THE Australian Wool Exchange has moved to close a loophole in the National Wool Declaration’s definition of ‘Ceased Mulesing’ after its recent NWD review.

In the change In NWD Version 7.0, the definition of Ceased Mulesing (CM) has been modified to read:

“Wool from sheep where mulesing has ceased on the property. No lambs born on this property in the last 12 months have been mulesed. No purchased sheep are mulesed.”

The change was outlined in a Members’ Update on September 11 and is designed to prevent growers including wool from mulesed purchased sheep within the Ceased Mulesing definition on their NWD.

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AWEX said as part of an on-going NWD-IP extension program, AWEX will contact growers where the NWD may have been completed incorrectly based on the use of old stationery (with old incorrect definitions).

“This specifically applies to brands where Ceased Mulesing (CM) status has been declared for the property (answered Yes to the question) with Mulesed (M) or Mulesed with PR (PR) declared at a mob level.

“This combination can indicate that sheep have been purchased and the property may be ineligible for CM status,” AWEX said.

Commencing in Season 2017, for brands that are selected for a desk audit, if they appear to be ineligible for CM status as per NWD Version 7.0 definition, the owner/manager will receive:

• a short explanatory note,
• the brochure “How to Complete the NWD Correctly (see attached), and
• their Classer’s Speci and NWD. The aim of this activity is to increase the wide-spread adoption of the NWD Version 7.0.

AWEX said many wool growers still have and will use old shearing stationery that does not include the National Wool Declaration (NWD) Version 7.0 (effective 1st July 2017).

“Whilst it is expected that any changes to the shearing documentation will take time to be adopted, “Growers should be asking their brokers for their latest shearing stationary,” AWEX said.

Source: AWEX.