Jersey wooly genetic question

My friend has been trying to look for information and, since she can't speak english, has been unsuccesful. I myself am not too comfy with the coding of rabbit genetics so it's been a bit hard for me to look for an answer.

My friend plans to cross English Angoras with Jersey woolies. Looking at the gene for long fur coats, she says long fur is small "l" and short fur is "L". She's not sure what Jerseys are considered as since some can have short fur. I think they might be Ll? and english angoras are ll? I dunno, my brain isnt working anymore. Anyone has any clue about this?

As far as I know, the genes are the same. L is short furred and is dominant over l, long furred. A rabbit with Ll genes is therefore short furred.
The only difference between the length of a Jersey Woolly's fur and an Angora's fur would be other modifiers, I believe. A long-coated JW crossed with an Angora will produce only long-furred kits. Length and texture may vary depending on modifiers.

What is her end goal? You would pretty much just get a double maned JW, which are already available. With work you could breed towards even more coat, but it will likely be a long process filled with lots of grooming, as JW and EA dont have the easiest coats to maintain.

There are no otter colored english angoras in quebec but she found some good jersey ones. She wants to bring in the color pattern into the race.

Ah ha. I could see that. Otter is not a showable color. I wouldn't recommend using a JW though. I would use something with just normal fur. Two generations and you've got good body type and wool. I breed Satin with Satin Angora to increase body size and sheen. If I wanted Otter, just use a Otter Satin. They're readily available on good bodies.

It has been my observation that JW bred to French, Satin, or English, really doesn’t help any of the breeds out. The differences between them, while subtle, are actually really succinct.

JW are meant and bred towards having a large presence of natural long guard hairs within their coats, per the standard. If your friend is a fiber person she probably won’t want this in her normal angora herd as the guard hairs can be tough to work with and ruin the finish halo of whatever she’s creating. Seriously, even the best JW wool can’t touch good French, English, or Giant wool.

JW are long haired genetically, same as the French or English. I have never witnessed a short hair (normal coat) pop out of any breedings from known 3 or 4 generation pedigreed JW. I have witnessed normal fur on out crossed JW bred back to ND, but that’s it. (ND can have naturally occurring “long hair” specimens, but those do not look like JW when mature, the coat is not woolen. It’s regular fur, just much longer than “normal”.)

Phenotype on the JW however, can mean that “long hair” per the genotype is only 1.5 inches on them (and some have even less!). ARBA Standard for JW: ideal wool 3 inches. Not all make that standard, despite genetically being long haired. My best of best wooled JW have never had wool longer than 4 inches, ever. Most stay within the 2-3 inch rule. Some lines the wool length is spot on equal to ear length.

JW have a different head set and body to them, imho, that totally gets ruined and doesn’t come back if any other breed, save a ND, gets crossed with them. This head set also negatively takes away from other breeds’ heads and shoulders when crossed with JW. I think your friend would end up with a cross that wouldn’t have either desired breeds’ body structure, and shorter than hoped for wool.

Color isn’t everything. But if it is, breed a tan pattern Satin Angora into your English. The tan lines are being worked with, so some of the hassle is already done.

Thanks everyone, I'll relay the info to her.
WyoWool, just out of curiosity, I do have a single mane chocolate otter lionhead cross netherland dwarf.... I know he's obviously not a purebreed by any means, but do you think she should try him out? He's very much a dward ND body shape.

Sorry for the late reply.

I would not mix a ND or ND body cross into a French or English.
The head set on a ND does not mix well.

If she wanted to cross your ND/LH with those otter JW’s....that could potentially come out to a dwarf mix of reasonable fiber in a color she wants. But something like that probably would be mediocre in the aspects of fiber compared to an English or French too. But it would be the color she wanted.

If she has the time and resources...experiment!