Victorian crop growers on the lookout for mice

Victorian Farmers Federation grains group councillor Christine Plant said there had been increased mice activity on her own farm near Manangatang, particularly mice holes in grain bags.

Ms Plant said cereals were harvested with a stripper front which gave the mice more shelter.

"We would possibly look at baiting before seeding, five to six weeks before," she said.

"And then we'll bait certain paddock at seeding time, just depending on mouse numbers."

She had baited prior to and at seeding time in the past and it had worked well.

Birchip Cropping Group senior operations manager Kelly Angel said ground cover and the amount of food remaining from last year's harvest were the key factors in determining whether mice would be a problem.

Ms Angel said monitoring by CSIRO researcher Steve Henry had shown patchy areas where numbers may be slightly higher, but it was not expected to be a problem to the same extent as in NSW.

"I think some of the monitoring Steve did, he was getting up to 300 active burrows a hectare," she said.

"It's cause for keeping an eye out and people probably will need to take action during their sowing program, which I think they'll do anyway.

"There might be isolated patches where they might need to consider a bit of management prior to sowing where the numbers may be a bit higher.

"I think the growers around here are keeping an eye on the situation but it's certainly not panic-stations at this point."

She said baiting remained the only control method available for growers.

"I think that's why it's such a problem for the guys where they're having major issues, is you're constantly feeling like you're throwing bait out and maybe not getting the results because the population can build so quickly," she said.

"Also if they get a taste and get a little bit sick they can be a bit bait averse."

Ms Angel said the winter months were expected to slow the growth and activity of many populations but it was important growers did not drop their guard.

"Winter certainly does help keep them in check but if you've got populations that do over winter you can get that spring outbreak, so you probably need to still be watching what's going on," she said.

There was some activity around Birchip itself, she said, with come people in town commenting on higher than usual numbers.

It comes as NSW Farmers called for an Emergency Use Permit be issued for Zinc Phosphide to treat seed.

NSW Farmers president James Jackson said grain growers had grave concerns about the winter crop planting season.