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Assistance For Stock Containment Areas

As part of the Victorian Governments Drought Package, $1.25M in financial assistance is being offered to drought-affected farmers to help with the establishment of stock containment areas.

By Department of Primary Industries - 27th March 2007 - Back to News

Stock containment areas are used as a management tool to assist with stock management during adverse climatic conditions, prolonged drought and in times of emergency such as fire.

Confining stock can protect affected paddocks from overgrazing and wind and water erosion.

Stock containment areas are established in carefully selected locations and are set up with permanent feeding and watering facilities. During difficult times they make feeding, managing and monitoring of stock easier and more effective. Confining stock also reduces their energy requirements.

Financial assistance is available for each stock containment area established. There is a maximum allowance per farmer.

The grant is to be used to purchase items such as fencing, gates, troughs, piping, tanks and pumps and stock feeders, etc. There are a number of key eligibility guidelines, including:

• Stock containment areas must be designed and constructed in accordance with Landcare notes LC0075 (Stock containment areas) & LC0077 (Water supply for stock containment areas).
• Stock containment areas are to be set up as permanent facilities with strong stock proof fencing, adequate gates and feed troughs and a reliable water supply. They should only be used for used for emergency or supplementary feeding operations.

For more information on the guidelines or the funding available contact your DPI Drought Soil Health Officer. In West Gippsland contact Les Kewming at DPI Maffra on 5147 0800 and in East Gippsland contact Julianne Sargant at DPI Bairnsdale on 5152 0600.

BE VIGILANT FOR FRUIT FLY

Home gardeners and orchardists need to be continually alert for fruit fly.

Fruit flies have a simple lifecycle with the adult flies laying their eggs just beneath the surface of ripe or ripening fruit. Tomatoes, stone fruit and loquats are among their favourite fruit, although they will lay in most other varieties of fruit including some fruiting vegetables and even some native plants such as lily pillies, hence their distribution across the south east coast.

Depending on air temperature the eggs will hatch after 5-10 days to release larvae that then burrow into the centre of the fruit, leaving it inedible. After several weeks of feeding inside the fruit the larvae emerge, drop to the ground and then pupate in the soil. Fruit fly take 2 - 4 weeks to emerge from the pupal case, dig their way out of the soil and fly off to mate and restart the cycle.

It is possible to stop or reduce the lifecycle and therefore stop the infestation of fruit in gardens and backyards. A key part of this process is good hygiene in the home garden by picking up fallen fruit and placing it into a plastic bag, tying the top and leaving it in the sun for at least 3-7 days before placing them in the bin.

Treating fruit trees with coversprays available from local chemical resellers can control adult fruit flies. Another method is to place traps out in your trees that attract and kill flies. These traps contain a lure, which is actually a synthetic version of the lure that female fruit flies use to attract males. This chemical is called a pheromone. These traps can be very effective, especially if they are used in a good neighbour approach, where most trees in a street or town utilise these traps, it is possible to kill off most of the males within a treated area. In the absence of any males, the remaining female fruit flies can only lay unfertilised eggs, which do not hatch, and the fruit fly cycle is broken.

These traps can be purchased from local garden centres, nurseries or ordered on line. Some Internet sites where these can be found are:

http://www.pnc.com.au/~cl/Products.html

http://www.bugsforbugs.com.au/fruitflywick.html

http://www.greenharvest.com.au/pestcontrol/fruit_fly_prod.html

Please note that DPI is simply providing this information for your assistance and this article does not imply a recommendation or endorsement for one or any of the listed products.

For further information on fruit fly control or travelling interstate with host produce please contact Lavinia Zirnsak at DPI Bairnsdale on 5152 0600.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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