A GROUP of landowners in the Badgingarra area are questioning Dandaragan Shire Council over its decision to not sign up to the Stable Fly Management Plan (SFMP) after livestock and pets on their properties became targets for the pest.
Group spokesman Geoff Teasdale, Badgingarra, said the shire only had to sign up to the plan and inform property owners and businesses in the area that there were new standards in place for the control of the stable fly to see a better outcome for all.
He said while there were no market gardeners in the area yet, there were poultry farmers who he said were not adequately composting their manure and selling it onto farmers who were stockpiling it to spread as pasture fertiliser, which was enabling the stable fly to breed in the piles.
Mr Teasdale and other landholders in the area have purchased fly traps as stable fly was affecting the welfare of their livestock, work dogs and pets.
He said homestay accommodation businesses were also concerned about the smell of the poultry manure, which had affected their clientele.
Mr Teasdale said within a few hours of setting up a sticky trap he had caught more than 70 stable flies, which he said highlighted the issue had gone beyond a minor problem in the area.
He runs 120 breeder cows, about 80 calves and 3000 ewes, as well as cropping a few hundred hectares, mainly for livestock feed.
Mr Teasdale said he had been on the property since 1973 and it had only been in the past three years that the fly has started affecting their lives, about the same time that poultry farmers moved into the area.
He contacted Farm Weekly after reading a previous report that a small cattle producer in the Gingin Shire was destocking due to the impact of the fly on his cattle.
The SFMP is a State government managed plan that sets out the measures to be taken to control stable fly in the areas where it is a declared pest.
It is a declared pest under section 22 of the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 in 13 shires along the Swan Coastal Plain including Gingin, Harvey, Capel, Wanneroo, Chittering, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Swan.
The Dandaragan Shire Council said in response to complaints from the community it held a Stable Fly Forum in Dandaragan in April 2017 with the assistance of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).
“The stable fly issue was discussed with a wide range of stakeholders during the forum,” said shire chief executive officer Brent Bailey.
“As a result of this consultation council felt that adopting the SFMP at this point was not required as many of the attending farmers asserted that poultry manure is a highly valuable nutrient source when spread at suitable rates and it was found that applying untreated poultry litter on non-irrigated pasture seems safe.
“Research by Dr David Cook suggests that in certain circumstances it may be safe to dispose of raw poultry manure on agricultural land within the declared shires.
“Hence in recent developments the department is proposing to allow the use of chicken manure in areas covered by the SFMP in the near future, subject to certain conditions.”
Mr Bailey said DPIRD and environmental officers had visited the farms that received, processed and applied poultry manure over the past eight months, but the shire was “unable to find any evidence” confirming that poultry manure piles on farms had assisted in breeding or attracting flies to the area.
He said one free range egg farm had been built in the shire to date.
“This farm was required to drill several groundwater monitoring bores to monitor for possible contamination,” Mr Bailey said.
“In this context it should be noted that the Department of Water and Environment Regulation has made the decision not to list poultry farms as a prescribed premise in Schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulations 1987 for two reasons – they are built on concrete slabs and aprons which prevents ground or surface water contamination, and that all waste is removed from the premises and used by neighbouring farmers as fertiliser.”
READ MORE:
Mr Bailey said in the shire “stable flies breed in organic matter in moist conditions, as can be found in spring after a wet winter, such as the most recent one”.
“Once the surface water evaporates the flies generally disappear,” he said.
“It has been found that stable flies can also breed on cattle farms.
“Cattle can produce stable flies if either their manure gets wet through leaking water troughs or poor drainage around areas where manure accumulates or around wet areas of grain feed, which rot, ferment and attract stable flies.”
While Mr Teasdale accepted that flies could breed in these conditions, he said it was highly unlikely that it was the cause of the increasing numbers of stable flies in the area.
