EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about controlling flystrike is contained on a new website launched this week.
Developed by the Sheep Co-operative Research Centre, the website - www.flyboss.org.au - draws upon the latest research, on-farm experiences and chemical usage for controlling flystrike.
With increasing pressure from retailers for wool producers to cease mulesing, the Sheep CRC's Lu Hogan said the website would become an information centre for producers planning for the fly season.
It included a flystrike prevalence indicator for all parts of Australia, based on local weather data.
Ms Hogan said weather information would allow the development of a plan and schedule for any sheep enterprise in any location.
New England wool producer Scott Macansh said he no longer mulesed after switching to plainer-bodied sheep, and changing his time of shearing, crutching twice a year and using chemicals to deter flies.
He said the incidence of flystrike was now lower than under his previous management programs, which included mulesing.
Ms Hogan said flystrike had been a major concern for sheep producers ever since the Lucilia cuprina blowfly arrived in Australia in the early 1900s.
