Phenotypic and genetic parameters for young Australian Alpacas are presented and compared with Alpaca reports in the literature, as well as with estimates for South Australian (SA) Merino sheep. The traits studied were greasy and clean fleece weight (GFW and CFW), fibre yield (YLD), mean fibre diameter (FD), coefficient of variation of FD (CVFD), staple length (SL) and live weight (LW). Most mean values fell within those found in the literature, except for YLD, which was greater in our study. YLD, FD, SL and LW were greater than for Merino sheep, whereas the opposite was true for GFW and CFW. The heritability was high (0.37 or greater) for all traits. The estimate for LW fell within the range in the literature, whereas for GFW and SL our values were greater. Relative to those for SA Merino sheep our estimates were greater for GFW, CFW, CVFD and LW, whereas they were lower for the remaining traits, except for SL, which had the same value. Phenotypic correlations from the literature were in broad agreement with ours. Those from SA Merino hoggets, except for some correlations involving YLD and SL, were in remarkable agreement with ours. The practical implications of the findings are discussed.
more »