Unmulesed wool catches on

Australia produces more unmulesed wool than anywhere else in the world.

Australia produces more unmulesed wool than any other country.

That's according to Australian Wool Innovation's production programs acting manager, Dr Paul Swan.

And Dr Swan believes growers could meet the December 2010 deadline for all wool to be produced unmulesed if they wanted to.

Dr Swan's message to a Landmark woolclasser forum in Bendigo, Victoria, was more optimistic than that of his chairman, Wal Merriman, who made his scepticism of the deadline known in Tasmania recently.

Dr Swan said the three alternatives to surgical mulesing were anti-flystrike clips, soon-to-be-released breeding values for bare-breech sheep and an intradermal treatment from Cobbett Technologies that would be available next year.

The anti-flystrike clips were now available from Leader Products.

Dr Swan said 60 per cent of this year's lambs would not be mulesed and 50-70 per cent of those that were mulesed would be treated with a painkiller.

He urged producers to declare whether their wool was from unmulesed sheep or from lambs that had had pain-relief treatment when they were mulesed.

AWEX data shows that 4 per cent of auction offerings was from unmulesed sheep while the declaration rate for the use of a painkiller when mulesing was 3 per cent and 2 per cent for the use of ani-flystrike clips.

AWEX quality programs manager Dr Kerry Hansford said the revised declaration form would show the "ceased mulesing and non-mulesed" status as one, provided all sheep born on, or transferred to, a property in the previous 12 months were still unmulesed when shorn.

Dr Hansford said declarations for non-mulesed or "pain-relief" wool were recorded on buyer test certificates.
She said it was not enough for growers to say they were in the Better Choices program.

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