The productivity gains set to flow from scientific mapping of the sheep genome cannot come quickly enough to boost bottom line profitability.

“Rising costs have nearly killed the industry over the last decade and we desperately need higher animal production,” Mr Finlay said.

“Instead of cutting 3 kilos, we need to be getting 4 or 4.5 kilos.”

Mr Finlay’s family have been wool producers since the 1920s. He and his wife Margie run up to 8000 wethers, with his father Scott on Cooinda, near Dalveen.

He has been an industry innovator, taking the Queensland flock towards production of superfine fleece from coated sheep targeted at the high end of the European market.

A vice-president of the AgForce Sheep and Wool Board, Mr Finlay has now joined the Leading Sheep Project Advisory Panel.

Leading Sheep is a producer network jointly established by Australian Wool Innovation and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries with support from AgForce.

“Leading Sheep is a fantastic communication network for the Queensland industry,” Mr Finlay said.

“It plays an important part in getting information out to producers so they can make better informed decisions.

“With the coming advances in genetic science, the role of Leading Sheep will be vital to help translate the knowledge into productivity gains.

“I’m passionate about the wool industry, but I am also a realist. People have gone out of sheep because they have simply not been as profitable as alternatives.

“There are all-cattle properties on Traprock country now, so it will be a huge challenge to rebuild infrastructure and get sheep numbers increasing again.”

Mr Finlay and his wife have been active members of Traprock Wool, a self-help producer group determined to build a viable future for the industry in the region.

“We’ve forged an international reputation for our wool and we’ve lifted our game through education and motivation,” Mr Finlay said.

The Cooinda sheep enterprise has seen significant changes with a shift in focus to high value fine wool production. The flock micron count has come down from around 20.4 to 16.8.

When their long-term suppliers of medium wool wethers co-incidentally went out of sheep, this triggered a search for a new source of annual flock replacements with

finer wool.

They got seriously into the use of coats to further add value to their fleece in 2000 and set up an enterprise manufacturing and sourcing coats from overseas. This business has just been sold.

Cooinda currently has about 5000 sheep fitted with coats to protect the fleece.

While coated sheep consistently cut a fleece worth about $50 more, Mr Finlay said they involved a lot more labour and intensive management.

“You have to carefully select the right sheep for coating and it is critical to produce high tensile strength wool,” he said. “Clip preparation is also a lot more intensive and expensive.

“There is a lot more pressure to separate out the best wool and we now class 14 fleece lines.”

The finest bale they have produced has been 14.5 microns and Mr Finlay hopes to get a sub-14 micron bale this year.

Mr Finlay said the other big change in emphasis had been to add meat value to cull wethers.

“We source big frame animals and use grain finishing in dry years.” he said.

“Traditionally old sheep would be disposed of for little or no return, but we are often now culling younger animals and flock turnover is an important part of our income.

“We’ve come a long way in terms of both our wool and meat quality in the last few years and we have to look to further incremental gains to keep our sheep enterprise viable.”