Vics alert, not alarmed on mouse activity

In the north-east, in spite of worrying numbers in the far southern Riverina, farmers are comfortable with mouse numbers, while through much of the Wimmera, especially in the west, farmers believe it has been too dry through late summer and autumn to allow populations to build up.

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Chris Kelly, Woomelang, said mice would definitely be in farmers' minds when making their sowing decisions in the Mallee.

"I went for a drive this week and there were a lot of mice about, I was taken by just how big an increase there had been in the past three weeks," Mr Kelly said.

"Given there hasn't been a break and the seed is just sitting in the ground farmers that have dry sowed will really have to keep on top of things and keep baiting to ensure the seed isn't eaten."

In the north-east Victorian Farmers Federation grains group president Ashley Fraser said the cooling weather meant numbers seemed to be declining.

"I think things are probably better than they were three weeks ago," Mr Fraser said.

"We've been really lucky, they're just across the river, right on our doorstep, in quite bad numbers but generally we haven't had too much trouble."

He said with the colder weather had driven mice inside and there were more in houses and hay sheds but less being sighted in paddocks.

In contrast to western Victoria, the north-east has had a seasonal break and crops have emerged.

Overall, he said few farmers baited.

"We have seen some mice about but not enough to have an impact, most farmers did their counts and did not think it was necessary to bait."

Mr Fraser said those that had seen high numbers during the autumn had moved to control them quickly, which he said could have been a factor in the relatively low numbers.

"They jumped on them quickly, they all understood what a threat they could be having seen what happened in NSW over autumn."

In the northern Wimmera Bernard Lindsay, Lah, north of Warracknabeal, said there were mice about but that he was confident they could be controlled.

"Some paddocks are worse than others, I feel like it could be soil type specific because they always seem to be worse in particular paddocks," Mr Lindsay said.

He said with his entire crop nearly all planted dry he had been baiting to ensure the mice did not get the seed.

Mr Lindsay also said he wanted to ensure numbers were brought down to levels low enough to ensure they were not a problem later in the season.

"At present there's enough to be a problem later, we've had other years when they were around at levels like this and we left them and there were issues, we'd prefer to hit them now."

In far western Victoria Sam Eastwood, Kaniva, said the bone dry start to 2021 had kept mouse numbers in check, in spite of ample grain on the ground for feed.

"We've been monitoring with bait cards and most crop has been baited but in regards to mouse activity we aren't seeing the pressure that's on in other areas," Mr Eastwood said.

"They are around, no doubt, but I think the lack of moisture has stopped them breeding up, there just anywhere to get a drink, there's no green pick, so even though there's plenty of grain to eat they have not got to problem levels."

He said the worst problems were in softer soil types, where the mice could burrow more easily."