Biosecurity planning: make it work for you

With more than a century of breeding underpinning their ‘Bald Blair’ genetics, Angus seedstock producers Sam and Kirsty White understand how critical a biosecurity plan is to the future of their New England stud.

The Whites understand that an effective biosecurity plan isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it needs to respond to the specific needs of individual producers.

“Having a biosecurity plan means we’ve identified and documented all the risks that are really specific to our circumstances and have been able to assess them properly,” Sam said.

Setting priorities

The primary goal of the Whites’ biosecurity plan is protecting their well-established stud from a biosecurity breach, whatever the cost.

With cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease being reported in Indonesia in recent years, biosecurity is top of mind for the Whites.

“My family started building the Bald Blair genetics more than a hundred years ago and FMD finding its way into our herd would kill that bloodline and bring an end to our business pretty quickly,” Sam said.

“That’s a pretty specific risk for us. It wouldn’t be a case of restocking after something like that so we had to think about how we would survive if something like that happened, so we created an embryo bank to mitigate the risk of losing that bloodline in the worst-case scenario.”

Learning from experience

After experiencing a Pestivirus breach around 20 years ago, the couple learned the hard way how important having a biosecurity plan can be.

After destocking their commercial herd in 2019, the Whites have spent the years since rebuilding it in order to rebalance the diversity in their income streams and reduce their risk exposure.

“After that breach, we have a fully vaccinated herd, with our biosecurity plan ensuring our breeders are routinely vaccinated for Pestivirus, Leptospirosis and Vibriosis.”

“We’ve recently started buying in some trading stock but these are kept well away from the main property at Bald Blair,” Sam said. “We’ve got four properties around Guyra, so we send any stock we buy in to one of our other properties and keep them well away from the stud,” Sam said.

Maintaining strong boundaries

However, Sam acknowledges vaccines are never 100% effective and to further mitigate the risk of disease, they focus on ensuring their fences provide adequate protection for their herd.

“With four properties, we have 20 or so neighbours that we share boundaries with,” Sam said. “If one of our animals gets into somebody else's place, I automatically work on the assumption it's picked up Pestivirus,” Sam said.

“But it could also be as simple as someone else’s infected livestock making contact with our cattle on the fence to transfer saliva or urine,” Sam said.

Rather than simply double-fence their boundary, the Whites have renewed it with a big stand out of electricity to create a buffer and future reduce the risk of possible contamination.

"Unless you've had a breach, I don’t think you ever really understand why this is so important. I'm taking these precautions not because I have to do it as part of the LPA accreditation, but because I’ve got to do it in order to protect the future of our business.”

Record keeping

As LPA-accredited producers, the Whites maintain the necessary records to demonstrate the work they’re doing to ensure they’re meeting their biosecurity responsibilities.

“With the biosecurity plan, everything is documented and you’re making sure every animal is individually identified, and that every treatment, vaccine or booster is recorded,” Sam said. “That’s important to our stud business because our bulls are marketed as being ImmuneReady.

“We’re also providing the Animal Health Statement with every sale and, if people want it, we can give them the whole of life treatment for that animal as well.”

The traceability those records provide is a valuable safety net for the Whites and play an important role in the industry’s ability to rapidly respond to disease outbreaks if they occur.

Making sure your feed is LPA compliant

Fodder also presents a potential biosecurity risk and all LPA-accredited livestock producers must guarantee their animals haven't been exposed to contaminated feed.

Since the disruptions and difficulties caused by the COVID pandemic, the Whites have taken care to find a reputable feed supplier with whom they’ve built a solid relationship over the past few years.

“We can’t take the risk that a weed or contaminated feed gets in here, so we found a supplier who can give us that certainty and provide a Commodity Vendor Declaration for any fodder we’re buying.”

Read the ISC factsheet and checklist for Stock foods, fodder crops, grain and pasture treatments. 

Weed management

The transfer of weeds is another biosecurity risk the Whites are trying to mitigate, given some problematic weeds like Parthenium and Chilean Needlegrass have sprung up around the district.

“A biosecurity plan isn’t going to stop every risk, but if we have the signs on our gate people are generally going to be more aware and our contractors understand they have to come in on clean vehicles.”

“That's more work for them obviously, but we make it clear that's the rule and if they’re prepared to wash their vehicles properly, they know we’ll give them steady work each year – so it’s a trade-off that benefits everyone.”