Grain industry professionals have hit out at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority following the release of a recent mouse bait survey.
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The survey, released by Grain Producers SA last week, asked growers their opinions of the effectiveness of the currently inaccessible 50 gram zinc phosphide baits versus traditional 25g baits, with respondents saying the higher strength bait was 90 per cent effective, compared to the lower dose at only 50pc.
While growers are widely in support of the 50g baits, the emergency use permit issued by the APVMA expired at the end of 2023 despite an application from Grain Producers Australia for a new minor use permit in November.
Now almost five months on from the permit's expiry, a decision is yet to be made by the APVMA on the bait and concern is growing as seeding ramps up across the state.
Agriculture Institute of Australia SA chair Craig Davis said the APVMA not seeing the merits of the argument for the 50g was frustrating.
"For some years we have had concerns around the performance of the 25 bait and that is around getting sufficient initial kill and subsequently dealing with a population that appears to be non responsive to bait," he said.
"That has been an ongoing issue for 15 years and the CSIRO data supports what we had experienced, which was the 25 bait was not getting a high level of mortality and the survivors were therefore shy to the bait.
"The 50g bait was a very good solution to that, the data supported it, the field experience was excellent and we were getting much higher levels of reliability.
"I'm disappointed that APVMA are ignoring the CSIRO data which says the 50 bait is a far superior product and we are having obviously a battle against that."
Mr Davis said the higher strength bait meant growers spent less time dealing with a poisonous product and it was more cost effective to eliminate populations in one hit.
"We just see it as a as a no brainer to be using the 50g bait, but the APVMA says there's no emergency," he said.
"(The 50g bait) was very much relied upon last year and resulted in getting mice numbers under control following a record harvest the year before, but this year we can't access the same product.
"Luckily at present, we aren't seeing high numbers, but we still have some situations where we'll need to bait particularly with disc seeding systems and some pockets of higher mice activity and the situation can change quickly.
"We are at high risk putting seed in the ground now dry and we want to have access to the 50g so we're not running the risk of having to resow crops."
Lock farmer Andrew Polkinghorne said he had used both the 25g baits and the 50g baits and the later was significantly more effective.
"The 25 bait is probably still useful in a low mouse population level, but the 50g is far more effective and more cost effective in the long run," he said.
"I agree the 50g is about 90pc effective, where I would think the 25g is slightly more effective than the survey respondents and would estimate it at about 60pc."
While he says there is minimal mice activity on his farm at present, Mr Polkinghorne was wary of increasing mice numbers as dry seeding continued.
"We haven't had to bait since the permit expired, but if we needed to we'd be in a tough spot," he said.
"I can't see too much mice damage at this point, but those situations can change quiet quickly with mice.
"Last year we baited virtually our whole farm with 50g baits and had a very good result which may well be the reason we don't have huge numbers right now."
Mr Polkinghorne said he remembered before farmers were legally allowed to apply bait with damage from high mice populations devastating crops.
"The other thing is some of the local bait mixing stations do have some 50g bait which was manufactured prior to the end of the permit, they're not allowed to sell it so they're left in the lurch a bit too," he said.
"As a grower, the access to local bait mixing stations is very important because it enables a quick response and we don't want to lose that.
"You don't have logistics involved with baits gonna come from Melbourne via truck taking two or more weeks to get here - you can you can basically access bait at very short notice.
"With the long lead times before we had local bait mixing stations a lot of damage would occur before we even got the bait."
Mr Davis said he wanted to see a permanent solution to the issue as soon as possible.
"I'm struggling to see what we're missing and what they need but hopefully they can see sense and get this back on track and available to growers," he said.
"This should be a registration of that superior product.
"If we can't have that, at least in the short term, we should have a permit."
Katie Jackson
Journalist at Stock Journal. Born into a journo family in the state's South East, Katie made the move to the big smoke to join the team in early 2022 after seven years spent at various mastheads in the regions.
Journalist at Stock Journal. Born into a journo family in the state's South East, Katie made the move to the big smoke to join the team in early 2022 after seven years spent at various mastheads in the regions.
