Impending regulations, requiring mandatory pain relief for sheep mulesing, have been welcomed by Victorian producers.
The regulations come into effect from July 1.
Livestock Group president Leonard Vallance said the VFF has been advocating strongly for the regulations, to deliver the best possible animal welfare outcomes and cost benefits for farmers.
"The VFF has been pushing for mandatory pain relief when mulesing and sees it as a positive step towards strengthening Victoria's best-practice animal welfare regulations," Mr Vallance said.
"Mulesing with pain relief continues to be an acceptable method of mitigating the effects of flystrike whilst the industry funds research into alternate tools that can be used to achieve a similar result."
Read more:
Ray Kingston, Rupanyup, says he mulesed between 900-1000 lambs each year and had been using Trisolfan pain relief for many years.
The property was mainly running self-replacing Merinos, culling 300-400 ewes for prime lamb production.
"I suppose our pathway to it was best practice," Mr Kingston said.
"We weren't chasing a specific outcome, as such, it was just the right thing to do, by both ourselves, the stock and the industry."
He said while it would be hard to objectively quantify outcomes, he had no regrets using pain relief.
"Anecdotally and by observation, our sheep have mothered up pretty well - and I think it's pretty widely used anyway, certainly around here."
"We have to be mindful, as an industry, of doing the right thing by the animals in our care.
"That's the modern world - we have to be doing the right thing, and be seen to be doing the right thing."
Pigeon Ponds prime lamb producer, Tim Leeming, Paradoo Prime, north of Hamilton, said he hadn't mulesed for 25 years.
Paradoo Prime is based on Coopworth and Coopworth Composite genetics.
Mr Leeming said making pain relief for mulesing was "a bloody good thing."
"Initially, it's for the welfare of the lamb itself," Mr Leeming said.
"I think it's smart practice, doing the best thing by the animal, we can.
"Genetics are going to enable producers to do away with mulesing, but that takes time.
"Pain relief is a very, very good step forward, in the interim."
The impending regulations will mean a pain relief product registered for use by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority must be administered to sheep from next month.
"Over 90 per cent of Victorian sheep farmers are already using pain relief when mulesing, but these new regulations mean it will be mandatory for all farmers from next month," Mr Vallance said.
Victorian farmers have the opportunity to register for a free online webinar on June 25 hosted by Dr John Webb-Ware from the University of Melbourne that will cover what farmers are required do to comply with the new regulations.
Farmers can register their interest by clicking here https://bit.ly/2Y6jR69 and access further information on the VFF website at https://bit.ly/30H58jF
The VFF has worked with the Department of Agriculture to introduce this new regulation.
Start the day with all the big news in agriculture! Click here to sign up to receive our daily Stock & Land newsletter.
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
