Alpaca Journal

This article discusses blow out of micron as it relates to an alpaca’s age. The amount of micron blow out correlates fairly closely when two year old measurements are taken and not as closely when measurements are used from younger animals. The article goes on to discuss micron count as it relates to color. The main findings on mean fiber diameter were:

• mean fiber diameter increased to 7.5 years of age

• correlation between the mean fiber diameter at ages 1.5 and 2 years of age with the mean fiber diameter at older ages are much higher than correlation made at younger ages

• fiber diameter blow out (increase with age) is highly correlated with the actual mean fiber diameter at ages of 1 year and older

• farm management (origin) affected mean fiber diameter

• there were important interactions between origin and year and origin and shearing age

• the effect of breed varied with live weight

• there was no effect of sex

• white fleeces were finer than fleeces classified as dark

The main findings on coefficient of variation of mean fiber diameter were:

• CV(D) declined rapidly between birth and 2 years of age reaching minima at about 4 years of age and then increasing

• CV(D) measurements on young animals were very poor predictors of CV(D) at older ages

• Suris had a higher CV(D) than Huacayas on most properties

• mean fiber diameter, live weight and sex did not affect CV(D)

• darker fleeces had higher CV(D) than whiter fleeces in two of the four years

Click here to read the article.

Original Publisher- http://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ajar

Related Links:

• Micron Madness

I thought you might enjoy reading about linebreeding from the point of view of a rare horse breeder.

Undefeated in 14 runs and a sire supreme, Nearco was probably the best horse of the first half of the last century. Credited with undefeated Ribot as well, his breeder, Frederico Tesio, was probably the best breeder of that period.  The pedigree of both would be good places to look for anyone trying to unravel the mysteries of breeding a top thoroughbred, I thought one night long ago.

I recognized it for what it was in a nano-glance - a clinic in line breeding. It has since been my belief that horses will go on breeding in kind when returned to opposite sex strains of the gene pool from which they descend. Compounding, this is Olin Gentry's edict: "Return to the sire the best blood of his dam" - it is not clear where he learned, but Kentucky Derby winners strewn up and down Old Frankfort Pike will attest that learn he did.

These are the types of pedigrees we strive for in planned matings. Others take a different approach, often with good results. But until knowledge overtakes strongly held opinions based on observation, my two bucks are on linebreeding.

Click here to read the article.

Related Links:

• Pure Blood Part III

For those of you out there interested in mating Like to Like by pedigree this article may provide some insight.

One of the most compelling questions in Thoroughbred breeding is why an outstanding racehorse can fail as a stallion while others succeed.  If race record doesn't dictate success, what does?

To find an answer, a study was undertaken to see if there are any pedigree differences be

Conclusions

Given this study of composite successes and failures, we could draw several conclusions that might be used to predict which stallions will prove outstanding and which will be duds.

1. The stallion should have an inbred dam, and should have the relatively same percent of inbreeding as his dam.
2. A pattern should exist with a moderately inbred second dam, highly inbred dam, highly inbred foal.
3. The stallion should have the right kind of broodmare sire, i.e., a horse who is higher in male factors than female factors, and very low in female factors.

Click here to read the complete article.

Related Links:

• Nearco: A Primer in Linebreeding
• Pure Blood Part III

Executive Summary
Department of Primary Industries

Market research was conducted to investigate sheep breeding decisions from a consumer behavior perspective.  Interviews with woolgrowers, extension professionals, brokers and consultants were used to identify the key criteria that influence the sheep breeding decisions of woolgrowers.  The interviews were used to design a mail survey that was distributed to woolgrowers throughout Victoria.

Click here to read the article.

Did your breeding create a good nick?  I have always had good luck with repeating the breedings that resulted in superior breedings.  That’s called a “good nick” but the larger idea is to discover a “good nick” between blood lines or strains of pure bred animals.  Anne Peters’ article provides some interesting insights about how “good nicks” occur.

Just what the heck is a "nick" anyway?  Being curious as to where this term came from, the author consulted Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary and discovered that it actually had a genetic definition: "to complement one another genetically and produce superior offspring.”  Yup.  That about sums it up.  A nick is a cross of two bloodlines that seems to produce superior results.

Nicks have been around as long as there have been Thoroughbreds, and probably as long as there have been animal breeders.  Some of the earliest include the Godolphin Arabian crossed on daughters of The Bald Galloway, a cross that produced this foundation sire's most important offspring Lath, Cade, and Regulus (see Andrea Hoogendoorn's interesting article on Siblings.)  Lath and Cade were out of the same mare, Roxana, while Regulus was out of a second daughter of Bald Galloway named Grey Robinson.

Click here to read the article.

Many of you may have heard about the soft rolling skin (SRS) selection system advocated by Dr. Jim Watts. This article takes a negative view of SRS wool. The Italian spinners that were interviewed said that the staple was too long for efficient processing.

Why Inbreeding? Anne Peters answers her question in a clear minded objective fashion. Alpaca breeders who are interested in the potential of close breeding as well as the downside should take the time to read this article. It is published on The Pedigree Post, This is a great website with interesting ideas about animal breeding.

Click here to read the article.

Related Links:

• Nicks or Not
• Pure Blood Part III
• Nearco: A Primer in Linebreeding
• The Good, The Bad, and the Inbred: Why Stallions Succeed

A great site that contains a little of everything on the status of sheep breeding research. I want to warn you that the site contains 98 pages and many abstracts, so only dedicated researchers should click on this link. Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics

Only abstracts are available at this site, but most appear as short papers of 4 pages (longer for keynote papers) in the printed proceedings: so if something takes your interest, continue to information on ordering copies.