Ironing out Flystrike Management Wrinkles - 4 November 2009

With the trend towards breeding and running more flystrike-resistant sheep, the new Australian Sheep Breeding Value (ASBV) for Wrinkle can be used to help develop a flystrike resistant flock.

Sam Gill, Manager, Sheep Genetics will describe what’s involved with using the newly released Australian Sheep Breeding Value for Early Breech Wrinkle at the Sheep CRC’s Wool Worms and Wrinkles Workshop on Thursday 12th November at the Guyra Bowling Club, 1pm–5 pm.

“Breeding plainer sheep starts with selecting plainer sires. The new Wrinkle ASBV is now available, but as yet is on a limited number of sheep. Using the ASBV is a much more accurate option than just looking at the wrinkliness of an animal directly, as wrinkle is affected strongly by nutrition—not just what the animal eats directly, but indirectly from whether it was a twin or a single or was born from a maiden ewe, and it can be masked by the wool cover.

“When buying rams from studs where Wrinkle ASBVs are not yet available, we have some pointers for selecting visually against wrinkle,” said Mr Gill.

For many producers the transition period in breeding plainer sheep will be a challenge as cullling all the wrinkly sheep in a mob is not realistic for most flocks. However, management options don’t have to be all or nothing. For instance, in a commercial flock, simply tagging the wrinklier lambs at marking allows for a variety of later options—mating to your plainest Merino sires, or to meat sires or being the first to be culled when the opportunity arises. And if (extra) preventative flystrike treatments are needed at later ages, draft and treat only the wrinkle-tagged sheep to save treatment and labour costs.”

Sheep CRC research with the Information Nucleus flocks, along with research from Australian Wool Innovation, Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association and state departments, has contributed a large amount of data across many bloodlines to support the release of the wrinkle ASBV.

Modeling done by Sheep CRC researchers, Jess Richards and Kevin Atkins, also shows that a relatively small reduction in the average wrinkle score of the flock, achieved by breeding with plainer ewes and sires, results in a significant increase in the proportion of animals in the more fly resistant category.

The workshop will assist you to understand what these ASBVs mean and how they could be used with wrinkle scoring in your ram and ewe selection program.

Please RSVP by Friday 6th November by contacting Deb Maxwell, Sheep CRC, on 02 6779 4262 (leave your name and phone number if Deb is away from the phone), or email training@sheepcrc.org.au