Keep it clean to keep New Zealand clean

Federated Farmers has joined with the National Pest Control Agencies to promote farmgate biosecurity with a hygiene guideline and logbook for farm machinery called “Keep it Clean.”

“Machinery movements pose a persistent high risk in pest spread,” says Dr William Rolleston, Federated Farmers Biosecurity spokesperson.

“Soil on a bulldozer in Canterbury was found to contain seeds from at least 73 different species and there are at least 80 pest species known to be typically moved by machinery.

“The pastoral sector is facing the spread of pest plants like Chilean needle grass while trying to contain pest insects, like the Great White Cabbage Butterfly.

“Just some of the established pests expanding their range include field horsetail, alligator weed, hornwort, Manchurian wild rice and Phytophthora taxon Agathis, also known as Kauri dieback.

“The importance of farmgate biosecurity is graphically underscored with PSA forecast to cost the Kiwifruit industry $885 million over the next 15 years, not including the loss of equity.

“This is why Federated Farmers has joined with the National Pest Control Agencies to promote Keep it Clean.

“The booklet is a basic but important guide and log book that farmers and contractors need to keep in their cabs and more importantly use. It also contains two key messages.

“First, to clean your machine with ‘when, where and how’ suggestions and second, to record the clean-down in your logbook. This becomes not only a tangible commitment to good hygiene practices but a record that could help trace sources of new pests or weeds,” Dr Rolleston concluded.

The chairperson of the National Pest Control Agencies (NPCA), Bill Martyn, was delighted that Federated Farmers is enthusiastically backing Keep it Clean.

“This is a significant milestone for the NPCA in a number of ways as it was the first major publishing collaboration between Federated Farmers and the NPCA,” Bill Martyn added.

“We see this very much as stage one of a longer process. We want to see the adoption of standards by contractors being rewarded and that there is some real meaning and added value to the contractors and those who employ them.

“Keep it Clean is another tool in the pathway management of pests and unwanted organisms and in the development of biosecurity at the farm gate as a concept.

“Since many pest organisms currently occupy only a tiny fraction of their potential range it is incumbent upon farmers and contractors to be aware that they have an important role to play.

“Keep it Clean was developed by NPCA (National Pest Control Agencies) in collaboration with Local Government New Zealand, Rural Contractors New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries and Federated Farmers.

“It has strong industry buy in and commitment,” Mr Martyn concluded.
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