Production performance, repeatability and heritability estimates for live weight, fleece weight and fiber characteristics of alpacas in New Zealand

Abstract

The production performance, repeatability and heritability estimates for live weight, fleece weight and fiber characteristics of alpacas farmed in the South Island of New Zealand are reported. Male alpacas produced heavier fleeces (p<0.001) than females, but with relatively similar fiber diameter. Mean (S.E.) shearing weight, greasy fleece weight (GFW), clean fleece weight (CFW), yield, staple length (SL), resistance to compression (RtC) and fiber diameter (FD) in adults were 68.0kg (1.0), 2.16kg (0.06), 2.03kg (0.06), 93.6% (0.4), 9.9cm (0.2), 5.3kPa (0.1) and 31.9µm (0.5), respectively. These means in tuis were 68.1kg (1.9), 3.02kg (0.20), 2.94kg (0.27), 92.2% (0.4), 12.2cm (0.3), 4.8kPa (0.1) and 30.5µm (0.9), respectively. The corresponding measurements in crias were 40.5kg (1.1), 1.97kg (0.07), 1.84kg (0.07), 93.4% (0.3), 12.6cm (0.2), 4.6kPa (0.1) and 26.4µm (0.4), respectively. The birth weight (BWT) was 8.4kg (0.1) and SS was 28.4 N/ktex (1.9) in crias. The seasonal variation of fiber growth and fiber diameter was small to moderate, with lowest values in the winter. Mid-side fleece site FD was highly correlated with other main sites sampled and shown to be appropriate as a standard sampling site. The phenotypic correlation between CFW and FD was 0.40 (p<0.001) and for fleece weight and shearing live weight was 0.47 in adult alpacas (p<0.001). Correlation coefficients for GFW and CFW with FD and SL were highly positive (GFW with FD and SL: 0.32-0.45, 0.39-0.54; CFW with FD and SL: 0.37-0.46, 0.40-0.53) in both tui and cria fleeces. The heritabilities for BWT, summer weight, spring weight, GFW and CFW, yield, SL, RtC and FD were estimated as 0.63, 0.41, 0.99, 0.63, 0.68, 0.67, 0.57, 0.16, 0.69 and 0.73. Production performance and heritability estimates for these traits were markedly higher than that previously reported in South American camelids.