Farmers need to step up in pest war Andrew McGiven
Says farmers need better biosecurity measures.
OPINION: New Zealand is under attack and farmers need to to get to the frontline to help repel the invaders.
AgResearch senior scientist biocontrol and biosecurity John Kean told the recent Future Farmers conference in Palmerston North that insects, nematodes, bacteria and pest plants were causing ‘‘hundreds, if not thousands, of millions of dollars every year in costs and lost production.’’
A slide he displayed showed that seven pest invertebrates alone (in descending order of destructiveness - grass grub, black beetle, nematodes, porina, slugs, clover root weevil, Argentine stem weevil) were costing the dairy and sheep and beef industries a combined total of at least $4.4 billion a year.
The costs of are at $90 million and climbing. And we still don’t know exactly how it arrived in New Zealand. This is a wake-up call to some farmers to step up their own measures to protect their herds and livelihoods, cleaning down machinery and the boots of visitors that come on farm, instituting a buffer zone on perimeter fences, and so on.
Kean said our border protections, and the layers of biosecurity pursued by the Ministry for Primary Industries and regional councils, were crucial. But a ‘‘step change’’ in this battle could happen when more farmers get more biosecurityconscious.
One pathway for unwanted pests is airports where scientists took a look at several months worth of dirt and debris collected. One hundred per cent of samples contained living bacteria, at an average of 30 million per gram, and 16 per cent of the samples had bacteria from taxa on MPI hit lists.
For fungi, it was a similar story. Half of the samples contained live seeds not wanted in New Zealand. A million live seeds would come through the border each year if MPI were not scraping shoes. Kean said nematodes and even live mites were ‘‘pouring in’’.
Unwanted invaders can also also ride on used machinery, stock feed, seeds for sowing and even golf bags. As more of us turn to online shopping, the ‘‘packaging pathway’’ for bacteria is a growing concern.
A nematode has taken hold at Hagley Oval in Christchurch following an international cricket tournament. They are really hard to control and this one damages pasture, so watch this space on that one, he said.
All of us farmers need to listen to Kean’s advice on stepping up our own biosecurity.
Have a plan, and make sure your family, your staff, your farm visitors know about it. If you have international visitors, don’t let them go out on your property until they have washed their clothes.
Wash down machinery, boots, etc., when they are coming from off-farm, and importantly allow some time for drying after the wash. Think about what moves on and off your property.
Agriculture has upped its game on health and safety, so Kean suggests bundling that together with biosecurity in terms of warning signage, induction training and accountability.
As well as limiting farm access points, there should be quarantine paddocks for new stock, and arrivals should be kept there for at least 24 hours so that anything they’re carrying in their gut has a chance to be excreted.
We all have a role to play. Kean said if these sorts of actions are taken by one farm, when all the neighbours are apathetic, there’s not going to be much progress.
Makes sense to me.
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Have a plan, and make sure your family, your staff, your farm visitors know about it