No.

50/93

Sheep breeding: Variation between sheep

By Roger Lewer, Senior Research Officer, Great Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Katanning

Within any group of sheep, considerable differences are
easily observed from one animal to the next.
Some are large. Some have more wool; some have finer
wool. Some have softer handling than others. These
differences are called variation.
Variation between sheep is the result of:
• the genes they carry; and
• the environment in which they live.
These two sources of variation add together as follows:
Total variation = variation owing to genes + variation
owing to environment.
Total variation
Total or observed variation is called phenotypic variation.
Phenotype is the sum of all factors that produce a trait.
Every trait, for example fleece weight, liveweight or
conformation, had a phenotype.
Consider liveweights as an example of variation. If the
liveweights of a large number of sheep where recorded,
most would be about average. A few sheep would be
much lighter than average and a few much heavier.
Figure 1 shows a plot of the liveweights of 3889 hoggets.
The curve is roughly bell shaped, or a ‘normal’ curve. It
is not perfectly smooth since this is only a sample of all
possible weights. The average liveweight
of these hoggets is about 43 kg.
This description also shows the range of liveweights. The
lightest sheep are about 24 kg while the heaviest are near
70 kg. Thus, the heaviest are about 2.8 times the weight
of the lightest. The range is another measure of variation.
Environmental variation
The total external factors that influence the animal cause
environmental variation. Within a flock, these can be
aspects such as sex, age of the dam or single versus twin
rearing.
The calculations of the standard deviation for the
example in Figure 1 take no account of environmental
effects. So, the spread is greater than normally would be
expected. When similar distributions were drawn
separately for each sex, Figure 2 was the result.
Both the standard deviations and the ranges are lower
than when the data were combined. For the ewes, the
standard deviation is 5 kg, and the range is 24 to 52 kg.
The male standard deviation is 7 kg with a range from 30
to 70 kg.
Genetic variation
Identical sheep do not exist in nature. That is, no two
sheep born naturally have identical sets of genes.
Genetic variation is smaller than phenotypic variation by
a proportion called heritability (see Farmnote No. 52/93
‘Sheep breeding: Heritability’ (Agdex 430/30)).

Standard deviation
The standard deviation of these data
describes the spread around the average.
One standard deviation each side
contains 68% of observations. Two
standard deviations each side of the
average account for 95% of the sheep
observed.
Standard deviation is a clear description of
the variation between sheep in this flock.
The standard deviation of the hogget
liveweights shown in Figure 1 is about
8 kg. Therefore about 68%, or 2645, of the
hogget liveweights are within 8 kg of
average. Figure 1. Distribution of combined male and female hogget liveweights
(uncorrected).

Important Disclaimer
The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Agriculture and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever
by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.

For more information visit our web site www.agric.wa.gov.au


Figure 2. Male and female hogget liveweights plotted separately to show the
difference in mean and standard deviation.
Table 1. Number of genotypes possible with
increasing numbers of gene pairs
Number of gene pairs Number of genotypes
1 3
2 3
3 27
20 3.487 billion
n 3n
© State of Western Australia, 2005
Sets of pairs of genes, not single gene
pairs, mediate all production traits in
sheep. Hundreds or thousands of genes
may be implicated. A set of genes that
affects the genetic expression of a trait is
called a genotype. Table 1 shows the
number of different genotypes that are
possible with different numbers of gene
pairs.
With as few as 20 genes, the number of
genotypes appears to become infinite.
Although this number of different
genotypes can lead to genetic variation
between sheep, the differences caused by
different genes are indistinguishable
because:
• such small differences are not
measurable; and
• environmental effects substantially
affect multiple gene traits, obscuring
small genetic differences.
Further reading
• Farmnote No. 52 /93 ‘Sheep breeding: Heritability’
(Agdex 430/30).
• Farmnote No. 73/2003 ‘Genetic nomenclature and
animal breeding terms’ (Agdex 400/30).
Editorial assistance: Eliza Compton, Information and
Media Services.
ISSN 0726-934X