Wool shedding and lamb fleece weights: first-cross and backcross Wiltshire–Romney sheep scored at lamb, hogget and two-tooth ages

Figures & data

Table 1. Scoring timing for each location and each cohort.

Location	Riverside			Limestone Downs
Proportion of Wiltshire genes	½ Wiltshire	¾ Wiltshire	^7/8 Wiltshire	½ Wiltshire
Year of birth	2020	2021	2022	2021
Lamb fleece weight (kg)	February 2021	February 2022	February 2023	–
Lamb shedding score	January 2021	January 2022	February 2023	February 2022
Hogget shedding score	November 2021	–	–	December 2022
Hogget shedding score	February 2022	March 2023	–	–
Two-tooth shedding score	November 2022	–	–	–

½ Wiltshire = ½ Wiltshire ½ Romney, ¾ Wiltshire = ¼ Romney ¾ Wiltshire, 7/8 Wiltshire = 1/8 Romney 7/8 Wiltshire. Lambs are approximately 5 months of age, Hoggets are approximately 14 months (November/December) or 19 months (February/March) of age, Two-tooths are approximately 27 months of age.

Table 2. Raw mean and standard deviation (SD) for shedding scores, lamb fleece weight by location, animal age and the proportion of Wiltshire genes.

Location	Riverside						Limestone Downs
Proportion of Wiltshire genes		½ Wiltshire		¾ Wiltshire		^7/8 Wiltshire		½ Wiltshire
	n	Mean ± SD	n	Mean ± SD	n	Mean ± SD	n	Mean ± SD
Lamb fleece weight (kg)	236	1.75 ± 0.24	253	1.05 ± 0.45	32	1.17 ± 0.44		–
Lamb shedding score	237	0.36 ± 0.46	266	1.19 ± 1.06	35	1.55 ± 0.94	1654	0.68 ± 0.69
Hogget shedding score	234	0.86 ± 0.68		–		–	1124	0.83 ± 1.02
Hogget shedding score	231	1.27 ± 0.87	100	3.61 ± 1.24		–		–
Two-tooth shedding score	215	1.13 ± 0.89		–		–		–

n = number of animals, ½ Wiltshire = ½ Wiltshire ½ Romney, ¾ Wiltshire = ¼ Romney ¾ Wiltshire, 7/8 Wiltshire = 1/8 Romney 7/8 Wiltshire. Lambs are approximately 5 months of age, Hoggets are approximately 14 months (November/December) or 19 months (February/March) of age, Two-tooths are approximately 27 months of age.

Figure 1. LSMean and SEM for shedding score (a). Lamb score (approximately 5 months) to hogget score in November (approximately 15 months) at Riverside (b). Lamb score to hogget score in March (approximately 19 months) at Riverside (c). Lamb score to two-tooth score in November (approximately 27 months) at Riverside (d). Lamb score in February (approximately 5 months) to hogget score in December (approximately 15 months) at Limestone Downs.

Figure 2. Proportion of animals with each shedding score as (a). Lambs scored in January/February (approximately 15 months) at Riverside farm (b). Hoggets scored in February/March (approximately 19 months) at Riverside farm (c). Two-tooths scored in November (approximately 27 months) at Riverside Farm (Pink columns – 1/2, Purple columns – 3/4, Orange columns – 7/8) (d). Lambs (approximately 5 months) (Green columns) and Hoggets (approximately 15 months) (Grey columns) scored in February and December at Limestone Downs.