Heartbreak for NSW grain growers as mice devastate crops

Some NSW grain growers have lost five times more of their sorghum crop than they originally anticipated, as mice wreak havoc.

Shock losses: Mice are causing devastating losses for crop growers in northern NSW and southern Queensland and also destroying hay stacks. Picture: Trent Perrett

Mice  have caused catastrophic yield losses in some NSW sorghum crops.

And numbers are still sticking around in winter crops even after rainfall, as sowing ramps up in the state.

According to NSW Farmers’ Grains Committee chair Matthew Madden, growers in the north of the state are now just coming to realise the extent of losses.

“People in the Liverpool Plains thought they were going to lose some, but they lost five times of what they thought,” Mr Madden said.

“One person thought he lost a couple hundred tonnes, but has probably lost one thousand tonnes.

“People are seeing different areas of damage but in individual areas, they are quite significant.”

Mr Madden said there were some losses in mung bean crops and some in cotton.

“Coming up to the winter crop, there has been significant rain and significant flood, so the numbers have eased dramatically in a lot of places, but we are not sure if they have eased to that degree where they don’t have to do anything,” he said. “That is the unknown at this stage.”

He warned growers to stay vigilant and monitor crops to avoid a disaster situation in spring.

“Are we going to see a crash in numbers with the winter or will we see a gradual build-up in winter then an explosion in spring?” Mr Madden said.

Dealing with the large mice numbers was also unusual territory for growers in the area, Mr Madden said.

“To a lot of people in northern NSW and southern Queensland, it is sort of a new experience having to bait and contemplating baiting,” he said. “It is causing a great deal of angst.”

Another issue for the sector is that it is finding demand in bait difficult to judge.

“If everyone wanted to bait at once there wouldn’t be enough,” Mr Madden said.

“There is a bit of a lag there, we are encouraging the NSW Government to be aware of this, (to look) for some other opportunities and avenues to get it a bit quicker.”

Mice numbers were also a “kick in the guts” for hay growers, Mr Madden said.

“People in the central west that have made a lot of hay and put a lot of feed away, mice are destroying hay stacks.

“They want to prepare for the next dry spell and the mice have ruined that as well, it is just devastating.”

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