The department made a decision in April to cease surgical mulesing on its research stations, in order to understand the management issues and provide sheep producers with practical and effective information on alternative options to mulesing.

Department research officer Rob Woodgate said the department's goal was to research, evaluate and cost the different alternatives to enable sheep producers to make informed decisions about how to best manage their sheep.

"The research stations have adopted a combination of practices to protect against flystrike to evaluate their effectiveness and to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare are maintained," Dr Woodgate said.

"These include appropriate shearing and crutching times, the selective use of jetting agents and breeding and selection for less wrinkle, less dags and effective worm and scouring control."

Dr Woodgate said the field days would provide sheep producers with the opportunity to ask questions and see first hand the alternative management practices that had been introduced by the department.

"Research stations north of Perth have started crutching, jetting and shearing to protect sheep from flystrike," he said.

"Further south, fly activity is just beginning and the current management is being aimed at minimising dags, with close monitoring of all sheep a crucial activity.

"Each lamb flock is also being scored for breech wrinkle off shears to determine the variation in each flock and appropriate culling levels."

Information on mulesing alternatives and viewing the first progeny group of un-mulesed lambs will be available on:

* Thursday 9 October, Wongan Hills Research Station Field Day;

* Tuesday 14 October, Badgingarra Research Station Field Day;

* Thursday 16 October, GSARI Research Station Field Day (Katanning), and Sheep CRC Information Nucleus Open Day; and

* Tuesday 21 October, Mt Barker Research Station Field Day.

The Mt Barker Field Day will provide more information on the Australian Wool Innovation funded research on 'Breeding for Breechstrike Resistance'.