Preparations are well under way for the introduction of dung beetles into New Zealand in the belief that they will clean up our farms of cow crap. The beetles do this overseas, so why wouldn't they do it here where we have a serious problem with excessive manure in, on and under our landscapes, an unacceptable percentage of which makes its sloppy way into our rivers and lagoons. Who on earth would oppose the introduction of these seemingly useful insects? Not ERMA for a start, they've given it the no-holds-barred go-ahead. The dairy industry is clamouring for the beetles as well but there are those who want a more precautionary approach to be taken. They say progress toward the release of these new organisms has been to hasty and want a slow-down for the sake of the environment. Huge mistakes have been made before (rabbits any one? stoats, possums, gorse, broom, barberry .. it's a loooooong list of bio-security stuff-ups).
This article covers the objectors and their reasons for making waves, as well as the rationale put forward by the pro-beetle lobby. Both sides of the argument are worth following, imho.
Here's a sample from the article.
"Auckland Council, DOC and Auckland University were just some of the submitters that felt that we should take a more precautionary approach given our somewhat disastrous history of introductions.
Their concerns lay largely with the rushed nature of the proposal and a limited risk assessment of its effect on our 16 native dung beetles.
Entomologist Jacqueline Beggs who is behind Auckland University’s submission, says the dung beetles in New Zealand have largely been untouched by science, so we can’t predict the outcome of introducing new ones.
She – like others – is concerned that the foreign dung beetles could roam into forest verges and effectively push our native dung beetles out.
Or that they could irrevocably alter the structure and nature of fragile high-country soils. Rather than introducing a whole new swathe of beetles, Beggs believes that we should have carefully monitor our existing array of cow-pat eating dung beetles."
http://blog.forestandbird.org.nz/unfinished-business/
4 comments:
The problem is the type of liquid expelled that is only vaguely related to dung. If cows were fed the kind of diet that they evolved to eat then they would have woody dung that does not immediately run off. They would also produce a lot less milk per hectare.. The cow problem is linked to the grasses we grow. Lower digestible fibre less spray!
I'm with you on that Anonymous. The sight of a cow squirting is an embarrassment (even more so when their tail has been docked) and I struggle to understand how the beetle could hope to roll that soup into a sphere. Mind you, a good percentage of the sloooooopppppyyy stuff is eaten but the scarab, not rolled and secreted away. The urea-pumped-up grasses that cows are offered these days seems very unsustainable to me, in terms of cow health and soil integrity. Thanks goodness for palm kernel extract! (to avoid any confusion, I joke wryly)
why again rely on mother nature, by introducing foreign species, to fix a problem which clearly has been the result of humans stuffing up. ( again )
Stop the 'rot' by immediately introducing 5 meter wide or more reparian areas and get busloads of people employed to plant these areas.
Fencing off initially with hot wire until permanent fencing is in place.
It will be a costly affair but certain funds should be made available by the ones who are reaping the biggest benefit of the milk glut. (F#@$%%^A)...
Your 5 metre riparian strip idea would help Anonymous but Southland's tile-drains often deliver the percolated effluent straight to the waterbody without it getting the chance to be sucked-up by creek-side plants. It's a complex situation. Herd homes are the popular suggested solution these days - get the cows off the pasture and regain total control over their effluent. The urine from cows in the field is a major factor in pollution, especially the very concerning nitrate problem we have here. Not only that, nitrous oxide from the urine contributes the worst of the greenhouse gases. Wintering stock on brassicas is a very destructive practice, as is cultivation. I've long argued that it's idiotic to allow soil from farms to get to the rivers and wash out to sea or build up in our estuaries where it's feeding no one.
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