National Wool Declaration (NWD)

The animal welfare issue of mulesing has been topical since 2004.  From this time the Australian sheep and wool industry has made a strategic commitment to develop and implement alternatives to mulesing .  While this goal is a major challenge, it also represents a unique opportunity for the Australian Wool industry to be the leader in responding to changing global customer requirements and attitudes.

Adjustments to selection and breeding (genetics), modified husbandry practices, and new breech modification techniques are the higher profile areas of research and development.  Some alternatives or interim solutions are now commercially available.  Others are nearing commercial release, with others in early stages of the research/development cycle.

To enable woolgrowers wishing to promote to downstream users the evolving changes in their animal welfare practices, there is a need for a standardised declaration method.  This is the function of the National Wool Declaration (NWD).

Once a woolgrower has completed the NWD, the contents are converted by the wool handling agent into a recognised Mulesing Status code for inclusion in the sale catalogue.

Mulesing Status codes derived from NWD Version 2 are:

NM: Wool from sheep that have not been mulesed.
PR: Wool from sheep where a registered Pain Relief product has been used.
CM: Wool from sheep where a woolgrower has ceased the practice of mulesing.
ND: Wool where No Declaration has been received (or is incomplete)
(   ): Wool from sheep that have been mulesed.

Click here to download a brochure on How to Complete the National Wool Declaration Version 2.0.

Click here to download the Version 2.0, March 2009 National Wool Declaration Form for Dark and Medullated Fibre (DMFR) and Mulesing Status.

Click here to view the Members' Update on the Version 2.0 of the National Wool Declaration.

Click here to view  Frequently Asked Questions National Wool Declaration Version 2.0 March 2009 on the National Wool Declaration and Mulesing Status.

Companies wishing to place bulk orders of NWD forms please click here to go to the online order form.