The NSW Farmers Association annual conference yesterday passed a motion making it policy that woolgrowers can use any means, including mulesing, to tackle flystrike because no viable alternative had been found, the wool committee chairman, Alix Turner, said.

‘‘We are not defiant producers. We are just people who think this is the best we can do at the time and are sort of victims.’’

The farmers must use mulesing to keep their businesses and sheep alive, he said.

But they fear that when a deal with their greatest critic, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, expires next year, Australian Merino wool will again be targeted with calls for worldwide boycotts.

After a court case brought by Australian Wool Innovation, PETA agreed to withdraw the boycott call it first made five years ago, giving the industry until next year to phase out mulesing. However, earlier this week AWI announced it was abandoning the 2010 deadline because it was unrealistic. Farmers approved the motion yesterday.

Mr Turner said retailers had been ‘‘bluffed’’ by extremist groups into putting pressure on woolgrowers to stop mulesing, and the unfortunate image of the wound it produced was ‘‘like an ad’’ that PETA could use to advance its real objective of terminating livestock industries. He said the wool industry had shrunk by half in the past 17 years through drought and economic circumstances and further pressure would drive more people out.

The sheep farmer who put the motion, James Watson, of Young, said the three alternatives that might replace mulesing were not effective enough. They aimed to eliminate wrinkles from the rear of the sheep so that urine and faeces did not get trapped, attracting flies which laid maggots that could kill a sheep within three days, he said.

Plastic clips, intradermal injections and breeding sheep with wool-free rears were options still being trialled and the industry was still working to meet the 2010 deadline, he said.