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Facial Eczema Warning

Farmers are warned that recent warm nights have been suitable for the growth of the fungal toxin that causes facial eczema

By DPI - 26th February 2003 - Back to News

Farmers in the Macalister irrigation district and surrounding areas are warned that recent warm nights have been suitable for the growth of the fungal toxin that causes facial eczema.

Outbreaks of facial eczema occur when conditions are suitable for the production of large numbers of fungal spores on pasture. The fungus grows best when humidity is high and overnight temperatures remain above 12-15 °C for a few nights in a row. Last week temperatures remained high for at least 5 nights in a row.

Facial eczema is a disease of cattle, sheep and goats caused by a fungus (Pithomyces chartarum). This fungus grows in dead grass litter at the base of pasture. The spores of the fungus contain a toxin which, when eaten by stock, cause damage to the liver. Liver damage leads to a build up of photosensitive products in the skin, which causes photosensitization (sunburn). Affected cattle will show significant production loss. In severe cases death can occur. Cattle show signs of the disease 10-20 days after eating the toxin.

Producers can monitor conditions on their own property by doing spore counts on the pasture. The Department of Primary Industries will operate a subsidised facial eczema monitoring service this summer/Autumn. Producers can submit grass samples from their farm paddocks before 2 PM on any day of the week, to their local DPI office. For more information contact DPI Maffra on 51470800.

Consider testing pasture and be on the look out for sign of facial eczema over the next few weeks.

GIPPSLAND PLAINS CMN APPOINTS COMMITTEE

The Gippsland Plains Conservation Management Network (CMN) has appointed its first committee.

The president is Bengworden sheep grower Gerard Deery. Vice-President is Rick Robertson, who also runs sheep at Bengworden. Secretary is Trish Fox, Native Vegetation Officer with DPI. The treasure is Neville Prowse-Brown, cattle farmer, point-of-lay chicken producer and grower of native plants at Forge Creek.

Committee members also appointed at the December meeting are Robyn Edwards, Trust for Nature Regional Coordinator and CMN project manager; Kate Simpson, a farmer at Tom’s Creek; Andrew Brown, East Gippsland Water, and Andrea Lindsay, Land & Biodiversity Manager with East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.

The CMN is a network of remnant vegetation, its managers and other interested people, and is modelled on a similar CMN in NSW. The group recently became incorporated.

Network president Gerard Deery said "The appointment of this committee is another step towards achieving the Network’s goals, adding to a sustainable future for all those on the land. Much thanks must go to all those who have helped bring the Network this far."

The CMN has received support from several funding sources recently. The Grassy Ecosystem Grant Program, a joint initiative of The World Wide Fund for Nature Australia and the Commonwealth Government’s Natural Heritage Trust has provided funding to help with current management trials in selected Forest Red Gum and Lowland Forest remnants. Plant biodiversity in many remnants has fallen and the trials aim to introduce understorey species and to find out if grazing animals, native and introduced, affect such plantings.

Envirofund, the local action component of the Commonwealth Government's Natural Heritage Trust, provided funding towards an experimental removal of noisy miners, a bird believed to be contributing to dieback in rural eucalypts by excluding smaller insectivorous birds from remnant woodlands. Duke Energy has also provided funding to allow the CMN to produce information leaflets.

The next meeting of the CMN is on Tuesday, March 25, at the Meerlieu Hall, starting at 10am. Researchers Merilyn Grey and Richard Loyn will talk about their Noisy Miner trials. To attend the meeting, or find out more about the CMN, contact Trish Fox at DPI, Calvert St, Bairnsdale on 5152 0652.

TARGET 10 SOILS AND FERTILISER PROGRAM

Given the current dry conditions, maximiseing your income and reducing costs while minimising the impact of your farming activities on the environment may seem impossible to achieve. The Target 10 Soils and Fertiliser program, available in the Macalister Irrigation region on the 12th, 19th and 27th of March at DPI Maffra, will help you do just that. This program will enable you to develop a nutrient audit of the farm, understand optimum management for your different soil types and develop a fertiliser plan. Farmers that have attend this program in the past have reported increased production due to better timing and fertiliser applications and in some cases a decrease in fertiliser applications which helped the environment as well as their hip pocket.

For more information about the Target 10 Fertilising Dairy Pasture program contact Jason McAinch at DPI Maffra on 5147 0839.

LARDNER EFFLUENT FIELD DAY

"Suspended solids can create big headaches for farmers trying to pump effluent! But, help is at hand and there are a number of systems and equipment to help farmers manage these solids," says Annette Coster, Target 10 Extension Officer at DPI Ellinbank. A special field day is being held on 6 March, from 10:30am until 2:30 pm, at Ted, Iris and Kristian Bingham’s farm on Lardners Track, Lardner - just around the corner from the Lardner Farm World site in West Gippsland.

The Lardner Effluent Field Day will show farmers ways to deal with solids in effluent from diary sheds and feedpads, how to design a system that works plus demonstrations of equipment that can deal with solids. The demonstrations will include ways of separating the solids using solid traps, static screens and extruder pumps. Methods for handling the solids such as chopper pumps, manure carts and slurry wagons will also be shown.

Ms Coster says "If you are thinking of upgrading your effluent system, putting in a feedpad or solids have proven to be a problem in the past, then this is a really useful day for you to attend – you’ll get lots of information and all the right contacts to proceed."

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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