SA farmer’s genetic breakthrough transforms wool production

Careful genetic selection has enabled one South Australian farmer to achieve what many thought impossible – running thousands of sheep without mulesing while increasing productivity.

Jack England never liked mulesing his sheep but for decades the Shepherds Hill stud and commercial wool producer accepted it as a necessary evil on his 3000-hectare property between Kingston and Lucindale, South Australia.

The hot, humid spring weather always made flystrike a serious but manageable threat.

However, after 10 years of careful genetic selection and breeding changes, Jack is just two years away from achieving what many farmers think unmanageable – running two-thirds of his 8000 ewe flock without mulesing by 2027, and the whole flock by 2029.

“Nobody likes mulesing – the consumer doesn’t like it – the writing is on the wall,” Jack said.

“Even though we use pain relief, as soon as you see blood on an animal, it becomes a hard sell.”

PREMIUM AIM

His journey reflects a broader industry shift, with premium prices now rewarding producers who can successfully transition to non-mulesed operations. 

Jack’s approach has been methodical.

Any lamb scoring above two for breech wrinkle or urine stain gets joined to a terminal sire rather than premium Merino rams. He also breeds sheep with clear breech areas, increased eye muscle and post weaning weight with strong worm and dag resistance.

“It’s one of those things you’ve got to keep chipping away at and yes I crutch my own sheep,” Jack said.

“Combined with on-point animal husbandry, reduced breech wrinkle, dag and urine stain, this will avoid a fly paradise.”

South Australian wool grower Jack England, Shepherds Hill stud, Kingston, SA, with rams that had just been dag scored and fleece sampled.

TOOLS AND TIMING

The transition challenge has been addressed through programs like Meat and Livestock Australia’s Producer Demonstration Site, which supported 53 producers across NSW and Victoria to develop property-specific transition plans.

PDS facilitator Lisa Warn said many producers wanted to cease mulesing but lacked confidence.

“Many were fearful of not being able to manage without mulesing as they were worried non-mulesed sheep would be more difficult to crutch, particularly if they were wrinkly or daggy,” Lisa said.

The program connected producers with readily available genetic tools including FlyBoss resources for reviewing flystrike management calendars, Visual Sheep Scores booklets for assessing flock susceptibility, and Australian Sheep Breeding Values for ram selection decisions.

“Using FlyBoss tools, involved producers reviewing their current flystrike management calendar and analysing how ceasing mulesing might impact the timing of their crutching, shearing and any chemical applications,” Lisa said.

ECONOMICS STACK UP

For Jack, genomics technology and artificial insemination has accelerated progress.

Since 2021, every stud lamb has been tissue sampled for genetic analysis, using elite sires with progeny that have been measured and assessed across different Australian environments.

“With genomics it’s a lot easier, the accuracy is a lot higher when combined with multiple wool and body trait measurements,” he said, adding that the economics were compelling.

Jack’s 400 non-mulesed stud ewes produce about 6.5kg of 17 micron wool annually, attracting premiums of around $2/kg above standard rates.

He has also seen significant productivity gains.

“The biggest competitor to a sheep is another sheep and we focus on gross margins per hectare,” he said.

“AI sires with high lamb weaning rates and a genotype shift that capitalises on cheap $30 to $40 per tonne spring feed versus a $400 per tonne reliance on supplementary grain feeding in autumn is far more sustainable.

“Our stud ewe lambs are run in a 1500-plus mob of commercial lambs with zero preferential treatment – easy to sort the wheat from the chaff and measure performance.”

The non-mulesed sheep show higher growth rates, gaining two to three kilograms extra body weight between marking and weaning.

“If you use today’s lamb liveweight prices at $5 a kilogram liveweight, that is quite considerable,” he said.

Jack also takes pride in running his young stud rams on short, wormy paddocks to select ones that thrive, have low individual worm egg counts and minimal dags all while receiving no drenches or supplementary feeding after weaning.

REWARD AWAITS

The MLA program found half the participating producers changed their husbandry procedures and 70 per cent modified breeding strategies.

“Transitioning to non-mulesed does not have to be scary,” Lisa said.

“It is essential to understand your starting position in relation to key breech flystrike indicator traits and set short, medium and long-term goals.”

Jack said the move to Australia’s entire wool flock being non-mulesed was inevitable and his advice for producers considering the switch was straightforward.

“Align yourself with a stud that has the same goals as what you are working towards,” he said.

“It can be done and the economics are there but commercially fit rams do the heavy lifting in a flock.”