On-farm biosecurity planning tips

Farm biosecurity is a set of measures to protect your property from pests, diseases, and weeds, and to prevent their spread.

Pests, diseases, and weeds can enter your property through people, animals, equipment, and vehicles.

By following simple rules, you can help reduce the risk of this occurring. 

Everyone has a role in farm biosecurity, including people working on the farm or just visiting. 

Find out how you can reduce the risk by implementing a farm biosecurity plan. This will help you meet your General Biosecurity Duty in NSW.

Make a farm biosecurity plan

All farms in NSW should implement a farm biosecurity management plan.  

A farm biosecurity plan:

• outlines measures and actions for protecting biosecurity
• helps reduce or mitigate risks from pests, weeds and diseases
• should be tailored to your property, as biosecurity risks vary
• is crucial during an emergency animal disease outbreak
• helps you identify, prioritise, and implement the right practices for your property.

Farm biosecurity doesn’t have to be hard. A simple, tailored biosecurity plan can help protect your farm business. 

There are templates that can help you quickly and easily establish a farm biosecurity plan. These include the Animal Health Australia template.

Watch our video on the essentials of a farm biosecurity plan

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Farm biosecurity planning - the essentials of a farm biosecurity plan

I'm a veterinarian based here in the Bathurst office of Local Land Services.

I work with livestock producers in the region with the other veterinarians in

my team who are based at Cowra Molong Orange and Mudgee.

A Farm Biosecurity plan is real it's a plan to work out how you as a farmer will

avoid introducing biosecurity threats and the biosecurity threats are

diseases of livestock pests or weeds. So how are you going to avoid introducing

those onto your farm? 

But also as part of a biosecurity plan you've got broader

obligations and how you might uh

be part of our our whole biosecurity

approach preventing emergency animal

diseases in national threats like foot and

mouth disease and lumpy skin disease for

example - how we might work together as an

industry so that can be part of your

plan as well the easiest way to do it.

And what I've done personally because

I've got a farm is to use a template

and there's a number of templates

available. The one I've chosen is Animal

Health Australia and so that's my farm

biosecurity plan I got from

the Animal Health Australia template and

what's good about that is it prompts you

with a whole heap of questions about

things that you may or may have not

thought about. The key components are

first of all details about your property,

details about who your veterinarian is,

details about the emergency animal

disease hotline, who is your local animal

health officer

and then it goes through Farm inputs and

how do you avoid

biosecurity threats with your farm

inputs. Then it talks about Farm outputs,

how do you avoid transmitting a

biosecurity threat to somebody else.

People, vehicles and equipment obviously

they're a biosecurity risk potentially.

So how do you deal with that how do you

think about that. Feral animals and weeds.

What's your plan for those for your

property and for the region and finally

planning and recording and training, all

important parts of a plan as well. So

they're the key components of this

particular plan and I think as I've

looked at others they've got a very

similar structure, similar

requirements.

The first and most important thing is to

make sure that your livestock are fully

traceable and you've got your records of

National livestock identification all up

to date. That's really important because

traceability is really important. You

also need to be able to think if we do

have an emergency animal disease how you

might look after quarantine, feed your

animals. In that case if you're wanting

to prevent the introduction of weeds and

pests, first thing is making sure your

boundary fences are stockproof and in

a plan you should comment on how you're

going to maintain your boundary fences.

You also need to have a plan for

introduced livestock because you want to

be careful that you don't introduce

diseases with livestock that you bring

in you've also got to be have a plan for

introduce grain and fodder because you

don't want to introduce weeds and pests

with with grain and fodder either.

The good thing about this template is

that it prompts you with with all of

these questions so things that I didn't

think of as I went through the the

template like where how do you dispose

of rubbish. For example how do you

dispose of old batteries.

Where do you keep

um fodder. How do you control the access

of visitors and vehicles. They're all

things that are really important for a

farmer to consider. And farmers will when

they're looking at a plan like this

with a template, they will think oh that

reminds me and they will be able to

make specific comments or specific uh

they'll find specific recommendations

that'll that'll that'll fit their their

circumstances so I think the easy way of

doing it and the most comprehensive way

is to go through a checklist

provided by a template.

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Key considerations when making a biosecurity plan

Use a self-assessment checklist to help you identify your property's biosecurity strengths and weaknesses.

Think about each of these aspects of farm biosecurity as you start to plan:

• Farm inputs and outputs. For example, feeds (particularly purchased), animals and seed, fertilisers, chemicals, water supplies and drainage waters.
• People, vehicles and equipment. This includes appropriate signage, vehicle and equipment hygiene, movement of people to and from your farm.
• Production practices. For example, the use of irrigation and drainage waters, fences, vaccination and drenching programs, chemical applications, crop and animal health monitoring.
• Feral animals and weeds. Wild and feral animals can mix with your own stock, spread disease, and contaminate feed and water. Weeds in their own right can pose significant biosecurity risks.
• Train, plan and record. Have good systems in place. Record stock movements. Ensure staff and family members are well trained in husbandry, management and recognising diseases, so they know what to look out for. Be vigilant and report anything suspicious.

Tailor your plan

The farm biosecurity management practices you choose to use will vary from site to site. 

There is no one size fits all approach.

In tailoring your biosecurity management plan think about:

• the size of your property
• the physical facilities available
• climate and
• the day-to-day management of your operations.

Biosecurity should become a habit if you build your plan around daily, monthly or yearly farm routines.

Set up biosecurity zones or ‘checkpoints' 

Use a map of your property to guide you in setting up biosecurity zones or checkpoints.

Think about how you can minimise the risk of introducing diseases, pests and weed seeds at each checkpoint.

These zones or checkpoints could include:

• signs at entrances to the property preventing or directing access
• parking areas near the house or site office
• where deliveries are picked up or dropped off in relation to storage facilities
• vehicle wash-down areas, and
• existing roads or tracks for movement within the property.

Adopt good farm hygiene and husbandry practices 

Many pests, weeds and diseases can be carried onto your property via dirt, manure, feed and equipment.

Adopt the approach "Come clean-go clean!" for vehicles, footwear, equipment and machinery.

To check if your current farm biosecurity plan hygiene practices are up to date see the AUSVETPlan Decontamination Manual. This has the latest information on decontamination procedures and recommended disinfectants.

Consider people coming onto your farm. Have they been on other farms recently? Refer to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for the latest advice to overseas travellers.

Plan to reduce vectors

There are several vectors that spread farm biosecurity threats. Make sure that your biosecurity plan:

• helps identify these potential pathways, and
• provides adequate mitigation methods to protect your farm.

High-risk vectors include:

• Feeding prohibited food to pigs (swill).
• Biting insects such as mosquitoes, ticks and biting flies — Learn how to reduce their breeding sites.
• Feral animals — Get the latest advice on pest management programs in your area.

Use biosecurity signage

A biosecurity sign at the entrance to your property or at designated quarantine areas ensures visitors and contractors know  

• that a Biosecurity Management Plan is in place
• who to contact before entering designated areas.

Biosecurity signs are available from your Local Land Services offices. Contact our customer service team to arrange collection from your nearest regional office. Biosecurity officers are also available to help you with advice on establishing an on-farm biosecurity plan.

Monitor new and returning stock 

Ensure that your farm biosecurity plan sets quarantine periods for:

• new stock, and
• your own stock returning to your property from agricultural shows, agistment and other off-site activities.

There are recommended and minimum quarantine periods to reduce the risk of introducing an infectious disease, pest or weed onto your property.

When purchasing new livestock, always request an Animal Health Declaration (AHD) with your national vendor declaration. Download AHDs free from Farm Biosecurity.

All livestock that are moved onto your property must be transferred on the national livestock identification system (NLIS) database onto your property identification code (PIC) within 2 days.

Read more about stock movements

Access training

Courses for producers include online emergency animal disease training from Animal Health Australia (AHA).

• The Emergency Animal Disease Foundation Course outlines how a response would be managed in Australia and gives you a great overview.
• The Foot-And-Mouth Disease Awareness Protecting your Livelihood and Community Course emphasises everyone’s role in preventing, reporting and responding to foot-and-mouth disease.

For more information and to register see AHA website.

Remember it’s important to keep training records.

Plan for emergencies 

Prepare for an emergency animal disease event on your farm, in the region or in the country.

Use the knowledge gained through the AHA emergency animal disease training, NSW DPI and Local Land Services websites.

To review or create your plan use the Farm Biosecurity website toolkit.

Practice makes perfect. You’ll be surprised how many things you learn through this process.

Ensure livestock traceability 

Help us to help you! 

• If you have cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, bison, buffalo, deer, camelids, equines (such as a horse or donkey) and poultry (100 or more), you need to register for a Property Identification Code.
• Ensure you submit your Annual Land and Stock Return by 31 August every year (even if you don’t have any animals). 

Get support and updates from Local Land Services

Our district veterinarians and biosecurity officers are there to support you.  We provide guidance and assistance to maintain or improve the health and productivity of livestock.

Contact us using the details below on this page.

Watch our video introduction on farm biosecurity planning:

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Video transcript

Farm biosecurity planning to protect against pests, weeds and diseases

I'm a senior biosecurity officer with

Central Tablelands Local Land Services

and I'm based in the Cowra office. 

I assist farmers to manage their pest animals

and also conduct a wide range of

compliance activities for the

Biosecurity Act and across public land

as well.

In my role in the Central Tablelands I

help farmers by giving pest animal

advice and supplying tools to help

farmers manage pest animals and the

risks that they pose on their property, and

also have a role to play in emergency

responses such as natural disasters or

biosecurity responses.

And I also help our district

veterinarians with their disease

surveillance activities and compliance

in places like the sale yards.

A biosecurity plan is a way of you

writing down every action that you're

going to take to reduce the risk of pest

weeds and diseases and other biosecurity

risks to your farming operation.

You can also use it as proof that you

are maintaining Health across your

farming operation for things like Market

access and quality insurance programs so

at the end of the day this means that

farmers can maintain their Market access

with livestock and crop exports. It also

helps Australia maintain our reputation

as being clean and relatively disease

free. Having a biosecurity plan allows

you to keep tabs on what you should be

doing at different times of the year and

assigning those tasks to specific people.

So a great example is who's going to

ring up your local biosecurity officer

to order Fox baits ahead of Spring and

Autumn landing and knowing when to do it

so that you get the best outcome and

reduce pest numbers.

The best thing that farmers can do is

work with your neighbors to conduct Pest

Management in a coordinated and

strategic way and so getting information

and advice from your local biosecurity

officer and taking that back and

implementing it across the landscape is

going to get you the best result to

reduce pest numbers. Conducting regular

surveillance and keeping in contact with

your local weeds by security officer at

Council helps you stay across what you

should be looking out for, what

widespread weeds and what are new

incursions and how best to manage them.

So farmers should keep familiar with

what pest animals are about in the area

and then keep an eye out for signs or

the pests themselves and learn about how

best to control them. And we can give

advice that's on a case by case basis on

what's going to be the most effective to

you. And upskill you so that you can

manage them effectively.

Having a biosecurity plan allows you to

have a list of actions that you will put

in place when you're managing your stock.

So an example of that is when you get

new stock in having a quarantining

regime in there such as keeping them

excluded from your other livestock for

at least four weeks and incorporating a

quarantine drench so farmers can do a

wide range of very simple actions and

include them in your plan so things like

'come clean go clean',

using the same vehicle, or your own

vehicle when people come onto the

property to go through your paddocks and

also quarantining new livestock for up

to four weeks just to monitor for pests

and diseases. And if you do notice

something unusual calling a district

veterinarian to get it checked out.

In your biosecurity plan you should have

your local LLS number, your District vets

number and also the emergency animal

disease hotline number. If you notice

something unusual it's really important

to get in contact and a district

veterinarian can give you advice or

conduct testing to make sure that it's

not an exotic disease and give you

management advice on how to maintain a

healthy flock. All Farmers have a duty to

reduce the risk of pest weeds and

diseases across their operations and

they also have the obligation to prove

that they are being active and

maintaining that general biosecurity

duty.

The reason I work for LLS is because

it's a very customer focused role and I

love engaging with my local community

and also getting outcomes that have a

genuine positive effect for biosecurity

and for our industry that I can see

around me.

 

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The Better Biosecurity newsletter email series provides: 

• guidance on how to maintain a biosecure farm and maintain the health of your animals
• regular tips to help you assess and manage your biosecurity risks
• information on how to put together a biosecurity plan
• information on how animal diseases and pests can cost the economy, how to stop the spread of disease when visitors come around, how to properly clean your footwear and set up a biosecurity kit.

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Case study insights 

Farm biosecurity for new landholders

If you are a new landholder, now is the time to establish solid biosecurity practices to protect your land, livestock and neighbours.

By proactively learning and applying biosecurity practices, you can contribute to a resilient agricultural sector. Learn more through local agricultural providers, workshops and experienced farmers in your area. 

Watch this video to get insights from a new producer in Bathurst NSW.

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Building a strong biosecurity foundation: Insights from a new producer - 'Alloway Grange', Bathurst

I like to say I'm a reformed lawyer. We

bought here and moved here in April 2021

and I run the farm here so it's my

business. I have cattle and sheep so I

run a herd of herefords, a herd of Angus

and the Merino ewes here which are having

little crossbred lambs at the moment

and it's a great enterprise, I love it.

One of the things that I did was I

bought two Highland cattle to steers

pretty early on, so I've had them for I

think about 18 months and I bought them

when they were little carves and they

are just the best. They are called Mungo

and McDuff because they're Scottish and

they are the best friends of the bull.

So they live in The Paddock with the

bull when he's not out at work and

they're just mental and hilarious and

they are obsessed with lucern so if I

walk past them they'll see me and start

crying and so I have to hand feed them

lucern and then they're fine.

I just want to make sure that I do a

really good job because the animals they

rely on me

to live so I'm mindful of that

responsibility as well and also to

think

if you're a farmer

and you're in an area where there are a

lot of farms like there are up here you

should do a good job, you've

got to do the right thing by the

community that you're living in as well.

With the biosecurity it was really

important for me to maintain

the integrity of the farm because I

really wanted to make sure that my

animals were healthy they weren't

picking up any diseases from anywhere

whether it was being brought in once I

purchased them or from external factors.

So one of the first things we did, my

farm manager and I, was we put in

biosecurity fences on all of the

perimeters

of the property. And in particular our

neighbor here who was a Stock Station

Agent often has a lot of cattle and a

lot of sheep coming through from The

Yards he holds and then sells so he's

got a huge movement of different kinds

of animals all the time. So I was really

mindful that I didn't want any Crossover

with his animals and mine so that fence

was the first one I put in. We're in the

process of putting in plants so we'll

also have a foliage boundary so

Wattles natives as well as trees

so that will the idea is that that'll

give shade and it'll give food for

wildlife and shelter for wildlife around

here as well as protecting our stock

with the monitoring. I make sure that

I speak to I know whoever is coming to

the farm firstly that's the most

important thing we're lucky where we're

located because we don't have a lot of

traffic that comes here without

specifically coming here as the

destination so I don't have a lot of

through traffic visiting other Farms so

anyone that's coming here I know who

they are for a start so I know where

they're coming from.

I make sure that they turn up and their

vehicles are clean. I usually make them

meet me here at the yards or even up at

the house near the shed where I've got a

hose there and clean their vehicles,

clean, you know shoes and

other things that you know might be

trekking in outside germs.

As far as new animals if I do buy stock

obviously they're always delivered to

the yards for the start. I'll drench

and I'll vaccinate irrespective of

whether I know or I've been told that

they've been drenched or vaccinated by

the vendor. I'll still do it here and

I'll quarantine the animals usually for

two weeks from the rest of my stock in

another Paddock.

So that way I can monitor you know fecal

content and physical signs, if they've,

you know, look like they've got any kind

of respiratory illnesses I'll know. So I

always keep them separate for a minimum

of two weeks.  The LLS website is

fantastic so I've signed up for every

single alert that I can get from

anywhere so I spend, I like to set aside

probably about one or two hours a week

just reading through catching up on

things. You know reading The Land for

example,

website alerts like email alerts

anything like that. I just like to always

be you know be informed and also my farm

manager who's a local guy.

He's fantastic. He's just such a wealth

of knowledge. People generally I think

want to help you and so I think if

you're new and you don't know and you

admit that you don't know, just ask the

questions and I think you're amazed at

the help and the enormous knowledge bank

that is here that

you know you can access very easily and

I think the LLS do such an outstanding

job for people like me who are coming from a

position of you know no knowledge, very helpful they certainly everyone

I've ever dealt with has just been so

gracious with their time and kind and

generous with the information it just it

makes my job so much easier that I know

that I've just got this fantastic

Storehouse of knowledge that I can

access whenever I need it and

I just think the LLS did just such an

outstanding job.

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Farm biosecurity for market access

Following a biosecurity plan is crucial for producers to: 

• prevent the introduction and spread of diseases, weeds and pests that could harm their livestock and products
• protect their brand reputation and the reputation of Australian livestock industries with international markets
• provide consumer trust, and
• reduce the risk of productivity and financial losses.

A well-executed biosecurity plan is a proactive investment in the long-term success of the business and the sustainability of the agricultural industry.

Megan Halcroft manages a sheep stud in Hampton and uses her biosecurity planning to maintain her brand and access to marketing. 

Australia livestock producers have an enviable reputation as producers of high quality clean and green products.

Watch this video about her biosecurity planning to better understand its value and implementation for market access.

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Securing success: The importance of biosecurity for livestock - 'Hampton Springs', Hampton

My name's Megan Halcroft and we're here

at Hampton Springs Hampton Springs

Australian white sheep stud and we have

a stud because our property is only

quite small,

you can't really make any money as a

commercial grower, but

thinking outside the box is what enabled

me to establish a stud, and it's, it's

only small but we've sold a good deal of

flock Rams to to commercial growers in

the area also as far down as Swan Hill,

um and people have been very happy with

them. The genetics are young

the breeds young and that that means

there's so much more that we can achieve

with this wonderful breed so I love it. 

We use very few chemicals on the animals,

we don't use herbicides or pesticides, we

don't use synthetics fertilizers.

I plant extra floral resources for our

native bees. I'm a native bee nerd

and so we're trying to provide extra

habitat, extra floral resources for our

native pollinators

in order to

guarantee the quality of the stud stock

that you're selling to commercial or

stud growers.

You need to be able to guarantee that

they are disease pest or disease free

so having a biosecurity print plan is

really important so that you can

actually look at the potential problems

that might be might occur and then

actually address those potential

problems. So as far as accreditation is

concerned we're brucellosis accredited

and to ensure that animals don't carry

that bacteria and then transfer it to

anybody I sell to, we have a vet come in

and they palpate the the testes of all

Rams and they take Bloods from any Ram

over 10 months old that ensures that our

animals are safe to sell to any

commercial grower.

Practices we put in place are signage at

the front of of the property so that

there is a phone number that people can

contact me through. Gates that are locked

are not locked but latched so that

people can't just walk in and out, drive

in and out, anybody who visited visits. We

ensure that they have clean boots,

same with vehicles. If they bring their

vehicles on property it's just outside

the home paddock gauge and that they

stay there.

Um,

extenuating circumstances, you know you

ensure that their their tires are clean

that they haven't been out bush in some

you know chili and needle grass paddock

or something like that.

To ensure that we have the latest information I go to

websites such as the MLA LLS DPI

and also other state government

websites.

I also look at research

peer-reviewed papers

and of course the local farmers who

are experienced in this in this area so

much more experience than me. But it is

really important that you establish a

protocol that you ensure that it's put

in place and and that means that the

product that you're selling to the

public is as safe and as higher quality

as it could possibly be.

LLS has been amazing, I am a bit of a

nerd. I seek out knowledge

and as soon as I found out that I could

go to workshops and learn stuff.

I went to everyone. I had learned so much

and they can't teach you absolutely

everything but at least you get the

knowledge that you then can go on and do

some more research.

With knowledge, you have to

have some knowledge to be able to ask

the questions.