The time many people tail, mark and mules their lambs is nearly here.  The hot topic around the cradle will be how we will cope when we need to stop mulesing in 2011.

It’s a very serious question.  I believe the answer will be different for everyone but most people will find a practical way to cope. People with plain-bodied sheep, in the drier areas, with good nutritional management, may find un-mulesed sheep are no big problem.  Others may find an extra crutch, or jetting, may be needed.  Others will need to take more drastic action including selecting for bare-breech rams, using the clips or the intra-dermal injections.  Some may even take the most drastic step of going out of sheep.

However, there is a lot of positive activity to help woolgrowers adapt without causing more pain to the sheep (ie deaths through fly strike) or unreasonable expense to farmers.  AWI is doing research into alternatives to mulesing and a lot is also happening at the local level.

I know of two SA Merino stud breeders who have not mulesed for three years.  There are two on Eyre Peninsula who will not mules this year. However, one Ceduna farmer who did not mules for the past two seasons will mules again this year because of the extra work it created. These people are industry leaders and we can learn from their experiences – both good and bad.

At Minnipa Agricultural Centre Mark Klante, the farm manager, plans to run some demonstration trials.

The current sheep at Minnipa have been scored for bare area.  We found about 16 percent of the ewes have score three bare-breech.  This means they have some bare area right down the legs.  One was a score two and one even a score one - which is a real “bare-bum”.

The Centre has also purchased a line of weaners that are known to carry bare-breech genetics and will attempt to buy some “bare-bum” rams.

This year Mark plans to split the wethers lambs into four treatments; normal mules, tail-strip only, clips and un-mulesed.  This should provide some interesting local information and demonstration for the field days.  In other trials the un-mulesed sheep have often been 1 to 2 kg heavier at weaning.

No sheep will be mulesed at the Centre after this year.  Turretfield Research Centre and all Research Centres in WA will not mules any sheep from now on. This work will also help woolgrowers adapt their management to “life after mulesing”.

If you have not mulesed yet this year, perhaps you could do your own trial.  For example, select 15 average and 15 of the barer breech (or planer) lambs and leave them unmulesed.  Make sure you put extra coloured tag in the opposite ear so that you can identify them.

Share your experiences and thoughts with us and your farmer group.

AUTHOR: Brian Ashton, Senior Livestock Consultant, Rural Solutions SA.

CONTACT: Brian Ashton, Rural Solutions SA Pt Lincoln Office, Telephone, 08 8688 3403 or Email ashton.brian@saugov.sa.gov.au