Pasture intake and digestibility by young and non-breeding adult sheep: The extent of genetic variation and relationships with productivity

Title
Pasture intake and digestibility by young and non-breeding adult sheep: The extent of genetic variation and relationships with productivity
Publication Date
2002
Author(s)
Lee, GJ
Atkins, KD
Swan, A
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8048-3169
Email: aswan@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:aswan
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1016/S0301-6226(01)00244-5
UNE publication id
une:785
Abstract
The objectives of this study were to estimate the genetic variation in pasture intake and digestibility of the selected diet by young and by adult sheep, and to determine the genetic relationships between pasture intake and productivity traits. The pasture intakes of groups of young and adult sheep, each containing sheep from 11 bloodlines, were measured using the paired alkane technique. The wool grown, and its fibre diameter, over the intake measurement period were also estimated, as were liveweight and fat depth. Differences in pasture intake between bloodlines were largely related to liveweight in both groups of sheep, and were repeatable ('t'=0.8) between the groups. The repeatability of wool growth and wool growth efficiency was a little higher ('t'>>0.9). Combining all the known estimates improved the precision of the genetic parameterestimates. The pooled estimates of heritability of DOMI, wool growth, wool growth efficiency and fibre diameter were 0.12±0.04, 0.37±0.05, 0.25±0.05 and 0.66±0.08, respectively. The genetic relationships of wool growth efficiency withwool growth and fibre diameter were 0.84±0.20 and 20.03±0.12, respectively, while those for feed intake (as DOMI) withwool growth and fibre diameter were 20.02±0.17 and 0.40±0.15.
Link
Citation
Livestock Production Science, 73(2-3), p. 185-198
ISSN
1872-6070
0301-6226
1871-1413
Start page
185
End page
198

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