Why biosecurity isn’t just for big farms

Good biosecurity will save you money and heartache.

2020-07-01 - Words & images Ross Nolly

Simple ways to keep your block & stock safe from invisible foes

Meet my shadow, a Dorking cross hen I shouldn’t have bought on Trade Me. If she sees me when she’s at the end of the paddock, it’s neck stretched out in a 100m sprint to come and say hello. Like all Dorkings, she’s a chatterbox. When I saw her photos in the advertisement, she looked great. But when I arrived to pick her up, it was clear the photos were old. She was thin and had been pecked bare by the other birds in the flock. Her comb was pale and shrivelled. She looked haggard.

I should have walked away from the sale, but I didn’t have the heart after seeing her condition. I took her home and put her in a run separate from my flock for a couple of weeks.

This is the Dorking hen I shouldn’t have bought off Trade Me, looking unwell and haggard.

TOP PHOTO: the same hen, three years later. She follows me everywhere, steals food off my plate at the picnic table, and has more than paid me back in egg production, and fun.

She turned out to be a great layer, and has more than repaid me with her company, let alone any productivity.

But looking back, I made several mistakes:

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I shouldn’t have bought an obviously unwell bird;

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once I did, I should have kept her separated for longer to prevent her from passing parasites or diseases to my flock.

Biosecurity on a farm or lifestyle block is an easily overlooked, but important issue for any livestock owner. Most people understand the need to stop unwanted organisms such as weeds or animal pests establishing on their property. But biohazards such as a disease or parasites can’t be seen or as easily controlled.

Good biosecurity minimises the chance of something spreading through your livestock, around your block, and to neighbouring properties.

Most of NZ’s professional agriculture industry was blasé about biosecurity for a long time. Lifestyle block owners were even less aware or unfamiliar with the concept, especially those who had never farmed before.

But the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak in 2017 was a costly biosecurity wake-up call to everyone who has cattle and will continue to be for the next few years. Sadly, many people learned about the value of good biosecurity the hard way, financially, and emotionally.

Good biosecurity means identifying hazards to prevent new, unwanted organisms coming onto your property. There are always going to be diseases such as E coli and diarrhoea-causing viruses on any farm or block, no matter how careful you are. Every animal, however carefully you drench them, will carry a worm burden.

But your livestock won’t have immunity to a new disease or parasite. These may cause severe symptoms or death in stock, and be very difficult to eradicate without completely destocking and starting again.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it’s never truer than when talking about farm biosecurity. A lack of precautions can lead to:

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sickness, death;

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high vet bills;

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long-term, ongoing control costs.

If you have stock with an infectious, incurable disease, especially rare breeds, it will restrict (or prevent) the sale of your stock. Depending on the disease, you may be able to sell to farmers with the same problem, but often you’ll need to cull affected livestock if you want to eradicate it.

It’s not pleasant to see animals become ill, or euthanising them, especially if it’s multiple animals you’ve hand-raised, or work with closely.

For example, Johne’s Disease is caused by a highly infectious, incurable bacterium that can show no symptoms for months or years in goats, sheep, cattle, and deer. Once there are symptoms, it’s fatal.

Asymptomatic stock shed it through their faeces. Only a tiny amount (less than ¼ tsp) needs to be ingested for an animal to become infected. It’s usually young stock who often taste-test things they find on the ground.

It’s an ongoing management issue in large commercial operations, but it can be devastating in a small goat or sheep herd. If you want to get rid of it completely, you need to cull stock and not graze affected pasture for up to two years.