Given the latest round of debate about mulesing and pain relief, Mecardo has used wool sale data as a guide to the levels of non-mulesing and pain relief in the flock by state in the twelve months to November, updating a recent article published in June.
The data used in this article are sourced from auction sales, collected by AWEX. It relies on farmers filling out their wool declarations correctly, something not always done and often corrected by wool brokers.
Figure 1 looks at the level of merino wool as a proportion of total sales by state for the twelve months to November. A twelve-month period is used to minimise seasonal patterns and their influence on the data, while the data is run to November to bring it as up to date as possible. The merino flock is where mulesing is focused and as such varies between states. The Victorian wool clip is now only two thirds merino, while the Queensland and Western Australian clips continue to be well over 90% merino.
Figure 2 shows the proportion of wool sold in the past year, by state, which was declared as CM NM for all breeds and for merino only. Tasmania is the clear leader in the proportion of CM NM wool, with half of their clip declared as such. Western Australia continues to have the smallest proportion at 7.5% for all breeds and 6.5% for merino only. For Australia overall some 24% of the clip (all breeds) is declared as CM NM, and 18.7% of merino. NSW has 28% of total sales CM NM and 22% of merino.
Figure 3 repeats the exercise for wool declared as having used pain relief (AA). The level of pain relief in the merino clip is generally around 50% except for Tasmania and Queensland. For the national clip overall, some 40% is declared as AA, while 50% of the merino clip is AA.
Finally, Figure 4 looks at wool either declared as from mulesed sheep or with no declaration. Queensland and Tasmania have low levels in this schematic, which corresponds to high levels in Figure 2 (CM NM). Western Australia is the outright leader with half of the clip in this category. Overall, for Australia, some 30% of the clip is in the non-declared or mulesed category.
NSW is the biggest sheep state with some 40% of the flock. As such, what happens in NSW tends to drive the Australian clip. It has a modest 20% of the merino clip declared as CM NM, around the average 50% of the merino clip declared as using AA (40% for all breeds), and some 30% of the clip with no declaration or mulesed. The rise in the use of pain relief, without any formal mandates, has been a credit to the industry. However, the rate of increase in pain relief uptake has been slowing in recent years, and the continued 30% of the clip presenting to sale with no declaration or mulesed indicates there is a section of the industry unlikely to voluntarily adopt the new procedures. Planck’s principle (see more here) most likely applies in this instance. The question is whether the wool industry can afford the time for this to play out.
What does it mean?
The slowing rate of increase in pain relief does pose a problem of the wool industry, which is around half of the merino clip and 40% of the overall clip. Do we wait for the new generation to take over (the Max Planck principle) and trust they will change, or does the industry up the ante, mandate pain relief and throw a challenge out to regions outside of Australia to match this animal welfare? It would be nice to be in an industry on the front foot rather than continually retreating and shrinking.
Key Points
- Tasmania and Queensland are state leaders in the levels of wool sold declared as CM-NM.
- With the exception of Tasmania, most states have 40-50% of their merino clips declared as using pain relief.
- There is a large proportion of the wool clip that has no declaration or is declared mulesed, with Western Australia the clear leader in this category.
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Data sources: ICS, AWEX, Mecardo
