The Relation of Face Covering to Fleece Weight, Body Weight and Kid Production of Angora Does

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Abstract
Data collected on a flock of registered Angoras maintained at the Sonora Station, (Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Substation 14, Sonora) over the 28-year period (1918-–946) were analyzed to determine the influence of face covering on body weight, fleece weight and kid production. When expressed on a per head basis, face covering did not significantly affect grease fleece weight, but it had a very marked influence on body weight and kid production. Depending on the method of calculation, the open-faced does produced 25% to 30% more kids dropped throughout a lifetime in breeding flock than covered-faced does. The influence on fertility was much greater during the does' first years in the breeding flock. During the 1918–1933 period, open-faced does at two years of age produced 70.1% kids dropped as compared to only 27.4% for covered-faced does of the same age group. Similar data for the 1933–1946 period show an even greater contrast of 78.2 as compared to 15.8 for the open-faced and covered-faced does, respectively. It is suggested that the influence on fertility is brought about through reduced size and vigor resulting from the partial blinding effect of excess covering on the face. Heritability studies, utilizing the method of intra-sire regression of off-spring on dam, yielded an estimate of 53.0% based on 451 parent-offspring pairs. The method of paternal half-sib analysis yielded an estimate of 89.6%. Copyright © . .

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