Abstract
Merino ewes were screened for low fibre diameter from 15 000 yearlings within 12 flocks to establish a foundation flock in 1987, which was expanded to 500 ewes over the subsequent two years. Ewes were selected on fibre diameter BLUP breeding values. For comparison, a control flock of 100 ewes was randomly selected from the same sources. Data from approximately 2000 progeny over five birth years within 70 sire groups were analysed. Traits measured were live weight, greasy and clean fleece weight, yield, mean fibre diameter (FD), staple length, staple strength, staple crimp frequency, resistance to compression, Commission International de l'Eclairange (CIE) tristimulus value for scoured wool and coefficient of variation in fibre diameter. The ultrafine progeny had 2-μm finer FD, 0.6 units less yellow and had 0.6 more crimps/cm (all P<0.001) than their control counterparts. This experiment suggests that formation of an open nucleus breeding population by intensive screening for fibre diameter from a commercial population will improve selection response relative to traditional within flock selection without screening or to screening rams only.
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