Supporting sheep producers transition to non-mulesed sheep

Summary

The practice of mulesing, to reduce susceptibility of sheep to breech flystrike, represents a significant welfare issue that is increasingly becoming less acceptable by retailers and consumers. This is an issue for both the red meat and wool industries. Many sheep producers who would like to cease mulesing lack the confidence to do so and raise a number of concerns including the difficulty getting contractors to crutch NM sheep, more work and more costs. The PDS project aimed to support sheep breeders to utilise existing tools and management strategies available to transition to a non-mulesed flock in a supported learning environment.

Four “Towards non-mulesed sheep” producer groups were established in 2021 and 2022 across Victoria and in NSW. After an initial planning workshop a three-year group program followed which included on-farm meetings and skills training. Group members identified key issues and evaluated options to assist them move towards a non-mulesed flock in the demonstration sites.
Core producers (53) developed their own property specific, integrated plan to move to a non-mulesed flock (or maintain their non-mulesed (NM) flock). They demonstrated a large increase in knowledge, skills and confidence as a result of participation in four regional discussion groups and 11 demonstration sites. Half of the producers made or were intending to make changes to their management calendar and 69% to their breeding /selection programs. Around 36% of producers had recently ceased mulesing at the start of the project (2021), 20% ceased mulesing all lambs during the project and the remainder 44% intend to cease once they had fully implemented changes identified in their plans.

The demonstrations sites provided valuable information on strategies to breed more flystrike resistant sheep and management options to make managing NM sheep easier. Sire evaluations demonstrated that large reductions in breech wrinkle could be made in one generation without sacrificing wool cut. Tail docking method demonstrations showed that the choice of hot knife did not make much difference to dag score or crutching ease. Dag management demonstrations in Victoria clarified that worms were the major cause of dag in weaners during winter/early spring and not the feed-base. More regular WEC testing and improved worm control in NM or M weaners had a net benefit of $5/head per year. Feeding fibre (hay) in winter/early spring as a dag preventative strategy did not reduce dag, however reduced weight gains by 2 kg giving a net loss of $12/head.

Incorporating breech flystrike and worm resistance traits in sheep breeding programs will ultimately reduce the need for mulesing while balancing other production traits. This will also have benefits of reduced reliance on fly chemicals and drenches, reducing costs and the risk of chemical resistance.

Objectives

By June 2024, in Victoria and southern NSW:

1. 40 sheep producers (core group members: 4x10) will:

(a) Identify their breech strike risk factors (environmental, genetic, management), understand how these are affected by season and changing climate, and develop their own management strategy (5-year plan) to reduce this risk.
(b) Support the establishment of 2-3 trials on farm per group to evaluate some element of their 5-year plan towards running a non-mulesed mob. This could be comparing a small mob of non-mulesed sheep with a mulesed mob or evaluating progeny of rams selected for ASBVs for fly resistance.
(NB: Agriculture Victoria has verified that this project does not need animal ethics approval).
(c) Evaluate the challenges, costs/benefits, opportunities of running a non-mulesed mob of lambs in comparison to a mulesed mob and explore future marketing and value chain opportunities.
(d) (at the end of project) Identify/plan for any further management changes required to allow them to move towards ceasing mulesing across the whole flock in the future.
(e) Conduct a (triple bottom line) cost benefit analysis of this practice change.

2. Implement a series of skills and training development activities to increase the confidence of 40 core and 40+ observer
producers to transition to non-mulesed flocks.

By June 2024, achieve an adoption target of:

• 25% of core producers ready to cease mulesing
• 75% of core producers have a 5-year plan to transition to non-mulesed (beyond the life of this project)
• 25% of observer producers have a 5-year plan to transition to non-mulesed

3. Conduct an annual field day and other activities to showcase the demonstration site results and encourage adoption of key practices by 20 attending producers (ie. 20 producers/field day, additional to the core group).

Progress

Key findings

Core producers (53) developed their own property specific, integrated plan to move to a non-mulesed flock (or maintain their NM flock) at the start of the project. Core producers demonstrated a large increase in knowledge, skills and confidence through participation in the four regional discussion groups and 11 demonstration sites. Half of the producers made or were intending to make changes to their management calendar and 69% to their breeding /selection programs. Around 36% of producers had recently ceased mulesing at the start of the project, 20% ceased mulesing all lambs during the project and the remainder 44% intended to cease once they had fully implemented changes identified in their plans.

Five key issues were identified by producers, in relation to management of NM sheep, and different practices evaluated in the demonstration sites:

- Sire evaluation
- Tail docking method
- Dag management
- Comparison of running a small mob of non-mulsed sheep with mulsed sheep
- Visual breech wrinkle scores of lambs

Benefits to industry

The practice of mulesing, to reduce susceptibility of sheep to breech flystrike, represents a significant welfare issue that is increasingly becoming less acceptable by retailers and consumers and poses risks to meat and wool markets. This PDS project was successful in assisting producers develop their own integrated plan to move to /manage NM sheep and make relevant changes to their management and breeding programs to accommodate this transition process.

Genetic approaches such as incorporating traits for barer breeches, reduced dag and worm resistance into sheep breeding programs will ultimately overtime remove the need for mulesing. This will also have benefits of reduced reliance on preventative chemicals and drenches, reducing costs and the risk of chemical resistance.

MLA action

MLA continues to deliver the Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) program, supporting livestock producers working in peer-to-peer groups to pursue new skills, knowledge and management practices applicable to their own commercial livestock production systems.

Future research

The extension model piloted in this project, across 4 groups in different environments, had a large impact on practice change with the participating producers. This program could be made available to more interested producers through future MLA PDS projects or as a Profitable Grazing Systems supported learning package.

Publications/extension messages about dag management need to include findings from this PDS on the cost/benefit of feeding fibre. The preliminary work conducted in this PDS highlighted that this practice could be a major cost with no benefit for mulesed or NM sheep. There are opportunities to reduce dag and increase weights gains in weaner sheep with improved worm control. These findings are relevant to all sheep producers.

There are some instances where the green pasture could be a factor causing dag. More research is required to investigate what components and which pasture species could cause scouring (once worms have been ruled out), and what the management options might be.

The need for new research work on the effect of tail length on dag, was raised by producers. Producers felt there was a research gap as the old tail docking length work was conducted in regions where dag was not an issue. Sheep genetics are also very different now to when the old work was conducted.