The comparative productivity of five ewe breeds. 2. Hogget wool production

Abstract

This paper contains information on the fleece characteristics of hogget ewes from five breeds in each of seven years at Temora Agricultural Research Station. Measurements of greasy fleece weight, clean scoured yield and the components of clean fleece weight were made on the following breeds: a Border Leicester x Merino fixed halfbred (BLM), Corriedale, Polwarth, a South Australian strong wool (S.A. Merino) and a medium wool Peppin strain of Merino. Average annual clean fleece weights were 3.53, 3.53, 3.04, 2.77 and 2.70 kg for the S.A. Merino, Corriedale, BLM, Peppin Merino and Polwarth breeds respectively. Average fibre diameters of these breeds were 23.1, 25.1, 27.2, 20.3 and 22.1 pm respectively. An interaction between breeds and years for clean fleece weight was associated with larger differences between the breeds in the years when environmental conditions favoured higher average clean fleece weights. Differences between breeds were large in all the components of clean fleece weight. Within breeds, the contribution of variation in follicle number to variation in clean wool weight was relatively greater in the Polwarth and Peppin Merino breeds than in the Corriedale and S.A. Merino breeds, with the BLM breed intermediate. The converse ranking applied to variation in fibre volume as a contributor to variation in clean wool weight within breeds.