Abstract

The fleeces of 30,000 ewe hoggets from 12 Merino flocks were sampled and the mean fibre diameter and clean fleece weight were measured in 1987 and 1988 and the best were selected to establish a superfine joint venture (SFJV) flock of 307 breeding ewes. The breeding objective is to achieve mean fibre diameter below 17um in the adult fleece while maintaining fleece weight and live weight. Concomitantly, a random control flock (RC) of 101 ewes was constituted from the flocks screened. Both flocks are farmed on MAF Technology's high country station at Tara Hills, Omarama. The screened SFJV flock has significantly lower live weight (p<0.01), greasy fleece weight (p0.05), loose wool bulk (p<0.001) and mean fibre diameter by 2 um (p<0.001). Staple length (P<0.001), staple crimp (P<0.05) and yield (P<0.05) were significantly higher for the SFJV flock compared with the RC flock. Wool returns of SFJV flock were $81.78/hd and $107/hd vs $62.21/hd and $47.00/hd for RC flock in 1988 and 1989 shearing respectively

ND, Grace, and J Lee

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 50, , 265-268, 1990