Best Practice Management of non-mulesed sheep

Summary

This Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) aims to demonstrate the best practice management of a non-mulesed flock using the tools and management strategies currently available in the industry in order to mitigate the effect of flystrike on flock production and profitability. 

Objectives

By January 2026, across two sites in the Southern Tablelands region of NSW and two sites in Tasmania;

1. Demonstrate the reduction in flystrike and dag incidence that can be achieved through the strategic, integrated use of management tools available to producers, including;

   • Worm control

   • Chemical treatment

   • Timing/frequency of shearing and crutching

   • Flyboss tools

   • Forecasting/prediction tools

   • Identification of high risk animals for separate treatment regimes

   • Tail docking method

   • Genetic selection

2. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to assess the return of implementing key management strategies in a non-mulesed flock.

3. Deliver 3 workshops to each of the focus groups to assist with the development of an appropriate management plan using tools readily available and link producers experiencing the same issues.

4. 65% of the core producers already managing a non-mulesed flock will implement the best practice management plan based on the outcomes of the PDS.

5. 80% of the core producers and 30% of the observer producers will have improved their knowledge, skills and confidence in transitioning to a non-mulesed flock through the use of best practice management plan.

6. The outcomes of the PDS will be disseminated to the wider industry through;

   • Final report of the project

   • Webinar to deliver the key outcomes of the PDS

   • A case-study for each of the four focus groups which will be publicly available

   • Annual on-farm field days

   • Benchmarking group meetings with observer producers

   • Communications through TFS, MFS & current PDS L.ADP.2031

Progress

The “Best Practice Management of Non-mulesed Sheep” PDS project is into year two of a four -year project.  It involves four different demonstration sites located across Tasmania and the tablelands of NSW. These sites represent different production systems, sheep types, environments, and flystrike risk factors. The core producer group are predominately comprised of participants from four established Aggregate Consulting benchmarking groups.

Our first field day in 2023 show cased the Dalton site, NSW.  We explored how their business has found labour efficiencies over the past decade which challenges the perception that non-mulesed flocks have additional labour requirements.

Analysis of 75 wool enterprises benchmarking with Aggregate for 2022-23 yielded the following:

• 56% of operations are still mulesing, 28% are transitioning to non-mulesed and 16% are completely non-mulesed
• Total mulesed and un-mulesed sheep in these flocks equated to 51:39 % split
• 95% of operations still mulesing are now using pain relief during marking

We will be hosting our second field day in Tasmanian in the first half of 2024 year. There will also be online webinar events focusing on key management areas for non-mulesed wool producers.

Interested in more information or becoming involved? Please contact the Aggregate:

E: maree@aggregateag.com.au P: 02 6925 1758