THE generalisation is that Merino sheep with a plain, wrinkle-free bare breech produce less wool than those with wrinkles and woolly backside.

And there is plenty of evidence to support that view.

But in any population there are exceptions, which is what the livestock geneticist strives to find and identify.

The success of today's Merino owes so much to the work of breeders and sheep classers of a long-gone era, such as the Peppin Brothers, Falkiners and Collins.

Today, much of that work is left to geneticists - using either quantitative genetics by conducting tedious measurements on progeny - or using molecular genetics to identify traits by examining the DNA of individual animals.

But, unfortunately, too many "traditional" Merino breeders still believe the geneticist is "off the planet", despite the success they have had in other livestock sectors.

But whether you agree or disagree with modern genetics, the national network of Merino ram progeny trials is beginning to show some positive results.

At the recent sire-evaluation field day at Cavendish, there was plenty of evidence of sires producing progeny which were not only improving liveweights and wool cuts while reducing micron, but they were also more resistant to worms and, lo and behold, many were nearly free of breech wrinkle.

Unfortunately, much of the cost of conducting these trials is carried by the respective ram breeder members by volunteering their time and paying more than $2200 per trial per ram.

When wool-apparel retailers and PETA are demanding a genetic answer to the mulesing, it is certainly not a good look that Australian Wool Innovation cuts its meagre contribution to the sire evaluation program to $100,000.

This contribution, which expires in June next year, represents only 14.5 per cent of the total sire-evaluation program costs. For information, order a copy of the Merino Superior Sires report from the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association.