Comparing Merino bloodlines

摘要

Last year, NSW Agriculture's Advanced Breeding Service staff analysed 10 years of wether trial data to enable a comparison of Merino blood lines. From 375 bloodlines, 65 had sufficient numbers for reliable comparison. The performance differences between many commonly used Merino bloodlines can now be defined. This is the result of the Merino Breeding Group's updated analysis of 68 wether trials conducted in NSW, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland from 1989 to 1999.The performance levels of 196 of the 375 bloodlines involved were compared for fleece weight, fibre diameter and other wool quality traits - style, length, colour and staple strength. Those blood lines excluded were represented by only one team of wethe