THE ANALYSIS OF CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE MAIN TRAITS OF WOOL PRODUCTION ON MILK BREED - PALAS

Ana Enciu, Camelia Zoia Zamfir, Alina Nicolescu, A. Ida

Abstract
The aim of this paper was to analyze the coefficient of correlation and regression between main wool production traits for the sheep belonging to the Milk Breed Palas. The study was performed on a 10 years interval, the phenotypic correlation and the regression being determined for age groups and body weight classes for the following traits: raw wool production, the staple length, wool diameter and body weight at shearing. The obtained results are showing that similar to the known sheep breeds the efficiency of wool production is also higher for the sheep with moderate body weights (50-60 kg) but in the case of specialized sheep types the selection for body weight will be done based on the morph-productive parameters specific to the purpose of exploitation (milk production, meat production or high prolificacy). Regarding the correlation coefficients between the wool production and fiber diameter of Milk Breed Palas the greatest values were for the ewes at the fourth shearing season r=0,361 ± 0,071 (***) and at the fifth shearing season in the case of correlation between wool production and staple length of fibers r=0,438 ± 0,074(***).

Key words: wool production, wool diameter, staple length, body weight at shearing, correlation