Border patrol - how good is your biosecurity regime?

An MPI report found machinery movements pose a persistent high risk in pest spread.

How secure is your farm against invasion?

There's a fair chance that any vehicle entering your property could be bringing something potentially damaging for your business - and among the best places to reduce this risk is your border: the farm gate.

Over the past few years there has been an increasing awareness, within the primary sector and other agencies, of the importance of having an effective on-farm biosecurity regime.

Several years ago, two booklets were published highlighting this and offering advice to farmers.

Drystock Biosecurity Guidelines (Beef + Lamb NZ and Deer Industry NZ) noted "that contamination can be readily brought onto and spread around your farm by visitors, their vehicles or via equipment that has been used on other farms or at saleyards."

"Keep it Clean", machinery hygiene guidelines produced by the National Pest Control Agencies recalled a MAF (now MPI) report which found machinery movements pose a persistent high risk in pest spread, with at least 80 pest species known to be typically moved by machinery.

This is a significant invasion threat in anyone's language.

The guidelines advise that machinery hygiene must be practiced any time a machine is moved between properties. Any form of plant or soil contamination has a real potential of harbouring pests or weeds.

This was clearly demonstrated in an investigation undertaken in the Mackenzie Country a few years ago, where a small sample of dirt was removed from an excavator that had been "cleaned" prior to moving on to another job.

The dirt was placed in trays in a glasshouse and within 12 months, 18 different plant species emerged, including 139 gorse seedlings.

This goes to show that you can't be too careful.

So what can you do to prevent such invasions?

Arguably the first and best step is to be a good neighbour and ensure vehicles and machinery leaving your property are not transporting potentially damaging substance on to other properties.

The machinery hygiene guidelines state that "it is the responsibility of the operator to do whatever is required to make sure that machinery is clean before it is moved to another property. Ideally, machinery wash-down should occur on the property prior to movement, thereby containing any problems at source."

At the other end of the road, of course, there is the safety net on your own property.

Make sure you have a regime in effect that can keep tabs on anything and everything that wants to enter.

And don't forget that you have every right (some emergencies excepted) to refuse access to any person or vehicle that you think may pose a biosecurity threat to your business until the threat has been addressed.

Perhaps the most obvious way of addressing the issue is, once again, a vehicle or machinery wash down.

Increasingly various parties, recognising the importance of on-farm biosecurity, are willing to comply with conditions set by the landholder.

A number of Canterbury Regional Council vehicles, for example, carry their own wash-down equipment.

The machinery hygiene guide includes a machine clean-down log book, use of which is supported by contractors that can be inspected by the landholder.

When you consider installing a wash-down facility on your property, make sure you have effective control over any contaminated material that may be washed from vehicles or machinery - it's no use if you help it "escape".

Regional councils or pest control groups such as the Chilean Needle Grass awareness group through its farm biosecurity brochure offer advice in how to do this.

To some people taking precautions like these may seem to be another chore with little benefit.

But look on it as applying the 'stitch in time' principle.

After all, major weed pests such as hieracium in the south and Manchurian wild rice in the north all arrived after hitching a ride on something that came through the farm gate.