore, fiber length, fiber diameter and coefficient of variation of fiber diameter were affected by age of Lori goats. Adults showed a tendency to present higher fiber tenacity (10.3±0.6 gf/tex) and lower fiber elongation (12.4±1.4%). Manuscript profile

To investigate the characteristics of skin and leather of hairy goats according to their sex and age, 120 goat skins were selected from the western part of Iran. Results indicated that sex and age had significant effects on weight and area of skin and leather. Moreover, sex and age had significant effects on thickness in different parts of skin except the belly. In this regard, the overall mean weight of skin and leather were 1074.8 ± 27.9g and 427.2 ± 25.9 g, respectively. High coefficients of variation (28.3 and 66.3 percent, respectively) were found in these traits. The ranges of skin and leather area were from 30 to 80 dm2 and 38 to 115 dm2, respectively. Parts of the body (shoulder, hip and ribs) and sample position (parallel and perpendicular) significantly affected the mean of breakage force, tensile strength and elongation of tested pieces. A wide range of breakage force, tensile strength and elongation 4.5-66.0 kgf, 63.4-558.3 kgf cm-2 and 22.0-141.3% were found in the goat leathers, respectively. The results of this study indicated that there are differences between quantitative and qualitative traits of skin and leather of different goats. To achieve better quality goat products, attention should be paid to differences in skin quality of different sexes and ages of goats. Manuscript profile