SRS Sheep, Goats, Alpacas

Alpacas

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:00:38 +0000

Rare and valuable wool

The alpaca, like other fleece-coated animals, originates from a two-coated ancestor. The outer coat, or 'guard hair', is still visible on most alpacas. It can be regarded as a contaminant which impedes processing and dyeing of alpaca fibre, and lessens the quality and appeal of fabrics.

SRS® is a breeding system that will eliminate 'guard hair' from alpacas and will perfect the dimensions and properties of alpaca fibre so that it can become a prestigious and fine fibre, similarly revered as cashmere is, and well positioned in the luxury fibre markets.

We are in the process of genetically reconstructing the alpaca fibre. More than 100 alpaca breeders in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, USA and Canada are involved. The fibre reconstruction is achieved by increasing the density and length of wool fibres, whilst minimising the size of primary fibres.

Figure 1. The fleece of an advanced alpaca of measurably high levels of fibre density and length and fine fibre diameter.

As density and length increases the fleece fibres become highly aligned and uniform in size and shape, and medullation disappears. The fibres become much finer in diameter and smooth surfaced as scale height decreases and scale length increases.

Bred in this way, the alpaca has the potential to produce about 50 times the fleece weight of the cashmere goat.

Advanced alpacas

We have some excellent benchmarks for being able to say when an alpaca has advanced fleece traits. Our worldwide database of leading alpacas from many herds that have been tested for density and length is available. The 309 alpacas, averaging 45 months of age, have the following mean values:

fibre density of 43.3 follicles (fibres) per square millimetre
fibre length, as measured by growth rate, of 0.34 millimetres per day
primary fibres with a mean diameter of 34.7 microns
secondary fibres with mean diameter of 24.0 microns

Alpacas sires

Among the alpaca sires we are using in SRS® breeding programs are the following examples (See www.srsalpacas.com.au):

Animal: Jolimont Giovanni
Date of Birth: 07 January 2002
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 69.3 follicles per square mm
Fibre length: 0.39 millimetres per day
Primary fibre diamaeter: 30.2 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 19.5 microns
Fleece weight: 2.7 kilograms at 16.5 microns (12 months of age)

Animal: Protege
Date of Birth: 11 January 1997
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 68.2 follicles per square mm
Fibre length: 0.30 millimetres per day
Primary fibre diamaeter: 33.5 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 22.2 microns

Animal: Mars
Date of Birth: 17 January 2004
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 60.9 follicles per square mm
Primary fibre diamaeter: 20.7 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 17.2 microns
Fleece weight: 2.2 kilograms (12 months of age)

Animal: Accolade
Date of Birth: 11 March 2004
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 60.8 follicles per square mm
Primary fibre diamaeter: 25.5 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 19.1 microns

Animal: Yucatan
Date of Birth: 28 April 2003
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 48.8 follicles per square mm
Fibre length: 0.39 millimetres per day
Primary fibre diamaeter: 30.0 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 22.2 microns

Animal:Alloro
Date of Birth: 01 January 2003
Colour: Solid white
Fibre density: 41.1 follicles per square millimetre
Fibre length: 0.38 millimetres per day
Primary fibre diamaeter: 27.2 microns
Secondary fibre diameter: 18.0 microns
Fleece weight: 3.6 kilograms (2 years of age)

Goats

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:00:25 +0000

Goats probably outnumber sheep and cattle worldwide. They are highly fertile (about 150% kidding) and provide the basic meat and milk requirements for millions of people.

Many breeds of meat and milk goats exist today but it is the Angora goat and the cashmere goat that are renowned for the valuable fleeces they produce.

We have bred Angora bucks and does of exceptionally high fibre density and fibre length like the buck shown below, that can quickly convert other breeds of goats in to valuable fleece animals with excellent meat and milking traits.

Figure 1.This 14 month old SRS® Angora buck (top left) with 3 months fleece growth has about twice the density and length of fibres of other Angora goats. The fleece consists of long and thin coiling staples (top right) which are highly aligned (bottom left) on a loose skin (bottom right).

The stunning breakthrough that we have made in our SRS® breeding programs is to produce high quality mohair on meat and milking goats which previously had no fleece. Evidence for this is shown below.

Figure 2. This 6 month old goat weights 46 kilograms, or about twice the body weight of an Angora goat at this age. It is a triplet producing good quality mohair, 125 millimetres long, 25 microns in fibre diameter and an estimated fleece weight of 3 kilograms. The fleece sells for AUD $13.00 per kilogram. It is the progeny of a SRS® Angora buck with a fleece of high density and length joined to a Boer (meat) x Saanen (milking) doe which has no fleece.

Leading Bucks

Yarran Park Angora Stud
Owner: Keith Cowen
e/ kcowen@bordernet.com.au
w/ www.yarranparkangoras.com.au

Yarran Park Andy
Body weight: 92.0 kilograms at 6 months of age
Andy is a very large buck with outstanding conformation. He produces a very fine soft handlong mohair without any drop in fleece weight. Yarran Park Socrates
Body weight: 2.2 kilograms for 2nd shearing at 25.0 microns / 4.3 kilograms for 3rd shearing at 25.8 microns
This outstanding sire is one of our top stud bucks. He produces super soft fine mohair with great lustre. A very well grown buck with a quiet temperament. Yarran Park Arnie (colour: solid white)
Body weight: 67.0 kilograms at 14 months of age
Fleece weight: 3.5 kilograms for 2nd shearing at 26.5 microns / 6.5 kilograms for 3rd shearing at 27.9 microns
This sire is the result of a very successful embryo transfer program in 2004. We retained this buck for his outstanding growth rates and high fleece weights. He will be used in the 2006 breeding season.

Sheep

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:00:13 +0000

No mulesing

Mulesing is the surgical removal of breech skin folds in sheep. It is done to prevent fly strike associated with urine wetting of the skin of sheep that have wrinkly skins.

Merino sheep bred on SRS® selection principles have the great advantage of not having to be mulesed. The sheep are plain bodied and totally free of any skin wrinkling. When the sheep's skin is like this it remains dry at all times. Urine is not trapped in the breech region and rain droplets are not trapped along the sheep's back. Consequently, the weeping dermatites that produce conditions such as 'urine scald' and fleece rot (from prolonged rain) do not occur, and the sheep are not predisposed to blowfly strike of any kind. Mulesing is not required and neither is insecticidal treatment.

Please click here for our latest newsletter which details the non-mulesing status of our 36 SRS® Merino and Poll Merino studs. Figure 1. Merino ewes and lambs at Keri Keri Merino Stud, an SRS® flock. Mulesing was discontinued in 2002. The sheep are plain bodied and naturally resistant to fly strike. (See www.kerimerino.com.au). The possibility of being able to breed plain bodied Merino sheep that are naturally resistant to breech strike and therefore do not need to be mulesed arose from the field investigations by Australian scientists, Drs H.R. Seddon and H.B. Belschner, in the early 1930s. Unmulesed Merino ewes were graded as having plain breeches (A class), wrinkly breeches (B class) and very wrinkly breeches (C class). The incidence of breech strike in each class of sheep is shown below Table 1. Incidence of breech strike in plain-breeched (A class), wrinkly (B class) and very wrinkly (C class) breeched sheep over four consecutive seasons. Belschner and Seddon's plain-breeched (A class) Merino ewes were much less susceptible to breech strike than wrinkly breeched Merinos.

In SRS® Merino flocks, the sheep are again much plainer than the plain-breeched (A class) sheep studied by Belschner and Seddon. Our sheep do not need to be mulesed because the animals are rarely fly struck. Figure 2. This 15 month old Merino ram is the plain bodied type that can breed sheep that are naturally plain bodied and do not need to be mulesed. The ram, pictured here in 4-months wool. weights 115.0 kilograms and produce a high fleece weight of 17.1 micron wool. Merino studs implementing SRS® breeding principles have stopped mulesing, some as long as four years ago. These rambreeders can produce large numbers of Merino rams which can be used to change the sheep in many Merino flocks rapidly to a much plainer breeched sheep that do not require mulesing.

Also, in SRS® flocks, large numbers of Merino rams and ewes are now being bred that do not grown wool in the breech region. Figure 3. This young Keri Keri Merino ram is unmulesed and free of wool in the breech, scrotum and around the pizzle. (See www.kerimerino.com.au). Breeding Merino sheep with breech regions naturally free of wool is an additional way of permanently protecting sheep from breech strike. These sheep may not require crutching (crutching is the shearing of the wool from the breech region, it is usually done once a year in Merino flocks).

Comfortable in it's environment

Where possible, the sheep are selected for the capacity to thrive and reproduce under conditions of low feed availability in both hot and cold environments as well as thrive in high summer rainfall environments. It is like a 'safety net', a way of ensuring that the animal is bred to be always comfortable in it's environment, even when the conditions are challenging. Figure 4. Keri Keri, an SRS® Merino stud in severe drought in 2003 (top left); low feed conditions in 2004 as drought persists (top right); 8 month old mixed sex lambs thriving in 2004 drought (bottom left); and a short while later, 13 month old ewes thriving in 2004 drought (bottom right). Summer temperatures reached 50 degrees centigrade. The adult ewes produced about 9.0 kilograms of 21.0 micron wool. (See www.kerimerino.com.au). Such efficient metabolic capacity is necessary for the sheep to deliver three income streams:

to produce high fleece weights of fine diamater wool that is rain proof
to produce lambs of high carcase weight and high red meat yield
to wean 120% or more lambs with minimal sheep losses

The approach we use is to select for big framed and plain bodied sheep with a 'triple wedge' shape (long neck, angular shoulders, long loin and wide hindquarters) Supplementary feeding is avoided as is housing of rams.

Often in rambreeding flocks, ewes which routinely rear multiple lambs and milk from four (rather than two) teats are used as the preferred dams. Figure 5. Four teated ewes in this Merino flock wean about 120% of lambs, or about 10% more lambs than the two teated ewes. The lambs from four teated ewes are also about 10% heavier. Lambs with long and fine outer coats are also preferentially kept for breeding. The long and fine outer coat of the lamb protects it from the harsh weather. It is also an early indicator of sheep with high levels of fibre density and fibre length and capable of producing high fleece weights of fine diameter wool.

The plain bodies and no skin wrinkle in SRS® Merino sheep means that the animals are more easily shorn; reducing the suffering to the animal and to the person shearing the sheep. The shorn wool is also more uniform and can be classed into fewer and larger wool lines.

SRS® Merino breeders, John and Wendy Gill, 'Booyamurra', Coolah, New South Wales, Australia, state:

We started on a SRS® Merino breeding program 10 years ago using Wallaloo Park rams exclusively. We are delighted with the results for the following reasons:

increased the wool cut by 2kgs to 8kgs per ewe and reduced the fibre diameter by 2 microns to 19.5 microns
narrowed the micron range of the wool clip lines from 4 microns to 2 microns
far less skin pieces and shearers say they are heaps better to shear
reduced body strike to nearly zero and now rarely jet any sheep.

High meat value

First-cross ewes such as the Merino x Border Leicester cross are mainly used as prime lamb dams in Australia. The Merino ewe, depsite it's more valuable fleece, is considered less capable of producing a lamb of sufficient meat quantity and quality to meet market requirements.

However, a recent study has shown that prime lambs bred from Merino ewes sourced from an SRS® flock had an average dressed weight that was 20% higher than lambs from first-cross ewes. Table 2. Merino ewes can be excellent prime lamb dams. Dams Sires Dressed lamb weight
at 6 months of age 500 Merino ewes 10 Poll Dorset rams 27.0 kilograms 500 first-cross ewes Same rams 22.5 kilograms
Carcase Evaluation trial - Source: MLA, 2000. Knowing this, our aim now is to breed prime lambs from Merino x Merino joinings.

High wool value

SRS® Merino sheep have been bred for high levels of fibre density and fibre length. With many wool fibres and long wool fibres on it's body, the sheep are able to produce high fleece weights. The high density is also associated with the fleeces becoming finer in fibre diameter. Examples of individual SRS® Merino ewes in a fine wool flock are shown in Table 3 below. Table 3. Fleece and fibre characteristics of individual SRS® Merino ewes from a fine wool flock Fleece weight
(kgs) Fibre diameter
(microns) Follice density
(per mm2) Fibre length
(mm per day) 5.8 14.7 122.0 0.41 7.3 15.4 81.0 0.48 7.5 15.6 96.8 0.37 6.1 15.7 110.2 0.37 6.5 16.1 100.7 0.41 Figure 6. The fleeces of SRS® sheep consist of long fibre bundles, each about the thickness of a matchstick. The fibre bundles are a mirror image of the number of fibres growing from follicle groups in the sheep's skin. Sheep with SRS® fibre bundles have measurably higher densities than thick stapled sheep. Table 4. Follicle densities (left) and number of follicles per group (right) of Merino rams with fleeces consisting of long fibre bundles or thick staples (531 rams from 52 flocks were sampled). SRS® sheep have the capacity to produce wool at least as long as 200 millimetres per year under paddock conditions. Figure 7. Twelve month old SRS® Merino ewe hoggets growing more than 200mm of 17.5 micron wool in a drought year where only 100mm rain fell. Worsted processing trials conducted from 1997 - 2002 by Itochu Wool Limited, the largest buyer of Australian wool, show that SRS® wool processes exceptionally well during topmaking, spinning and weaving. In all, 16 trials were carried out in Italy, Japan, Thailand, India and Australia, covering Merinos ranging from 17.3 to 20.7 microns.

In each trial, SRS® wool was compared with traditionally bred wool of high quality. The wools were matched carefully for fibre diameter, wool length, staple strength, position of break and vegetable matter content. Because SRS® wools are naturally longer, a considerable portion of SRS® wool was bought as 'prem' wool (less than 12 months growth). The topmaking advantages of SRS® wool in these trials is summarised in Table 5 below. Table 5. Topmaking advantages of SRS® wool versus traditionally bred wool of high quality. SRS® wools produced consistently longer Hauteur, less short fibre and less noil.

Itochu Wool Limited reported that yarns made from SRS® wool were soft and silky and similar in texture to cashmere. The yarns were exceptionally strong with very good natural strech and elasticity. Yarn breakages during spinning were reduced by 20% to 30%. The fabrics had excellent drape, a natural ability to stretch, less creasing and a deep rich appearance after dyeing, particularly with pastel colours.

New genetic types

Using the breeding technology Dr. Watts has developed, he has been able to develop new genetic types of sheep, capable of combining high wool quality and quantity with high meat and milk production (see www.australianmeatmerino.com). This has allowed the exceptional meat atrributes (see below) of non-fleece producing breeds to be infused in the Merino. Figure 8. The meat ram (left) weighed 83 kilograms at 5 months of age and the other meat ram (right) 115 kilograms at 12 months of age. These 12 month old AMM® ewes (recently shorn) are a product of this new genetic type. The ewes produce high lambing percentages at this young age. At seven months of age sheep can reach live body weights of 60 kilograms and carcase weights of 25 kilograms. The ewes are producing high quality wool of about 16.5 microns fibre diameter.

Notable Sires

Some of the top performing Merino and Poll Merino rams in the SRS® breeding system include> Animal: Leahcim 9 Yearling breeding values: Fleece weight: 123% Fibre diameter: - 1.2 microns Body weight: + 6.8 kilograms Eye muscle depth: + 0.08 millimetres Animal: Leahcim 24 Yearling breeding values: Fleece weight: 124% Fibre diameter: - 1.1 microns Body weight: + 5.0 kilograms Eye muscle depth: + 0.34 millimetres Animal: Leahcim 154 Yearling breeding values: Fleece weight: 115% Fibre diameter: - 1.9 microns Body weight: + 4.9 kilograms Eye muscle depth: + 0.39 microns Stud: Keri Keri Merino Stud, Moulamein, NSW AU Owners: Andrew & Peter Dowling Email: keri@kerimerino.com.au Website: www.kerimerino.com.au
Animal: Keri Keri 0321 Date of Birth: May 2000 Fibre diamater: 21.1 microns at 5 years of age CV fibre diameter: 16.8%
A huge meat sheep with excellent wool. This ram is very bare around the breech. This photo shows the ram in paddock winter condition. All shep at Keri Keri are paddock run with no supplementary feeding or housing. Like many of the Keri Keri sires this ram carries the 4-teater gene, producing excellent ewes with exceptional mothering and fertility traits.
Animal: Keri Keri 2445 Date of Birth: May 2003 Fibre diamater: 20.5 microns at 3 years of age CV fibre diameter: 18.6%
Keri Keri sire R2445 has produced the highest proportion of outstanding ram lambs and the fewest culls. His progeny are showing his characteristics of long, white, soft wools coupled with good growth rates.

His semen has been used throughout Australia and more recently the Falkland Islands. He is another Keri Keri sire to carry the 4 teater gene. Again this year he was joined to the top maiden stud ewes. Animal: Keri Keri 8107 Date of Birth: July 1998 Fibre diamater: 20.8 microns at 8 years of age CV fibre diameter: 18.6%

Keri Keri W8107 is the national trait leader in the Merino Validation Project for 200 day body growth rate of the progeny. the EBV for this ram is +12 kgs which puts him in the top 1% of all meat sheep sires.

Keri Keri 8107 is now 8 years old and has lived his life at Keri Keri, surviving the 2002 - 2003 drought and harsh climatic conditions. Apart from when he is having semen collected in the AI centre, he runs in paddocks on the Hay Plains with no supplementary feeding or shedding (as do all sheep at Keri Keri). He was again joined with top stud ewes in 2006. Being such a great plain bodied ram Keri Keri W8107 is continually used by Merino breeders to "straighten their sheep out". He has the added bonus of carrying the 4 teater gene.

Science

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:00:02 +0000

The SRS® breeding technology allows the density and length of fibres grown by the sheep, goat and alpaca to be increased rapidly. As a result, the animals produce high fleece weights of fine diameter wool.

In SRS® animals whose fibres crimp, such as the Merino sheep and the Huacaya alpaca, the high density and length of fibres will produce a fleece consisting of long, 'matchstick-like' fibre bundles rather than staples. In SRS® animals whose fibres coil, such as the Angora goat and the Suri alpaca, the fleece consists of long, thin staples formed by fibre bundles being gathered together by the twisting action of the fibres.

About Us

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:59:38 +0000

Figure 1. Dr. Jim Watts M.V.Sc., Ph.D., specialist in fleece and skin biology and animal breeding. SRS® is a unique breeding system for developing new genetic types of sheep, goats and alpacas with fleeces of unparalleled quality. It was invented and implemented by Dr. Jim Watts.

The new breeding technology allows meat and milk breeds of sheep and goats, that previously produced no wool, or inferior wool, to be transformed into valuable wool-producing animals without any loss of meat or milk production. Figure 2. A new synthetic breed of goat. For example, this 6 month old goat (Figure 2) weighs 46.0 kilograms, or about twice the body weight of an Angora goat at this age. It is a triplet producing good quality mohair 125.0 millimetres long, 25.0 microns in fibre diameter and an estimate fleece weight of 3.0 kilograms. The fleece sells for up to AUD $30.00 per kilogram. It is the progeny of an SRS® Angora buck with a fleece of high density and length joined to a Boer (meat) x Saanen (milking) doe which has no fleece.

Using the SRS® breeding system, remarkble genetic improvements have been achieved in the quantity and quality of fleeces produced by Merino sheep, Angora goats and alpacas; animals that normally grow long and fine fleeces. In many flocks and herds, the wool or mohair is almost twice as long, is finer and softer, and there is a lot more of it.

The Merino sheep no longer have to be mulesed, are easy to shear and rear more lambs. Figure 3. Twelve month old SRS® Merino ewe hogget growing more than 200 millimetres of 17.5 micron wool in a drought year where only 100.0 millimetres rain fell. Alpacas are now being bred with wool as fine and as valuable as cashmere and able to produce 50 times the fleece weight of a cashmere goat. Figure 4. Some alpacas can produce as much as 50 times the fleece weight of a cashmere goat at a similar fineness. The SRS® breeding system is used in seedstock production and seedstock marketing systems involving livestock producers in Australia, New Zealand, South America, USA and the United Kingdom.