Decades of dedication to Merino

Dr Watts shot to prominence as the founder of the Soft Rolling Skin (SRS) program, which linked skin attributes with wool attributes.

But Dr Watts's manipulation of the Merino has gone much further than the original SRS concept, within breed and through outcrosses.

For instance, he says that on average, the 40 SRS studs in Australia now have weaning percentages of 120 per cent, versus the Merino average of 70-80pc.

The plain-bodied SRS type is also outperforming on Merino carcass traits. Sheep Genetics confirms that recorded SRS sheep are about +6 for yearling growth, versus +2 for all recorded Merinos, and above average in muscle and fat traits.

Then there are the outcrosses.

When Dr Watts introduced Finnish Landrace genes to SRS Merinos, average weaning rates climbed to 140-150 per cent, and wool quality had stablised back to its original specifications by the F3 cross.

In addition, the Finn-infused sheep grow short tails. Dr Watts said SRS has "conquered mulesing" through its wrinkle-free sheep; he thinks that removing the need for tail docking is the next management and welfare frontier.

In the rangelands, Dr Watts began introducing White Suffolk and White Dorper genetics to Merinos in 1993-94.

It took a decade of work in pre-Sheep Genetics days to bring the wool back to spec, but Dr Watts said the result has been a "particularly good" meat Merino ewe that throws lambs with strong early growth and excellent carcase characteristics.

With the new genetic tools, he thinks he could achieve the same result these days within the Merino breed.

Dr Watts said these days, he is personally chasing lamb survival as the next big goal.

Survival seems to be strongly linked to muscle and fat levels.

In an SRS rangelands trial, only two per cent of lambs from sires with high levels of muscle and fat died under conditions in which about 20 per cent of lambs from sires with low muscle and fat were lost.