Abstract
Abstract This investigation examined an alternative option to selection within breed for improving wool bulk by crossbreeding traditional long‐wooled sheep with introduced Texels. A flock of bulky high‐fleece‐weight sheep was established by crossbreeding high‐fleece‐weight‐selected (HF) Romney ewes with bulky‐wooled Texel rams. A local Romney control flock (LC) was formed at the same time. These two flocks were grazed together at the Gore Research Station. The HF flock established earlier and its random control (RC) flock were both located at another site (Woodlands Research Station), and were also included in the comparison through common RC‐LC sire linkages. The Texel x Romney (TR) flock had significantly (P < 0.01) higher liveweights and fleece weights than its LC. The TR flock was 7 and 5% heavier than the HF flock for birth and weaning weight, and significantly (P < 0.01) heavier for spring liveweight and 16‐month liveweight at 11 and 9% respectively. Wool return per head predicted for the TR flock w...
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