Factors affecting wool characteristics of corriedale sheep in temperate region of Jammu and Kashmir

Corriedale is an exotic sheep breed imported from New Zealand in the year 1970 for improvement of mutton and wool production in Kashmir (India). A study was performed to evaluate the wool quality traits of Correidale sheep under farm conditions in Kashmir. Data (n= 1624) collected from 1997 to 2018 on clean wool yield (CWY), fibre diameter (FD), staple length (SL), crimps per cm (CR) and medullation (MD) were analysed. The overall least-squares means for CWY, FD, SL, CR and MD were 683.46±1.19 g/kg, 21.20±0.05 μ, 3.88±0.05 cm, 4.16±4.37 cm and 0.24±0.06%, respectively. The coefficients of variation (CV %) for CWY, FD, SL, CR and MD were 3.87, 3.25, 34.27, 25.00 and 42.25, respectively. Phenotypic trends were negative for CWY, FD and SL in contrast to positive for CR and MD. The trends were statistically significant (P< 0.05) for all traits except MD. The phenotypic correlations of FD with CWY, SL and MD and CWY with SL and MD were positive and significant (P<0.01). However, the phenotypic associations of CR with CWY, FD, SL and MD and SL with MD were negative and ranged from low to moderate. The study showed considerable decrease in staple length over the years (from 6.28 to 3.83 cm).