Grant Award View - GA302990

This project aims to increase the rate of genetic gain in the Australian wool industry. The project will examine how skin follicle traits in combination with clean fleece weight measurements result in greater lifetime productivity. New research by McGregor and Butler (2016) has highlighted that skin follicle measurements are confounded based on skin surface area of the sheep (Allometric) as skin follicle density is fixed at birth. Previously, the usefulness of skin follicle traits to improve wool production and quality has been limited as correlations with clean fleece weight have been estimated as low to negligible. This project will look to see the response by correcting the follicle density measurements for skin surface area and determine if the combination of fleece weight measurements and corrected skin follicle measurement can result in greater lifetime wool production and greater selection accuracy.