Livestock producers have the opportunity to increase pasture production by 20 per cent, control worms, bacterial diseases and the bush fly if a colony of Dung Beetles are released onto their property to work their magic, according to Dr Bernard Doube, Dung Beetle Solutions Australia.
Dung Beetle researcher of 45 years, Dr Doube, assisted in leading two field days at Newbridge and Orange last week, which were organised by Central Tablelands Landcare to educate producers about the benefits of the Dung Beetle being put to work on their properties and to locate possible trial sites for a new program.
He discussed the progress of an existing program funded by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and a new program led by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), also coordinated through the MLA, to attending land owners.
Dr Doube said the program funded by MLA which began four years ago is now at the stage where habitats across Southern Australia will be tested to release and monitor two spring Dung Beetle species sourced from France which were mass reared in conjunction with himself and Greg Dalton, Creation Care, Strathalbyn, South Australia, over the past few years.
“We want to see which sites are best for spring active Dung Beetles because we already have winter active Dung Beetles – we are hoping to achieve active Dung Beetles all year and in this program we hope to focus on mass releases at a number of favourable sites,” he said.
The Onthophagus Vacca will be released in Central New South Wales and into Southeast Queensland. The new five year long CSIRO led program will look to introduce six new Dung Beetle species into Australia.
“That will require us to identify the gaps in the distribution of spring active or winter active Dung Beetles - once we have identified those then we are going to bring the species in and mass rear them and distribute them,” Dr Doube said.
Livestock producers were also advised they can expect reduced fly numbers and limited spread of bacterial diseases through the use of Dung Beetle populations.
“The bush fly can act as a carrier of bacterial diseases like pink eye and if the fly does not have the dung juice to feed on, flies are considerably lessened,” Dr Doube said.
“They also play an important role in worm control – the infected stages of gut worms stay inside the dung pat for a week and if the dung is buried in the infected stage they are effectively removed from the pasture so they can’t reinfect the stock.”
Central Tablelands Landcare support officer Sally Kirby said the field days were a means to identify what species of dung beetles people have occurring on their properties and help them to achieve an all year round pasture management system.
Ms Kirby said because dung beetles recycle and bury livestock faeces, it improves soil fertility, productivity and pasture improvement.
“The beetles tunnel into the soil and effectively plough over the soil - they go down to about half a metre so they are bringing up underneath soil to the surface and take nutrients on the surface under ground,” she said.
“It gives your soil more nutrients and water, along with air pockets for other microbes - it rejuvenates, increases fertility and aeration without using mechanical mean.
“In a pastoral sense, if you had beetles working all year round the need for fertilizer may be lessened.”
One starter colony is about 2000 beetles and Dr Bernard Doube, Dung Beetle Solutions Australia, said he recommends 1000 winter dung beetles per 50 head of cattle or 500 sheep.
“Dung beetles have very sensitive noses and can fly a couple of kilometres to follow the dung,” Dr Doube said.
He said through the encouragement of earthworm numbers and the increased amount of decomposed organic matter stored deep in the soil, it can increase pasture production by up to 20 per cent.
“The dung beetle tunnels provide access for the plant roots to get deep into the soils and access the under ground nutrients, so you get substantially increased sustainability and reduced bulk density of the soil.”