Presentation at Seminar on Transitioning to a Non-Mulesed Flock

In October 2022 I was invited to speak on best practice tail docking and lamb marking pain relief at a Transitioning to a Non-Mulesed Flock seminar at Dunkeld in Victoria. The seminar was organized by Lisa Warn Ag Consulting as part of the Meat & Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site project, ‘Towards non-mulesed sheep’.

Tail docking lambs is a long-standing practice used to reduce the life-long susceptibility of sheep to breech flystrike. Sheep tails should be docked no shorter than the third or fourth palpable joint.

Tail length affects the sheep’s health and welfare for the whole of its life. Short tails are linked with higher incidence fly strike, arthritis, prolapse and perineal cancer.

I also discussed the important topic of pain relief options at lamb marking. While the use of pain relief at lamb marking is increasing, many producers are still not sure about the best options for their situation.

The seminar was a big success, with lots of interest amongst the farmers that attended.

An article on the seminar has recently been published by Sheep Central.

I was pleased to see the results of my research being promoted to the Australian Sheep Industry.