Wool recording in sheep: results from an ICAR on-line survey

The ICAR Sheep, Goats and Camelids Working Group based on the interests of breeders' organisations has decided to include wool performance recording in its guidelines. Therefore, the Working Group has established an Expert Advisory Group with the objectives to determine the traits of interest, their collection and genetic evaluation. In order to achieve these objectives, representatives of breeding organisations and other relevant institutions responsible for sheep recording were asked to fill out an on-line survey on sheep wool. The survey includes basic information such as contact details of the organisations and specific questions regarding the wool population. The latter includes information's of the breeds involved, the size of the recorded and non-recorded population, the number of farms with wool records, information about traits recorded, phenotyping methods and protocols, genetic evaluation, and selection indices. Additional relevant data on management of animals (e.g., shearing) were also collected in the survey. Altogether, seventeen breeding organisations responded to the on-line survey. The number of animals included in the wool recording by country ranged from 200 to 2,900,000. As expected, the most common breed in wool recording was Merino, followed by Dohne Merino and local breeds. The traits involved were fleece weight, clean fleece weight or yield, fibre diameter, fibre diameter variation, staple length, staple strength, homogeneity of fleece, fibre density, fibre curvature, colour, visual appreciation, and additional traits. The most frequently recorded phenotypes were fibre diameter, staple length, fleece weight, fibre diameter variation, visual appreciation, and colour. The survey results provided useful insight into wool recording and will form the basis for guidelines development.