Sire Reference Scheme Background

Nominations of bucks to be included in the Sire Referencing Scheme are sought from cashmere growers around Australia each year. Bucks are selected for evaluation on the basis of their production figures and the history of performance recording in the herd that they come from.

Semen is collected and frozen from the selected bucks and then used in an artificial insemination program using 300 cashmere does from the Allandale Research Farm herd. Each year, one sire from the previous year is used to provide a genetic link between years.

Prior to kidding, does are separated into sire groups; kids are tagged at birth, identifying them to both sire and dam.

All data that is collected on the progeny of the sires in the project is adjusted for non genetic factors such as birth date, birth type (I, 2, 3 or 4), and sex.