Despite a tough growing season last year SA graingrowers have reported higher than usual summer mice activity according to CSIRO scientific officer Steve Henry who spoke at the Mallee Sustainable Farming research update at Geranium.
Mr Henry said more than 90 per cent of graingrowers who attended updates and industry workshops in SA and Vic have reported significant mice populations in paddocks and were concerned about the increased potential for damage at sowing this year.
The historic driver of the forecasted potential mice outbreak goes as far back as the 2016 bumper harvest Mr Henry says because excess food sources were left in the cropping system.
“The continuous food supply and stubble shelter created a long breeding period for mice that carried through into the 2017 sowing,” he said.
“The ideal conditions produced a higher than normal winter mice population survival in 2017, which meant this season mice have bred from a higher population in the spring of 2017.
“The threshold for economic damage is 200 mice per hectare and if growers are already seeing mice it will not be long before they start to cause economic damage – that is very concerning at this early stage in the lead up to sowing.”
Coomandook graingrower Tim Freak said last season his 5000 hectare cropping program had “pretty big mice issues that caused significant damage”.
“Mice were very active at seeding and we baited canola but we took a chance on the wheat and barley,” he said.
“We had about 10pc damage so we were lucky but this year we are already seeing mice activity so we are using livestock to remove as much of the food source as possible.”
