In this edition:

• Recording: Managing fire risk on farms - tools, tips, resources and a seasonal update
• Regional Drought Resilience Plans – have your say
• Free financial counselling with RFCS
• Harvester and crop fires
• Counting the future benefits for orchards
• Summertime, the right time to eradicate footrot
• Stories of recovery and resilience told in new podcast series
• Commodity vendor declarations
• A taste you can trace – episode 8
• Farm fire preparedness tip – stock containment
• Sign up to the Weed Spotter newsletter
• New grants set to tackle weeds and pests
• In case you missed it
• What's on

Presented by:

• Dale Grey, Agriculture Victoria
• Kylie Macreadie, Agriculture Victoria.

VIEW THE RECORDING HERE

Every farm and farming business is unique, being well prepared for bushfires can assist farm businesses to recover faster.

Planning and preparing for the bushfire season includes identifying risks and undertaking tasks to prepare your farm ahead of the season.

In this webinar recording, Kylie highlights farm preparedness activities, along with tools and templates available in the new Fire Preparedness Toolkit.

Dale discusses what the current drier climate drivers of El Nino and the positive Indian Ocean Dipole are up to as well as current soil moisture, remote sensed plant growth and grass curing.

Agriculture Victoria has been working with members of the Ovens Murray, Loddon Campaspe and Mallee communities to prepare a draft Drought Resilience Plan for the region.  

The Drought Resilience Plans propose themes, outcomes, and actions to better prepare the region for future droughts and help them to thrive in challenging times.

We invite all local community members to have their say on the draft plans by visiting EngageVic website before 10 December.

We encourage all interested parties to ‘follow’ the Regional Drought Resilience EngageVic page for updates.

The Ovens Murray, Loddon Campaspe and Mallee Drought Resilience Plans are the final 3 plans to be developed across Victoria’s 9 regions as part of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund in partnership with the Victorian Government. 

Community feedback on the draft plans for the Ovens Murray, Loddon Campaspe and Mallee regions is currently being sought.

Plans for Great South Coast, Barwon and Central Highlands are currently being finalised following input from community members.

Plans for Gippsland, Goulburn and Wimmera Southern Mallee have been published and are available to view online.

More information on the plans, the Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program and the Future Drought Fund is available on the Agriculture Victoria website. 

For more information on the development of Regional Drought Resilience Plan in the Ovens Murray region contact Rod Hayes.

For the plans in the Loddon Campaspe and Mallee contact Richard Soppe.

Responses close 10 December.

Have you been impacted by recent floods, fires or dry seasonal conditions?

The Rural Financial Counselling Service provides a free and confidential financial counselling service to eligible farmers and small related enterprises who are experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship.

They can help you to access available support, analyse your business situation, negotiate with lenders and develop strategies to improve your financial position.

To find your closest service visit rfcsnetwork.com.au or call 1300 771 741.

We know farmers want to protect their communities as well as their own equipment and harvest, so we urge them to consider these tips before undertaking work this weekend:

• Postponing paddock work during the highest fire-risk periods
• Run regular maintenance checks on farm machinery
• Monitor weather conditions throughout the day and stop operations if it changes.

You are required by law to have a nine-litre water-pressured extinguisher on hand.

Visit the CFA website for more information on preventing harvester fires www.cfa.vic.gov.au/farming

Sign up to MyCFA to get local information on how to plan and prepare for fires and other emergencies in your area.

Please note: For emergency warnings always go straight to VicEmergency

Caption: Dr Ian Goodwin stands in front of the Green Atlas Cartographer at Tatura SmartFarm

Orchard researchers are continuing to find new applications for an Agtech device called a ‘Cartographer’ at Agriculture Victoria’s Tatura SmartFarm.

Cartographer — invented by AgTech firm Green Atlas — is mounted on an electric All-Terrain-Vehicle at the farm and uses a combination of cameras, scanner, strobe lighting and GPS to capture flower, fruit and canopy data from tree crops.

Agriculture Victoria Research Leader for Crop Physiology, Dr Ian Goodwin said the Cartographer was originally trialled in a 2020 - 2022 research project exploring the use of sensors to assess fruit quality of peach, nectarine, plum and apricot for export.

‘The Cartographer can travel along orchard rows capturing data from both sides of the row at up to 10 km/h making it much quicker and more accurate than manual methods and less labour intensive,’ said Dr Goodwin.

‘It uses artificial intelligence to identify, count and measure fruit traits from its cameras such as fruit size and colour to help us calculate potential harvest yields.

‘The Cartographer has become a very handy scientific instrument for us that can rapidly analyse an entire orchard block, so we are now using it in wide range of orchard research.

‘It’s been used for stone fruit, apple and pear research and we’re now studying its economic value for growers as an orchard management tool.

‘We manually calibrate the Cartographer for accurate fruit counts, but otherwise its entirely machine-driven data capture for fruit size, fruit colour and canopy size so the labour-save and return on investment would be of interest to producers.’

Mildura SmartFarm has also purchased a Cartographer to help researchers analyse quality and production within its almond experimental orchard and potentially in citrus and olive groves.

Further information:

• Sensors for Summerfruit
• The PIPS3 Program
• Agriculture Victoria and Horticulture Industry Networks Cartographer videos
• Green Atlas Cartographer

Dr Jeff Cave, Agriculture Victoria Senior Veterinary Officer

Does your flock have virulent footrot? Do you have the time, energy, resources and will to try to eradicate it from your flock?

If you answered yes to these questions, then a footrot summer eradication program is your ideal time to act.

Unfortunately, the past few wetter-than-average summers haven’t been conducive to a footrot eradication program.

However, the coming summer forecast for hot and dry conditions may provide the right settings.

The likelihood of success of a summer footrot eradication program will increase if the spread and severity of footrot in your flock was restricted during spring.

From there, once the pasture has dried off and reduced in volume in summer, all sheep must be tipped up and individually examined, foot by foot, paring sufficiently to ensure an accurate diagnosis.

This part is essential for a successful footrot summer eradication program.

During this examination, sort sheep into clean and infected (infected or suspect) mobs.

It is important to note that an infected mob kept for treatment is a high risk for later breaking down and infecting your clean mobs.

If infected sheep are retained, they require paring, sufficient to expose all pockets of infection and treatment.

The clean flock can then be released into a clean paddock, which is one that hasn’t had sheep in it for the previous 7 days.

Every sheep in the clean flock must be examined again 3 to 6 weeks later, and again until 2 consecutive clean inspections are achieved.

If the infected mob was retained inspect all feet after 4 weeks.

Any sheep not cured should be culled immediately.

Repeat treatment and examinations until 2 clean inspections are achieved. The infected flock now becomes the cured flock.

From there, keep the clean and cured flocks separated and isolated until after the next spring.

Keep sheep under close surveillance for signs of lameness; any lameness must be checked to determine the cause. If footrot is detected, the program needs to be repeated.

Sheep handlers, pneumatic shears or contractors can help make this difficult job a little bit easier.

Expert advice on diagnosis, treatment, and program design to eradicate footrot is available from your veterinarian or Agriculture Victoria’s animal health or veterinary officers, or in New South Wales contact your Local Land Services.

Victorian farmers have faced many challenges in the past 3 years, from dry seasons to COVID-19, bushfires to floods and storms.

Spring 2022 saw record rainfall across Victoria, particularly in the state’s north.

Farms were affected by flooding, waterlogging, disease, and disruption to supply chains.

Agriculture Victoria’s new podcast ‘After the flood: stories of farmer recovery and resilience’ explores the recovery required after a natural disaster, the support provided and the resilience of Victorian farmers, including how different industries are recovering.

Victoria’s Rural Assistance Commissioner, Peter Tuohey, said listeners will hear from farmers who’ve weathered these storms, their recovery, and what they’ve learned.

‘This podcast series shares real stories of farmers recovering from natural disasters. It's about learning and moving forward together.

‘The episodes highlight the stages of recovery, through disaster to rebuilding, directly from individuals sharing their journeys’, he said.

In Episode 1, we hear from farm business manager Chris Steele as he reflects on flooding impacts to his emerging irrigated horticulture crops on the Murray River and how a realistic cash-flow budget helped navigate the crisis.

In future episodes we hear from apiarists, grape growers, farmers recovering with assistance from rural financial counsellors, individuals affected by family tragedy and those on the road to recovery in a changing climate.

The series has been produced by Agriculture Victoria in partnership with the National Centre for Farmer Health (NCFH) #BuildingFarmSpirit program.

Agriculture Victoria works with Victorian farmers to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.

The NCFH are supporting farmer mental health and wellbeing though a variety of initiatives, with further information on their website.

You can subscribe and listen to ‘After the flood: stories of farmer recovery and resilience’ wherever you get your podcasts:

• Subscribe to AgVic Talk on Spotify
• Subscribe to Apple Podcasts

You can find out more and listen to other AgVic Talk episodes at agriculture.vic.gov.au/agvictalk

To find out more about Agriculture Victoria’s support for those flood-affected, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/floods

Tanya Dobrijevic, Agriculture Recovery Officer

Traceability and assurance are key to underpinning the integrity of the agriculture sector.

As National Vendor Declarations (NVD) are used by livestock producers for food safety assurance, a Commodity Vendor Declaration (CVD) has the same purpose in fodder sales.

A CVD is a single page document containing information pertaining to the commodity origins, chemical applications, presence of Restricted Animal Material (RAM) and genetically modified organism (GMO) status.

One benefit of CVDs is that it provides the buyer with chemical application records which allows the buyer to determine if the feed is safe for animal consumption.

Having accurate records of chemical application dates and rates enables the buyer to determine whether it falls within withholding periods (WHP), in addition to Export Slaughter Intervals (ESI), or Export Animal Feed Intervals (EAFI).

A CVD will also indicate the presence of RAM in feed, which refers to any vertebrate animal materials excluding tallow, oils, gelatine or milk products.

This will inform the buyer if the feed is appropriate to be fed to animals. It is important to note that feeding RAM to ruminants is illegal in Australia.

These measures can contribute to strengthening your on-farm biosecurity and product integrity. Keeping up-to-date and accurate records for a product across the supply chain minimises risks.    

Biosecurity planning is a requirement for Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) accreditation and integrating CVDs as supporting documentation is a valuable addition to this plan and is strongly encouraged.

Requesting or providing a CVD is another important step to strengthening farm biosecurity and product safety assurance.

To download a CVD form, visit integritysystems.com.au

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Having a good traceability system in place means that if a food safety issue were to occur, your business can respond quickly and more efficiently.

In this episode, Dr. Adele Yates from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) explores food safety standards and the difference between recalls and incidents, using examples of recent food safety events.

🎧🎧 Listen online via the AgVic website: agriculture.vic.gov.au/AgVicTalk

Where will you place your stock during an emergency?

It’s crucial to have a refuge paddock or stock containment area ready for your livestock during emergencies, with adequate feed and water for their safety. 

Use the Fire Preparedness Toolkit and web resources to start planning for stock containment areas, emergency feeding and water budgeting – available at agriculture.vic.gov.au/bushfires

Find and use our Farm Fire Preparedness Toolkit here.

The Weed Spotter newsletter provides updates on the latest in weed news in Victoria, recent infestations found and removed, and where to go to report suspected weeds in your area. 

Subscribe to the Weed Spotter newsletter here.

The Victorian Government is delivering a new round of grants that will help Victorian farmers manage established weeds and pest animals.

Minister for Agriculture Ros Spence recently launched the second round of the Partnerships Against Pests Grants Program at the annual Victorian Biosecurity Roundtable.

The new round of funding worth $500,000 will help community groups deliver workshops and resources including fact sheets and videos showcasing best practice management tips. It will also help to promote collaboration between neighbours and wider communities.

Grants worth between $10,000 and $50,000 are available to a wide range of agricultural and environmental volunteering organisations, including Landcare groups and networks.

A further $250,000 has also been allocated to Victoria’s 4 Community Pest Management Groups – allowing them to expand their reach statewide and strengthen partnerships with local communities.

In Victoria, established weeds and pest animals are estimated to cost agricultural landowners $869 million per year in management and lost production costs – as they cause significant damage to landscapes and waterways.

The new funding will support the government’s new Biosecurity Strategy, which states the need to reduce the impact of established weeds and animal pests through local action.

For more information on the available grants and to apply, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/support-and-resources/funds-grants-programs.

Learn more about Victoria’s Biosecurity Strategy here.

New biosecurity strategy keeping Victoria prepared

The Victorian Government has released a new framework to further strengthen the state’s biosecurity systems from the paddock to our borders.

Read the media release in full here.

Nominations for the 2023/2024 State and Territory Landcare Awards

Now in its 32nd year, the State and Territory Landcare Awards stand as a prestigious biennial national Landcare Awards program.

Find out more from the Landcare Australia website.

Nominations close Friday 1 March 2024.

Wetlands & Waterways: Be paid to protect

Do you have a river, creek or wetland on your property you would like to protect?

Wimmera CMA is inviting Expressions of Interest through the Funds for Farmers funding program.

Put in your Expression of Interest now here or call 03 5382 1544 or email wcma@wcma.vic.gov.au.

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Details about Agriculture Victoria events can now be found in one spot on our website.

Visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/events to find out what's on.

Love your pigs?

Please join us for our pig health webinar on Tuesday 5 December at 6 pm to ensure your pigs have a happy, healthy summer. 

We’ll look at common illnesses, their signs and prevention.

We’ll also share an update on major diseases, including Japanese encephalitis and tell you about our free worm testing and biosecurity planning program.

Register your place here.

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