Fall army worm reaches Australia

Confirmation this week that Fall Army Worm has reached mainland Australia, and is spreading fast, is bad news for Australia and New Zealand (as it gets that much closer to us). This voracious and none-to-fussy feeder is known to attack more than 350 plant species including Maize, Wheat, and many fruits and vegetables. It’s also […]

It starts at the gate

With few ‘lead by example’ stories coming out of New Zealand currently we thought this story out of Australia might encourage our producers to make a start on their own biosecurity arrangements. http://www.farmbiosecurity.com.au/biosecurity-strategy-paves-the-way-for-higher-crop-yields-and-lower-costs/

rural professional

NSW Farmers biosecurity messages apply equally well in New Zealand

“Farm biosecurity is not only a farmers responsibility, but of every person visiting or working on the property. If a new pest or disease becomes established on farms, it affects business through increased costs (for monitoring, production practices, additional chemical use and labour), reduced productivity (in yield and/or quality) or, importantly, loss of markets. ” […]

Potato Psyllid Incursion – one persons story

Until you’ve been directly impacted by a biosecurity incursion its easy enough to downplay the very real, and often far reaching, consequences of an outbreak of disease or a pest infestation.  This story, posted in the December 2018 Australian Farm biosecurity newsletter details the experiences of one Western Australian Potato grower.  Its a familiar story, […]

Keep up with Australian farm biosecurity news

We reckon the Aussies are doing a pretty good job of managing their biosecurity readiness, and there’s a lot we can learn from them. Australian Farm Biosecurity’s free monthly e-newsletter has useful info about what’s happening across the ditch with practical ideas and advice for biosecurity management.  This month there’s articles on Getting biosecurity zoning right,  Recognising […]

Biosecurity attacks a sure fire means of disrupting national economies

Don’t read this article if you’re the fearful type as this article appearing on the www.aspistrategist.org.au website will give you bad dreams.  It points out that both state sposored and non-state sponsored actors could relatively easily use a biosecurity incident to disrupt a national economy.  If you’re looking for an example of this you need look […]

Animal Health Australia – Farm Biosecurity Producer Survey 2017

In the absence of good New Zealand data this Australian survey (1200 respondents) shows just how hard it is to bring about sustainable behaviour change to our biosecurity practices.  The Aussies have been going at it much longer than us and yet their most practiced biosecurity measure – controlling weeds – was only reported by […]

Farm Biosecurity Australia – www.farmbiosecurity.com.au

We hate to say it, but the Aussies have done a top job of pulling together a pretty slick biosecurity toolkit. This website has lots of templates you can download and use including visitor records, gate signs, vehicle cleaning recording, staff training record keeping, emergency animal disease action plan, and crop biosecurity checklists. If there’s […]