Their sheep have not been mulesed for three years, they shear every eight months and all ewes are classed annually by Wally O’Connor from Goodooga, NSW.

“I don’t think the mulesing issue is really dormant yet,” Alan Pitcher said.

He and his wife Fran have travelled overseas and surveyed for themselves the attitudes of wool garment retailers and consumers on mulesing.

“It’s still an issue with retailers and customers overseas.”

The Pitchers said their uncomplicated, relatively wrinkle-free Glendemar-blood sheep already had bare breeches equivalent to Skintraction-treated sheep displayed at field days.

Despite getting 221 millimetres of rain in one week in January on their Nanimia property at Mt Emu, only about 10 sheep were found with body strike and none were struck on the breech in the flock of 5000 ewes and wethers.

Since using Glendemar Multi Purpose Merinos rams for 10 years, the flock’s fleece micron average has come back from 19.2 to 18 microns and annual wool cut has gone up from 4.8 kg up to 5.2 kg.

“But our lambing percentages have gone up from 91 or 92 up to 103-104 per cent,” Mr Pitcher said.

He said keeping the farm clean of any dead sheep also helped keep fly numbers down. Sheep health was also helped by the application of mineral fertiliser and lime to pastures for the last 28 years, based on annual soil and plant tissue testing.

Despite 96 millimetres of rain overnight forcing the family’s withdrawal from the annual Western Plains Lismore circuit sale on February 14, last Friday the surplus Pitcher sheep were offered by H.F. Richardson and Co to keen competition from district restockers.

Their Merino wethers and unjoined ewes had six months of wool on their backs, sparking strong bidding into the older lines after recent wool market rises.

The 600 2009-drop wethers sold for $148, the 129 2009-drop ewes made $182, the 80 2008-drop ewes sold for $178, the 1219 2007-drop ewes $183, the 108 2006-drop ewes $171 and the 108 2005-drop ewes went for $150.