Farm Bio-Security on Rural Farms

More and more people are choosing the farming life rather than the city, and we love that! Keeping animals, growing fresh fruit and veg, the silence and fresh air sounds amazing! But with this decision, comes the responsibilities of biosecurity of your farm but also surrounding areas. Regardless of whether you own a small hobby farm or at a larger scale, there are serious plans that need to be put in place and implemented.

Farm biosecurity is a set of measures designed to protect a property from the entering, emerging, establishing, and spreading of pests, diseases, and weeds. It’s the management of risks to the economy, the environment, and the community. Biosecurity can be implemented off-shore, at the border and on-farm.

It is important to have a farm biosecurity plan in place, if a new pest or disease becomes established on your property it can affect a number of things. This includes, but is not limited to:

• increased costs (for monitoring, production practices, additional chemical use and labour)
• reduced productivity (in yield and/or quality)
• loss of markets

With the new 2023 biosecurity plan coming to fruition, it’s biggest focus is reducing the risk of what happened in 2022. For many Australian farmers 2022 was a tough year with the risk of foot-and-mouth disease, as well as lumpy skin disease and varroa mite posing serious threats from overseas to the Australian farming industry. Although overseas poses many threats, our very own backyard has many of the same risks as well. Trucks and other vehicles passing through farms can heighten the risk of contamination.

With this in mind, below are some tips to reduce the risk of introducing and/or spreading a disease, pest, or weed:

Land Watch Australia care about not only our clients, but also their properties. Our cameras keep a watchful eye on what’s most important, and with that comes the monitoring of bio-security. Placing an Entry Guard at your gate helps monitor who is coming in and out of your property, while also keeping an eye on any pesky wildlife potentially coming into your property. Alternatively, installing a Station Manager in your paddocks can help monitor your stock, staff, and boundaries 24/7. Feel free to contact us on 1800 308 270 to have a chat about keeping your property safe.

Otherwise if you spot anything unusual, call the Plant Pest Hotline or Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 0800 80 99 66