AgVic Talk Season 8

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Biosecurity, it's everyone's concern, but surely I'm not everyone if all I've got is an alpaca and a couple of sheep on the back block.

G’day, I'm Drew Radford, and the answer to that is, yes. So, what then does that involve? This series of AgVic Talk is dedicated to answering that with a deep dive into the biosecurity fundamentals of managing a small-scale landholding.

To start us off, I'm joined by Brett Davidson, who is Dairy Regional Manager in Tatura for Agriculture Victoria. He's also working in the biosecurity space, helping producers manage risk and improve their biosecurity practices.

Assisting him with that is Rachael Laukart, who is an Education Officer with the RSPCA.

Thank you both for joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Rachael Laukart:

Thank you very much, Drew. It's a pleasure to be here today.

Brett Davidson:

Thank you.

Drew Radford:

Brett, let's start with you. I imagine biosecurity is important to you, not just professionally, but also personally because I've heard you describe yourself as a cattle tragic. Where does that come from?

Brett Davidson:

Oh, it just comes from many hours on my grandfather's farm as a kid, I suppose. I think I used to annoy the hell out of him just with cow questions the whole time and following him around. I don't think it's got better as I've got older, it's probably got worse. It's a lot of fun, cattle. I really enjoy them. I know Rachael is one too, and that's something we've got in common.

Drew Radford:

Well, you do have it in common, but Brett, you also run some cattle yourself, do you?

Brett Davidson:

Yeah, we do run a cattle enterprise on the side of my full-time work, and it keeps getting bigger. It's good fun.

Drew Radford:

So certainly got some skin in the game. And Rachael, cow tragic as well?

Rachael Laukart:

Yeah. I got to start off my career working in the commercial sector, in dairy, a bit of beef feedlotting and some lambs in there as well, and now I get the pleasure of working a bit more in that welfare space with RSPCA and working with people who don't run necessarily commercial enterprises and some of those smaller numbers of livestock.

Drew Radford:

Well, you are working with everyone because you and Brett have been running a series of online seminars, talking with smaller landholders about biosecurity.

Rachael Laukart:

Yeah. When we started working off in this space, we really saw a need to make sure that information was readily available and in a way that could be understood by the everyday person. There's fantastic information out there around running livestock in commercial settings and we wanted to make sure that was really accessible for people who were running them in smaller numbers, so that's really where we've come together and created this space where we've got a lot of education offerings and we can have some of these discussions.

Drew Radford:

This series is aimed at helping smaller producers, so does that include people with an alpaca or a few sheep, or maybe even a small cattle stud?

Rachael Laukart:

We will happily assist people who own one livestock, two mini livestock, and we really will be focusing, and particularly from an RSPCA perspective, on animals that are less than 10 in number. And then if we've got animals that exceed that number, we start to work absolutely with AgVic to be able to support people in that practice.

Brett Davidson:

We're supporting everybody and that's why we work together.

Drew Radford:

I'm wondering though if sometimes there is perception, I've only got a few cows or a couple of sheep so biosecurity isn't something I need to think about, that's the responsibility of professional operators?

Brett Davidson:

Well, biosecurity is everybody's responsibility because there is certain viruses and diseases that can swap between species. For me, the ones that come off the top of my head, the ones that do impact human health a lot are leptospirosis and Q fever, and they're two quite serious diseases. It is everybody's responsibility because if we get those building blocks right and they are fairly simple, we can maintain, protect our animal's health, but also that of you and your family as well.

Rachael Laukart:

I really encourage people to consider biosecurity as part of their everyday practices when they're managing their livestock because there's so many things that we can incorporate on a daily basis to prioritise biosecurity and make sure that everyone's doing their part.

Drew Radford:

Do you mean by that, Rachael, that word, vectors, whether it's mud on your boots or fluids?

Rachael Laukart:

Yeah, absolutely. So there's different ways that things can move around, and part of that might be through the transfer of mud from one place to another, or it might be in manure, it might be in the movement of animals, or nose-to-nose contact between animals. So depending on what we're mainly concerned about or maybe what we're trying to target specifically, that's when we'll be looking at those vectors. Brett, what comes to mind when you think about vectors and how would we manage them?

Brett Davidson:

One of the messages we're trying to get is the Come Clean Go Clean message, but there's five vectors, so manure on vehicles and boots, nose-to-nose contact, or aerosols. Certain serious transmittable diseases are that way, like anthrax. There's also insects, biting insects, so blood-to-blood, obviously they're a bit hard to manage, but you can do that from time to time when it's necessary.

And then there's water and food. So when we talk about food, we talk about restricted animal materials or RAMs, and the foot-and-mouth in the UK was someone feeding meat materials to pigs and that started the whole UK foot-and-mouth outbreak. This is why we talk about why it's everybody's responsibility, it can be something minor how things get in, but if we've got those practices in place which are fairly simple, it's actually quite easy to manage.

Drew Radford:

You've painted a detailed picture there and a concerning picture when it goes wrong. So the idea of running a few cows or sheep is one thing, but I imagine there's a lot of practicalities to weigh up in terms of what is even the appropriate animals to run on your property? How do people make those decisions? What do you need to consider?

Rachael Laukart:

I think it can be incredibly exciting to be looking at bringing livestock onto your property. People do it because they want the experience and it's so fulfilling to have livestock, but before we get swept away with that emotion side of things, we really need to think from a practical perspective of what's actually going to be most appropriate around the type of livestock that we run, so that might be around species selection. So, do we run cattle or do we run sheep? Do we run goats or alpacas? And being able to think about that from a bit more of a practical and logical perspective really helps us make those decisions early on and set us up for a really successful experience.

Brett Davidson:

Rachael and I have talked about this quite a bit, producers need infrastructure and space to keep animals. They also need a bit of shelter, and infrastructure is probably one of the main things if we're talking about new systems and what type of animals to get.

Rachael Laukart:

If we are thinking of maybe we want a couple of sheep because maybe we a smaller space to be able to run animals in, some of our smaller animals might be a really good option. But also, let's consider that there's husbandry components, and what I mean by husbandry components is things that we need to do for them to help maintain them and make them have a good and healthy life with us. That might look like having access to yards to be able to yard them and shear them once a year, or to be able to check their feet to make sure that they're not getting overgrown hooves.

It's really important when we are thinking about bringing livestock onto our property to take a bit more of a seasonal or yearly perspective to go, "Do we have enough grass to make sure that we've got enough food for them year round?" Or, "Have we got enough water access to all the points in our paddocks to make sure that over summer, we've got plenty of water available for the animals that we're running?" So some of these things we need to consider before we select perhaps the species and even the number of animals that we want to run on our property.

Brett Davidson:

Rachael and I have both had numerous experience with pasture and animals and to be honest, most of the time it doesn't match up. There's either too much grass or not enough. So you do need to be able to manage how you're going to do that, and invariably, it really means buying some hay at some point in time or some supplementary feed.

Drew Radford:

And we're going to drill down into that a little bit further in a later episode, but Brett, in terms of infrastructure, sheep versus cattle, I imagine you've got to think about are my fences going to be robust enough? How do I load them on and off and separate them? There's a whole lot of stuff in terms of infrastructure.

Brett Davidson:

Yeah, but you need a crush for cattle. The average cow weight's a bit over 600 kilos now for beef cattle, mature cow weight. Some bulls can quite often get over a tonne. They're not really keen on just standing there while you give them vaccinations and things so you need to be able to restrain them, and that's even for vet checks. It can be for a minor thing like a hayseed or a cyst. You've got to be able to have them in a setting where you can actually help them out to keep them healthy.

Drew Radford:

There's a number of things to consider. How do producers overcome some of these common challenges?

Brett Davidson:

If you've got your common everyday practices in place about biosecurity, it's actually quite easy to manage. But the things we haven't talked about yet that are very important, which is having a property identification code, this is a requirement if you own livestock. It's also a requirement to have a NILS tag, which is a National Livestock Identification System, and that just helps with full supply chain tracing. It follows that animal all the way through its lifetime.

Farm maps are a good thing, just having your areas, putting some zones in place like your cattle yards, you may not have your animals there the whole time, or you have a paddock that you can use for quarantine sometimes. There's also pre-testing. Some buyers, they'll actually do a lot of pre-testing for you, whether it's Johne's disease or a Pestivirus or those type of things. They're out there but they're not that common, but if we've got good biosecurity practices in place, we can keep our cows healthy and happy.

Rachael Laukart:

We are really wanting to be able to set ourselves up for success in these systems, and the ways to do that is to be able to implement some of these really straightforward practices on a daily basis that might be Come Clean, Go Clean. It's a fantastic way to be able to protect the animals on our property as well as animals on other people's properties, but also being able to supervise and keep eyes on our animals. That might look like making sure we do a bit of a paddock walk each day, and we can bring that as part of our routine to make sure that we can pick up on any of our livestock that might be looking a little bit poorly or starting to show some signs that we need to maybe get them in for a bit more of check over, and we can pick up on these signs early if we're constantly going and having a look at them on a regular basis. And we can just bring that as part of our daily management plan with them.

Brett Davidson:

There's a couple of simple things that we've got in place here for our property, which is, we've got boot washing stations at the yards and at the house just so that if anyone does have dirty boots, they can give them a clean. Obviously, clean water is good and then detergents, even better. But we've got a couple people that do come on our property a lot, like our agronomist and our vet. I've actually bought some cheap gum boots for them, so then when they come to my place, they just swap boots so they don't have to clean their boots all the time. They're just putting on a set of boots that don't leave the property, they walk out on the property, and they swap into their own shoes before they hop in their car and go home or to the next property. But that just stops that spread.

Drew Radford:

There's a whole lot of stuff we're talking about here. Do you need a formalised biosecurity plan?

Brett Davidson:

You do need a plan, yes. As part of your meat and livestock registration, you do need a plan. It doesn't have to be onerous. Rachael's got quite a good one for their RSPCA farm as well.

Rachael Laukart:

Yeah, absolutely. For us here, we make sure that we've got a bit of a farm map going. So on the property, we know what areas we can have a bit more movement, and then we make sure that the animals that stay here full-time are in a different part of the property so that there's no crossover between animals that we might be looking after for a short period of time, and what we would consider our permanent residences.

Drew Radford:

These broader plans, are biosecurity signs actual detailed instructions on a sign, on your property, part of that?

Brett Davidson:

Yes, they are, Drew. Those signs usually have your name and phone number on them, like I have. People get to the front gate, they can ring you. And good biosecurity's really about a conversation to start off with, just to explain to other people coming on your property what your expectations are. And once you've done that, that's fairly right, that also from a legal standpoint, it'll actually help protect you from trespassers. So, there is very good reasons for having a sign. It just helps everybody out. If you're having those conversations with people and you've got people calling you before they come onto your property, that takes a lot of the stresses away about trying to manage different things and it makes biosecurity easy.

Rachael Laukart:

It does make it so much easier, doesn't it, Brett? If we think about some of the people who support us around owning livestock, and that might be vets or stock agents, that they can roll up to the front gate and your mobile number or best contact number is there for them. They can give you a bit of a bell, let you know that they are there, and then you can have any conversations around what your individual biosecurity plan might look like, for example, asking them to change boots before they hop out of the car.

Brett Davidson:

Or turning up with clean vehicles if it's a carrier. They're just simple things that you can pop in place.

Drew Radford:

What other considerations or permits do people need to consider when keeping livestock? And we're also talking about peri-urban areas in this series, so I imagine zoning's even part of that.

Brett Davidson:

You certainly just need to check with your local shire rules because they've got different regulations. For example, where my sister lives, she's not allowed to have a rooster. So she can have chooks, but she cannot have a rooster. And obviously with pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, there is some restrictions in some zones. If you're in those peri-urban areas, it's probably best to check with your local shire about what rules they've got in place. And you really need to have a Property Identification Code, that's mandatory and that's easy to get. It's just like having a car licence or anything like that. If you go onto the Agriculture Victoria website and type in, "PIC," you'll find a quick and easy registration there.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, what are your takeaway messages, Brett and Rachael, for people who want to have livestock on their property, on their smaller holding, what would you like them to take away from this episode?

Rachael Laukart:

We want people to consider that everyone has a responsibility to manage biosecurity on their own property with their own animals. It's very easy and straightforward to be able to incorporate some of these simple factors into daily management, and we really encourage you to start incorporating these things so that it becomes second nature, because it really is.

Brett Davidson:

And I'd just like to add that having livestock's so much fun, I get such a kick out of getting new calves each year. Our kids have really enjoyed livestock so much. It's a great way for kids to learn about things as well. Enjoying livestock's great, but no one wants to deal with sick or injured livestock so we need to do what we can, and simple biosecurity goes a long way to protecting your animals from all types of different issues that can come up.

Drew Radford:

You've both given a lot to think about, but for now, Brett Davidson from Agriculture Victoria and Rachael Laukart from RSPCA, thank you so much for taking the time and joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Brett Davidson:

Thank you Drew, and thank you, Rachael.

Rachael Laukart:

Thank you so much, Drew. Thanks, Brett.

Speaker 1:

To access biosecurity support, programs and information from Agriculture Victoria and the RSPCA, check out the notes with this podcast season. This has been an AgVic Talk and RSPCA podcast. All information is accurate at the time of release. For more AgVic Talk podcasts, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/agvictalk.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

If you have a small landholding with even just a couple of sheep on it, then you're part of the livestock industry.

G'day, I'm Drew Radford, and being part of that also has some responsibilities, and it involves terms like Property Identification Code and National Livestock Identification System. These terms, though, are not as daunting as they may first sound but they are crucial for livestock biosecurity.

Jill Noble from Hallston Valley Farm has this front of mind every single day, as she's part of a farming operation that some would argue is exposed to more biosecurity risks than most. Jill, thanks for joining me.

Jill Noble:

Pleasure. Nice to be here.

Drew Radford:

Jill, I've been really looking forward to interviewing you, because you run a farm with a difference. Can you tell me about it?

Jill Noble:

Yes, thanks. It's quite a diverse farm. Primarily our main product is sheep, both stud sheep, so selling rams, ewes and lambs; and meat, red meat. We provide a paddock to plate product mainly across our local region, so primarily Gippsland, even though we do deliver right up to including some Geelong region.

Then we also have an agritourism arm to our business, where we provide farm experiences, very sort of intimate one-on-one farm experiences. For example, we do birthday parties and romantic getaway type farm experiences. We do farm experiences for disability providers and people with a disability. And then we also have a couple of cabins. They're like tiny homes, but no one lives there, but they come and have a farm escape if you like, and that's run through another provider who owns the cabins. So it's quite diverse.

And then we also do a bit of education too. I run a podcast myself. I write a sheep magazine, and we do a lot of on-farm and off-farm education with other new upcoming farmers.

Drew Radford:

Jill, that's a really broad farm business, to say the least. And before we delve into the associated biosecurity risks, I just want to understand the farming side a bit more in terms of livestock. What are you running and what sort of numbers?

Jill Noble:

We're running a self-shedding British wool sheep, so it sheds its wool. It's the only wool shedding sheep in the world. It's called Wiltshire Horn sheep. We've got about 300 of those, so about 150 breeding ewes, and then rams and replacements, so about 300 head all up on 155 acres. We also manage a few other smaller properties in the South Gippsland area, where we occasionally have animals on and off there. And then we have a couple of alpacas. We have some cattle, so I generally bottle raise some steers every year.

Drew Radford:

There's a lot going on there, and I would argue a really valuable resource giving people access to a working farm. And it is a working access too, because I've seen on your Insta page people lamb marking. It's not just come and pat an animal. So this must bring with it then a whole other raft of biosecurity issues, because people are always trying to manage what comes on and off their property to mitigate biosecurity issues.

Jill Noble:

Yeah, it does present a major issue. One of the key things we had to do was sort of almost build a dedicated car park. Occasionally we might have 10, 20 vehicles a week coming onto our property. These aren't delivery vehicles either, actually people who will come either to stay on the farm or on the property or come for a day. So those vehicles bring with them lots of potential biosecurity risks, as often they're coming from other farms. So we built a dedicated car park so the cars come and park in a particular car park and generally don't traverse around the farm. So they're quarantined when they come onto the farm.

Drew Radford:

What about the people, though? I mean, when you talk about people coming on your properties and you change boots over.

Jill Noble:

Yeah, it's another challenge. So with the boots, depending on the environment, what's going on, we occasionally have washing stations and mats for visitors, particularly where we know that those visitors have been on farms recently, on their own farm perhaps, or maybe it's someone who's just constantly on a farm. We do a lot of washing. We're lucky in Gippsland. It does rain, so we have water that we can wash things, so washing boots or washing trailers or washing equipment we might use. So there's a lot of that that goes on. And humans as well, so encouraging humans to bring appropriate clean clothes when they're coming on to our farm, particularly if they're going to work and do the lamb marking.

Drew Radford:

I would imagine then record-keeping is particularly important for you.

Jill Noble:

With the visitors who come for the weekend, we are notified in advance of their name, and there's an ongoing record of every single visitor who stayed on our farm through an app, which is really good and we can trace that back. And then for everyone else who we bring on for our education purposes or farm experiences, same idea. We are keeping records of who they are or where they've come from, what organisation they might be with.

Drew Radford:

Well, the other ongoing relationship you have is obviously with your animals, so what about record keeping for them?

Jill Noble:

We find that the use of the NLIS tag system, we actually use an Enduro tag. So it's a very endurable tag which has two prongs, so it lasts a very long time in our animals. And we use that in conjunction with a radio frequency identification scanner and a piece of agricultural software which is called an indicator. So when our animals come on and off our property, we use that to track them.

And of course, we're using our e-declarations online as well. We do a lot of shows. We attend a lot of agricultural shows. So with that, those animals will go off our PIC number and come back on PIC number afterwards, so we have a trace of all of that. And we'll also use our scanner as well for that purpose.

Drew Radford:

So you've got a tourism side going on. You've also got a lot going on. You mentioned there showing animals, so they're being moved on and off the property. Plus you've got other properties you're looking after as well. My head's starting to spin in terms of the biosecurity management requirements.

Jill Noble:

There is a lot. So we use a lot of quarantining when the animals come on and off. We've got quite big sheepyards. We have the animals quarantined in there. We will always keep our vaccinations up to date, particularly 5-in-1 vaccinations. I even use a vaccination for an internal parasite, so that's for Barber's pole worm, which is quite a big challenge in our region.

Probably something else to mention is we have quite a lot of feral animals. We have quite a lot of deer on our property as well, and they also give us a huge biosecurity challenge, because they also are carriers of a lot of internal parasites. So we have a huge external biosecurity problem with other animals, particularly deer coming onto our property. So with that, the vaccinations both for the bacterial diseases and also the one we use for the parasites is very useful. And then we would also use drenches and quarantine drenches as well.

Drew Radford:

Animals like deer are hugely problematic, because obviously they just bound over your fences and you've got to go to extreme levels to try and keep them out. So is there another level of monitoring that's required of your animals then in terms of faecal testing or anything like that, just to make sure that you're constantly on top of this?

Jill Noble:

Yeah, we definitely use quite a lot of faecal testing. Apart from our quarantine drenches, that's what we would use to make a decision about any other drenches to administer. So we try and do a little bit of everything to try and help manage all those problems.

Drew Radford:

With you juggling so much, you must have some good insights. What would your top three tips be to give small-scale landholders, land managers, about traceability and record keeping?

Jill Noble:

I mean, of course, it comes down to affordability, but the electronic systems really are very easy to use and administer, but they do come at a cost. So if that was something that a small holder was looking at, that would be something to consider, and then effectively it all becomes an electronic record.

Without that, though, with a small flock, you can easily do it on a spreadsheet, just keeping track of it yourself. And then, of course, when you use the National Vendor Declarations, that actually keeps a track of it too. So between all of those, it really does help us identify any risks or reduce any risks or track or trace any issues that might occur.

Drew Radford:

There is a lot to track and trace, Jill, and there's a lot of information you've got to be across, which is constantly changing and updating. So where or who do you go to for that information to make sure that you are always up to date?

Jill Noble:

There's lots of different places to keep up to date. I follow Sheep Notes, which is the little notelet that comes in the post, but also there's an online one as well. I always devour that once it comes to my inbox. And because I'm, I suppose myself, I'm creating content around these topics for the sheep magazine and the sheep podcast, I'm always chatting with lots of different people, and even at shows talking to lots of different people. So I think it's a range of mentors. And then it's good to also have a good relationship with a vet, a local vet, someone who does know your local area and who has been to your property and could potentially identify hazards that you wouldn't identify.

Apart from that, one other resource might be where you are just keeping up to date with global aspects, so any other extension providers in other countries where there might be some developments. So for example, the Barber vaccination, which is a great tool, that was developed with the Moredun Institute in Scotland. So what are other jurisdictions, other countries doing that perhaps could be very helpful for us as small holders?

Drew Radford:

Some great insights there for other property holders. Any simple 101 things that you've done with your place that pretty much everybody should have?

Jill Noble:

I think everyone should have a biosecurity sign on their front gate with their phone number. It just identifies risks before they even enter your property, so I think that's an essential. We've also had a lot of trespassers, so locking any gates that are very visible, particularly from roads. Closing gates just generally on your property. Cleaning trailers when you use them to go on and off your property. Always using gloves. I know these are so basic, but they're so important. Always using gloves.

And then if you are working animals, and even if you've got no sick animals, but work from the younger animal to the older animal. So if you're going to be perhaps marking your lambs, for example, separate your lambs. Do all the work you have to do with your lambs, and then maybe check your ewes. Younger animals don't have any immunity. They're very weak immunity, much like children. So when we work them younger to older, we generally ensure that we don't pass on anything that might be in your older flock to the younger animals. And the same would be if you are working with a sick animal, tend to that sick animal after you tend to your healthy animals so that you yourself don't carry that risk internally to your healthy flock.

Drew Radford:

Jill you manage arguable more biosecurity considerations than most. However at the end of the day you use the same overarching systems as everybody else does to do so, things like PICs and the NLIS. Jill Noble from Hallston Farms, thank you so much for joining us for this AgVic Talk biosecurity podcast.

Jill Noble:

Thank you for the opportunity

Speaker 5:

To access biosecurity support programs and information from Agriculture Victoria and the RSPCA, check out the notes with this podcast season. This has been an AgVic Talk and RSPCA podcast. All information is accurate at the time of release. For more AgVic Talk podcasts, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/agvictalk.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Running a few cows on a small block to keep the grass down, and also to put beef in the freezer, can also have ramifications way beyond your own fence line. G’day, I'm Drew Radford, and those concerns relate to biosecurity. It affects everyone.

Erica Smith knows this only too well. She purchased a few highland cattle to deal with grass and also freezer stocking. That has turned into a stud, Glenstrae Highlands, and it's spread across multiple small holdings. And her customers, well, they're other small property owners seeking their own highland cattle. So she has a strong interest in small holdings and biosecurity. To find out more. Erica joins us for this episode of AgVic Talk. Thanks for your time.

Erica Smith:

Oh, thanks for having me.

Drew Radford:

Erica. Highland Cattle, they're not that common in Australia. Why highland cattle?

Erica Smith:

I chose mine from a sentimental reason, I guess, more than anything. Grew up in central Queensland where we had Brahmans, that was Dad's thing. We used to have the cows to keep the grass down and fill the freezer every year. And then after Dad passed away, we moved down to Victoria.

Didn't know that Brahmans would be such a good choice down here, so we went looking for something that suited the climate a bit better. Found their temperament suited and they look really good. So went into highlands.

Drew Radford:

They do look really good. Do they require any extra care?

Erica Smith:

They can generally look after themselves. You need to make sure they've got shade because they've got a double layer of hair. But they have horns for a reason. So their horns regulate their temperature, and they also use their horns to scratch themselves. Or they'll scratch on trees or fence posts, and they shed out once a year usually.

I can go out in a paddock and I can brush them. So I'll just help them de-shed that winter coat come spring. But yeah, it's not uncommon to find a tree branch with a clump of hair on it or something from the cows.

Drew Radford:

It's a reasonable amount of hair too. I'd imagine.

Erica Smith:

And the birds love it. The birds use it. We found bird's nests everywhere with highland hair in it.

Drew Radford:

So Erica, you got into them for a similar reason, you had them back home in Queensland. Was it managing grass and occasionally filling the freezer?

Erica Smith:

We'd bought a property that had a small acreage. Didn't want to be mowing it all the time, needed something to keep the grass down. And cows have always been something that I knew a little bit about. So we got the highlands to keep the grass down with the aim to put one in the freezer and keep the family fed. Because we know where the beef comes from, and we always liked knowing where our beef came from.

I started with registered stud cattle just because that was what was available when I found someone to talk to. And from there, kind of went into showing. So I now breed registered stock, and I show them, and sell them on for other people to start breeding registered stock.

Drew Radford:

In that process, has your herd outgrown your property?

Erica Smith:

I'm very, very lucky in that I have good pastures, but I also have small acreages across the road and next door to me that I can utilise. So I manage my property but on four small acreages. Which keeps my animals where I need them to be, but it just gives me a little bit of extra logistics with managing who goes where.

But again, lucky because they haven't got their own cattle or animals. So I basically get the full run of it, and can do with those properties what I need to do to keep everyone safe.

Drew Radford:

Well, in terms of keeping everyone safe and those logistics, I imagine biosecurity is quite important to you. Especially spread over a number of different locations.

Erica Smith:

It's all five-acre blocks. So that's not huge, but the management of them does involve things like weed control, fertilising. When we cut for hay, you're obviously bringing in machinery that's going from one small acreage block to another. That can be a concern.

So there's a bit that I need to manage. I also manage to keep my weeds down by actually cutting my hay locally, rather than having to buy it in. Because that's another issue, that you can bring in weeds without even realising it. So it's a little bit in there. And then just making sure my fences are hot so that cattle can't escape. That is another step that we take. And yeah, we've just got a wash down area, I guess, for equipment. For unloading and loading and making sure we don't do any of those spreads of seeds and weeds.

Drew Radford:

What about people coming onto the properties though, Erica? I imagine these cattle attract a bit of attention. And also you're doing it for stud work. So I imagine you're probably getting more people coming onto your properties than your regular small acreage holding.

Erica Smith:

Yeah, it's funny. I don't actually have a lot of visitors. I don't open it up to visitors to come. And then when I do have people that are coming to look for a reason, we've got the biosecurity sign on the gate. So anyone who turns up knows exactly, they've got to give us a call and come in. But anyone who has made an arrangement to come usually gets a brief rundown, make sure your boots are clean, make sure you've got clean clothes.

Come in, and then when they leave, if it's been muddy, we'll wash them off. So that essentially they do that, come clean, stay clean, go clean. And we all work together to try and stop any potential spread of anything.

Drew Radford:

That sounds like you're being quite detailed about what you've needed to put in place to protect you, your stock, and also surrounding properties.

Erica Smith:

Yeah, there's some great tips out there. I was lucky when I first started that the breeder I got my cattle from gave me the basics, get your PIC (Property Identification Code) number, and the steps that I needed to take to get started.

And then it can be quite overwhelming with, how do we go about getting set up for biosecurity? Because it can seem like a lot. But the tools that are available on Agriculture Victoria website, with their biosecurity plans, just makes it so, so simple to be able to follow a step-by-step guide that can help you with, even just triggering questions you need to think about. Things that you might not consider yourself.

Drew Radford:

Well, you mentioned people, and you also mentioned cutting. So I'm guessing you also got stuff in place for machinery?

Erica Smith:

Yeah, so I actually in Queensland completed a Weed and Seed Assessor course. So I already had a bit of a background in how to make sure your machines were clean, how they can sneak in on mud in wheel tracks and things like that on equipment.

So with my setup, I've got a gravel driveway, which is a really good unloading place. And it also means that any equipment can be washed down and kept there, and then loaded and unloaded there. So essentially I can contain my potential weed contamination to a smaller area.

Drew Radford:

You went into this basically wanting to keep the grass down and keep your freezer full, but it sounds like you've been on quite the journey. Particularly in regards to biosecurity.

Erica Smith:

Yeah, I did. It's one of those things, also, that concerns me a little in the fact that there's so many people in the same boat I was when I first started. So you buy five acres, and you want to get a couple of cows just to keep the grass down, or a couple of sheep or something like that. And they're easy enough to buy, animals from other people who've got them, without knowing what you need to do to keep yourself safe, to keep your animals safe and to keep your neighbours safe.

So having people that you can talk to and places that you can go to find information does make it a lot easier. And it's a constant learning. You're constantly refining your plan to make it better, or thinking of another way of doing something, or something that you hadn't maybe considered before. Like, I'm bringing in a new animal, what do I have to consider introducing that animal to my herd?

Or, I've decided I've got to get rid of some weeds, so I have to bring a piece of machinery to spray my paddocks because I can't do that myself. What do I need to consider? So it's just a constant refining as well.

Drew Radford:

And in that constant refining, Erica, does that come down to diseases as well? There's always something potentially new on the horizon you need to be wary of.

Erica Smith:

It absolutely does come down to diseases. There's a potential for a huge impact of a disease that was to hit Australia that would impact our industry. We've seen it before in the UK, where an outbreak in the UK restricted the availability of genetics. Something as simple as that can impact an entire breed here in Australia.

So if we had something come in, and we had to cull, there's so many industries that would be impacted by that, not just my animals potentially that I would lose, but then how do you recover from that? What happens with the export industry? What happens with our beef industry? What happens with ... livelihoods everywhere could be impacted just by one simple thing that potentially could be stopped I guess, at a border, or just by implementing good practices.

Drew Radford:

It's a big-picture responsibility, isn't it? I mean, you've gone from literally having a couple of cows to keep the grass down to being very conscious of the broader impact well beyond your gate.

Erica Smith:

You do absolutely have to be aware of the bigger picture and what else happens. So if we can all make sure that we take steps to protect not only ourselves but our neighbours, if we work together, then hopefully we can contain these things and just keep everything safe.

Drew Radford:

That's Erica Smith from Glenstrae Highlands. Assisting producers to get the heads around biosecurity needs is Richard Smith from Agriculture Victoria. He comes from a dairy background and says a biosecurity incident could have an enormous impact on the sector.

Richard Smith:

The dairy industry in Victoria has the lion's share of dairy in Australia-wide. It's got an approximate value of a couple of billion dollars, with about 60-odd percent of that being exported. So the impact of an emergency animal disease outbreak or a biosecurity incident for the dairy industry is actually quite considerable.

It'll have flow on effects not only on-farm, but throughout a lot of these rural communities, the shut down and milk tankers, transport industry would have an impact on farm store sales and everything like that, not just the impact faced by the actual dairy farmers themselves. As well as the people in the factories would have reduced hours as the low flow of milk might make its way through.

Drew Radford:

Richard, in simple terms, what is biosecurity?

Richard Smith:

Biosecurity in the basic action is trying to protect your property, your land from the impact of a disease, a pest, or a weed making their way onto the property and causing you a production loss or an economic loss. And that's probably the best way to think about it.

What we're trying to do with practising good biosecurity is managing those risks, and trying to reduce the impact those risks that could have. So for small landholders, it could be as simple as monitoring those animals that come onto your farm, or monitoring what seeds or goods that you buy to reduce the risk of weeds coming onto your property, and then you having to spend time and effort to try and manage that impact.

Drew Radford:

And Richard, you said small landholders there. Sometimes people think of themselves within isolation, but you're part of something bigger. The impact on a small landholder can have, I assume, a much bigger impact on broader industry and community.

Richard Smith:

Definitely, definitely. What we try and encourage with biosecurity is, everybody has a role to play. I use the analogy of a pack of sliced Swiss cheese. The biosecurity measures we're trying to enact gives us, and puts in place, another slice into that pack. And what we're trying to do is trying to prevent those holes lining up and preventing an impact from occurring.

So the more biosecurity measures we can put in place, even for small landholders, it's a case of where we feel comfortable that we can manage that risk. And if everybody plays a part, we can respond to that risk, plus we know that people are willing to take action on their own properties to make sure they mitigate that risk.

Drew Radford:

Richard, you said, "If everybody plays their part." So what then can small landholders do to increase biosecurity on their farms?

Richard Smith:

I tend to talk about practical, feasible, and sustainable actions suited to their property. So we know that for smaller landholders, there's often not the economic resources that some of the large, intensive agricultural operations might have. It's a case of having a look, seeing what you produce be it a couple of sheep each year, a couple of cattle.

So sometimes the most important step is just registering for a Property Identification Code commonly referred to as a PIC. That's a very important step. That allows us to know that you've got animals on your property and enables you, particularly if you've got animals, to go the next step and get NLIS tags, particularly for sheep, goats, cattle, as well as a Pig Pass in Victoria.

The next step is keeping up to date with your recording of livestock movements. That's a requirement. It also allows you to track when your busy period is. Buying in livestock is often the biggest risk you have for managing biosecurity. You often buying from sale yards or other producers.

And it's a case of being assured when you buy that animal that they're healthy, that their welfare is being looked after by the farmer who's selling it. So it's a case of asking for an Animal Health Declaration, having a look at the livestock, and when you bring them back onto your property, just quarantining them.

In biosecurity planning, were talking 14 to 21 days, but even if you just put them in a paddock or a holding yard somewhere, make sure you feed them, make sure you provide water, and just keep an eye on them, and you're just looking for any symptoms that might arise.

It also allows them to empty out, because a lot of weed seeds will take three days to pass through animals. So that enables you to make sure that weed gets deposited in that set of yards in a contained environment, so when you do release them onto your property, you don't then have to eradicate a weed over your entire property, all you have to do is manage it in a set of yards.

So, quarantine is very important. If you do get sick animals, move them away from other animals so you're not spreading that disease from nose-to-nose contact. That's a very simple thing that a lot of the big commercial guys try and do, but it's also quite feasible for a lot of the smaller producers because often you've got hands-on with your livestock a lot more often.

Make sure that your feed and water isn't being contaminated, that's a big thing. So if you're buying in feed, or you're buying in hay, making sure that you ask for Fodder Declarations. That you store those feedstuffs in an environment where you're not going to have rats, and mice, and other pests getting to them and causing spoilage.

The next thing is protecting your border, so making sure your fences are well-maintained, that they're upright, that they're secure - particularly if you've got nose-to-nose contact over fence lines, between neighbours. You could plant trees, you could double-fence. Just try and put an exclusion zone off them to prevent that nose-to-nose contact.

Lastly, just making sure your records are up-to-date. It's really important to keep accurate records. If you've given animal health treatments, if you've moved them off your property, if you've had cases of sickness or if you've called, and vets record all that. And those are the sort of things that small landholders can do day-to-day that aren't time intensive, but also don't cost that much.

Drew Radford:

And lastly, Richard, in terms of people coming and going onto the farm, and vehicles coming and going, I'm guessing that really shouldn't just be something that big operators need to be concerned about - that'd be a small landholder operator concern as well.

Richard Smith:

Definitely, definitely. One of the most important steps is having a conversation first. There's no point having that conversation when the people turn up on your property.

If you've got a contractor coming up, or you've got a vet coming onto your property, when you make that appointment, have a chat to them. Talk about the biosecurity measures that are in place on your property, how you can manage it, talk about where you'd like them to park, talk about coming in clean footwear - often people talk about foot baths.

It's often quite a time-intensive thing to manage foot-baths because you've got to manage the chemical, you've got to keep the foot bath clean, so you've got to keep the chemical topped up. The chemical becomes deactivated when it comes in contact with large amounts of mud and manure. A good workaround is, have a couple of spare sets of clean footwear be it steel-capped boots, be it steel-capped gum boots in common sizes, men’s and women’s even as just a couple of pairs and just keep them clean.

And Glen 20 them or use a commercial disinfectant spray in between uses, and that's often a good workaround.

And just ask them to park in a location that you feel comfortable about, by the farm shed, by the house - and don't get them to drive into your production area, so into your pastures, into your yards, things like that, just exclude them and that's a good, sensible option to manage biosecurity on a small scale.

Drew Radford:

Richard, some great insights there for helping keep not only small properties safe but the broader industry safe as well. Richard Smith, Dairy Industry Development Officer with Agriculture Victoria. Thank you for taking the time and joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Richard Smith:

Thank you, Drew. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

To access biosecurity support, programs, and information from Agriculture Victoria and the RSPCA, check out the notes with this podcast season. This has been an AgVic talk and RSPCA podcast. All information is accurate at the time of release.

For more Ag Vic Talk podcasts, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/agvictalk.

Hello and welcome. I'm Ros Spence, Victoria's Minister for Agriculture, and I'm excited to introduce you to season eight of the AgVic Talk podcast series in collaboration with RSPCA Victoria. I start by acknowledging that I live and work on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and pay my respects to their elders past and present, along with elders from every nation across the state.

This season of AgVic Talk will cover everything you need to know about biosecurity. We'll hear from farmers from all walks of life about the types of practical things they've put in place on their properties and how you can do the same. Experts from RSPCA Victoria and Agriculture Victoria will also share their knowledge on how you can build biosecurity into your day-to-day farming practices. As we outlined in Victoria's Biosecurity Strategy, our government is committed to helping farmers take practical steps to reduce risks and keep their properties safe. It doesn't matter how many animals you have, how big or small your property is, biosecurity is everyone's business.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the farmers that have taken part in this podcast series for their enthusiasm to share their knowledge with others. I'd also like to thank the dedicated professionals from Agriculture Victoria and RSPCA Victoria, who are working hard across the state every day.

In my time as Agriculture Minister, I've been really impressed by the work they do, and I'm so proud of the valuable contribution they make to protect and promote Victoria's agriculture sector.

If you enjoy this podcast series, don't forget to follow it and share it with your family and friends. To hear previous episodes search AgVic Talk wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.