Farm biosecurity is insurance for your farming future Lois Ransom Australian Chief Plant Protection

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Farm biosecurity is insurance for your farming
futureLois RansomAustralian Chief Plant
Protection Officer
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Farm biosecurity What is it?

• Managing farms and crops to
• Reduce the impact of pests, diseases and weeds on
  yield and quality
• Prevent the introduction of exotic pests
• Safeguard future production
• It is not new!

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Tasmania 1992
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Also Tasmania 1992!
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Farm biosecurity is

• Good agricultural practice
• Good business
• A kind of insurance
• Common sense?
• Need not be learned the hard way!
• Your farming future...

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Why?

• Your property pest status determines
• Ongoing pest controls and costs
• Quarantine measures on your plants or plant
  products to interstate or overseas markets
• Nationally our pest status
• Determines market access requirements
• Underpins quarantine laws and operations at
  international and state and territory borders

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Where to start

• Know the health status of your property
• Know potential pest and disease risks
• Be able to identify them, or at least recognise
  what is different
• Report anything unusual
• Implement simple biosecurity measures of your own

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Keep it clean

• Simply clean on clean off
• Clean seed of known health status
• Clean bins and machinery - before they come onto
  your property and before they go off
• Cleaning up
• Crop rotation
• Checking for pests

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Help I found something different!

• You could
• Call your agronomist
• Check your reference books
• Read your industry biosecurity plan
• Google!
• Check out the Pest and Disease Image Library
  (www.padil.gov.au)
• But its better to call
• 1800 084 881 Australia wide