RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The phenotypic variance for greasy fleece weight increases with age (Table 3) while the
heritability increased from 0.37 at yearling to 0.51 at 2 year old adult age and then plateaued
thereafter. The genetic correlations between yearling and adult performance were moderate to high
ranging from 0.81 at 2 years to 0.62 at 6 years of age. Hogget traits were more highly correlated
with adult expressions ranging from 0.88 to 0.73. The results confirm that assessments for greasy
fleece weight made on young animals are good predictors of adult performance genetically (0.62 to 0.81) even if the phenotypic correlations are lower (0.44 to 0.61). Adult expressions were all
very highly correlated and can be treated as the same trait genetically. The phenotypic correlations
were generally moderate to high and also slightly lower than the genetic correlations.