Nhill farmers travel to the coast to learn handling white snail infestation

Steve Pilgrim, Nhill, said the group of 14 farmers loved the three-day trip and returned to their farms with valuable insights to help their pest problem.

The Wimmera farmers all have faced challenges with white snails, or cernuella spp, on their farms and in their grain.

"Most of us came away with more knowledge than we started with," Mr Pilgrim said.

"We figured out we're not using nearly enough bait."

The trip involved visits to Yorke Peninsula farmers and experts including Sam Trengove, Mark Shilling, Kinsgway Welding which make rollers and crushers, Adam Cook, Craig Davis, Alex Lister, and Tim Gurney who spoke on new T-Ports in South Australia.

"The first morning we went to an agronomist and he talked about soil and amelioration and liming," Mr Pilgrim said.

"One fella we went to, he said his snail bill was $75,000 for the year and had to put all his grain through the roller mill.

"There was another young bloke who had the novel idea of harvesting his cereal crop with a stripper front.

"It plucks the heads off the straw and because it's spinning so fast it crushes the snails."

Tour organiser and Nhill farmer Rodney Bound said they also learnt about pH in soils, chemical use and resistance on the tour, among other topics.

He said the SA farmers discovered growing lentils lowered snail populations in the region because of fungicide use.

"They were still harvesting - when the snails go through the header, they raise the moisture of everything," he said.

"The tour was a real shock to everyone, we don't want them to get out of hand like they've got over there.

"Some of them don't know any different, some have never delivered to a grain site without putting it through a crusher."

He said one of the SA farmers worked with 35 tonnes of snail and slug bait, while the Wimmera farmers were using half-tonne numbers.

"We've got some snails - they have millions," he said.

"The baiting we did last year we got lucky and got our timing right, if we can do that again in the right spots we're certainly keeping them at bay."