Local Land Services

Reporting flood damage
The primary industries natural disaster damage survey is an online survey Department of Primary Industries and Local Land Services staff, farmers and agricultural industry representatives can use to record damage to primary production and animals from natural disasters.
The damage survey allows you to record the number of crops, animals, infrastructure and other primary industries damaged in a single event, add photos to the assessment and see the severity of damage in your area. With the current floods, we are encouraging those impacted to submit a survey.

Your rates at work

It’s been another big year filled with challenges that affected many landholders and communities across the state. Through biosecurity threats, animal health alerts and emergency responses, we’re proud to be the boots on the ground delivering advice and services to you and your community.

Across the state in 2021-22 we:

• protected almost 59,000,000 ha of land through coordinated pest animal control programs
• conducted over 3,000 on-farm disease investigations
• protected more than 210,00 ha of land against priority weeds
• conducted over 1,000 plant pest disease inspections
• had 279 staff assisting with flood emergency responses

Your rates that are collected each year are 100% returned to you through these services which helps us, help you when you need it most.

Even though you may not have livestock, your property will have benefited from our services including our coordinated pest and weed control programs.

Under the Local Land Services Act 2013, we must charge rates on all land classified as rateable land under the Act. This is generally land 10 hectares or more in size (40 hectares in the Western region and 20 hectares in some parts of Murray and Riverina regions). Our rates are different to council rates charged under the Local Government Act 1993.  Rates contribute up to one fifth of Local Land Services operating budget.

Your rates notice will arrive in January, before then we encourage you to visit our dedicated rates portal to learn more about our rating process and the value you receive from the work we do – www.lls.nsw.gov.au/rates

Be aware of worm burdens in sheep

Sheep producers are being urged to look out for Barbers Pole Worm (BPW).
Sheep do not scour with BPW as they do with other worm burdens, often the first sign is sheep dying.

1. It takes about 21 days for the lifecycle of the worm, so about 3-6 weeks after the rain event is when we expect to see clinical signs in sheep.
2. BPW infestations can be detected by worm faecal egg counts and post-mortem of affected sheep.
3. Please do not reach straight for the drench gun - do a wormtest first – you can pick up a wormtest kit from the LLS office, collect some sheep poo and send it to the lab.
4. In a few days, you’ll know if your sheep are wormy enough to need a drench.
5. Integrated control programs, including paddock management, monitoring and quarantine drenching, can help reduce the negative impacts of BPW.

Speak to your local vet, agricultural advisor to help develop a comprehensive BPW management program.

Pneumonia – in summer?

In sheep, the infection is usually initiated by Mycoplasma bacteria or parainfluenza virus, which damages the respiratory tract enough to allow other bacteria to invade the lungs and cause serious disease. Any underlying stress can make the sheep more susceptible to severe disease. Stress can include sudden changes in weather, dust, transport, time off feed, mixing of mobs and sudden dietary changes. Sometimes the first sign that is noticed in young sheep is an increased number of rectal prolapses.

Diagnosis is usually based on a post-mortem examination by your veterinarian, who will often request further lab testing to identify the bacteria involved and the most appropriate antibiotic to use. If animals are severely affected, antibiotics are generally prescribed. In severe cases there may be permanent damage to the lung which may reduce the animal’s performance longer term.

The situation is similar in cattle, in that environmental stressors such as yarding, weaning, transport and mixing with other cattle, weaken the immune system, allowing viruses and then bacteria to colonise the lungs. For this reason, Bovine Respiratory disease is most commonly seen when cattle are sold through saleyards or introduced to a feedlot. These combined stresses (transport, time off feed, new diet and mixing of mobs) ticks most of the “stressful event” boxes. Clinical signs include standing apart from the mob, reluctance to move, standing with head and neck outstretched, coughing, and discharge from the nose and eyes.

Your veterinarian can usually diagnose Bovine Respiratory Disease by examining the affected animals or performing a post mortem examination on dead animals, accompanied by lab tests to determine suitable antibiotics.

The mainstay of pneumonia prevention is reducing handling in hot dusty yards, transport and mixing with other livestock. Minimising time off feed and introducing new diets gradually can help. Reducing dust and fines in feed is important. Several vaccinations for respiratory disease are available and it is best to consult your veterinarian to discuss a vaccination program suitable for your enterprise.

Weed watch | Fireweed

Fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis) is a weed of national significance that reduces productivity in pastures, is difficult to control, and is poisonous to livestock. Fireweed invades pastures and disturbed areas along the Australian east coast from Victoria to central Queensland. In New South Wales it is mostly invasive to coastal regions and is spreading into the central tablelands along the eastern boundary of the region.

In the central tablelands fireweed has been recorded in the Kanimbla and Bylong Valleys. Fireweed thrives in overgrazed pastures and is adaptable to most soil types. Across the region we are working to contain the spread of fireweed from these areas and are encouraging landholders who suspect that they have fireweed on their property outside of the Kanimbla and Bylong Valleys to contact their local council weed biosecurity officer.

Leaves are bright green that are smooth, toothed or lobed on the edges that run alternate along the stems. Flowers are small and yellow which may look daisy like and can have up to 15 petals that come in clusters at the ends of branches. Each plant can produce up to 18,000 seeds.

Wind spreads the light, hairy seeds but the seeds can be spread other ways including contaminated hay, silage and grain products, by livestock, birds and other animals or by sticking on clothing, vehicles or machinery.

We would encourage you to report any findings of fireweed in the central tablelands to your local council weed biosecurity officer. For further information on how to control this weed can be found at NSW WeedWise (weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fireweed) or by contacting your local council weed biosecurity officer.

Speak my Language - Capertee Rest Stop Activation Project launch!

For the last 12 months, we have been busy working with Birdlife Australia and Lithgow City Council on a novel approach to communicating with the community about a critically endangered species which is important to our region, the Regent Honeyeater. It’s not always easy to engage with people outside out normal channels, and we wanted to explore a new approach to tell as many people as possible about the plight of the Regent Honeyeater.

Located in the village of Capertee, the Clarence Pirie Memorial Park (a.k.a Capertee rest stop), is a busy and popular stop for people travelling to/from Mudgee and Dubbo. It’s also located close to the Capertee Valley, which is significant habitat for the Regent Honeyeater. It was the perfect location to try our a new approach. 

Fast forward and the rest stop now contains a Regent Honeyeater birdsong soundscape in the toilet cubicles, a 5m long Regent Honeyeater mural and interpretive signage. We had the official launch on Friday, with a community BBQ and picnic in the park, and of course, a ribbon cutting! It was very well received by the community using the park. The mural is absolutely beautiful and the soundscape makes the whole experience unique.
Image: Vivien Howard from Central Tablelands LLS and Jenny McCraken, mural artist.

Don't miss a beat!

If you’re an avid NRM enthusiast, landcarer, awesome farmer, or just like rivers, trees and soil, you might have noticed that Central Tablelands Local Land Services always has a jamn-packed schedule of events, workshops and field days that you can attend. The next six months is no exception. To keep you in the loop, and make sure you don’t miss a good deal or opportunity, we’re hoping to gauge your interest in attending our upcoming events over the next 6 months.

Some of the things we have coming up in the next few months include a Blue Mountains Perch information session at Glen Davis, a weed management workshop at Oberon, and we’re launching some Central Tablelands specific riparian revegetation guidelines.

So, if you’d like to receive NRM specific information about upcoming events, please click the button below and tell us what you’re interested in. We’ll only contact you about the themes and topics you’re interested in.

Fungus Connections: Farming, Biodiversity & Foods

Mycology May is a collaboration with Central Tablelands Local Land Services and Central Tablelands Regional Landcare Network.

Most people don’t think fungi when they think about farming soils, food, and biodiversity, yet fungi are present and necessary in so many aspects of everyday life. Join us to make Fungus connections and get more understanding of fungus and their importance to: farming soils, composting, biodiversity, foods, plant health and future uses.

We’ll be hosting workshops on soils, fungi in focus, fungus surveys, and various food topics: kombucha making, cheese talk and tasting, and more. There will be events throughout the month of May, but pencil in the second week of May for our confirmed speakers below with more still to be confirmed.

Once you register your interest you will receive a survey on areas of interest and Mycology May updates. If you have any questions, please contact:

• Liz Davis Regional Ag Landcare Facilitator liz.davis@lls.nsw.gov.au 0427 452 662
• Corey Tatz Central Tablelands Regional Landcare co-ordinator centraltablelandsrlc@gmail.com 0405 251 491

Making the most of that bulk spring growth

Firstly, look at the goals/targets for your livestock and pastures. Do you need them to improve in weight/condition/fatness. Secondly, assess the quality of this pasture. What is the amount of green vs dead in the pasture, is the green present as leaf or stem and how much legume content is in the pasture? Or you can do some pasture cuts and send a sample off to find out the feed quality. Generally, the feed test results we have been getting of late have been lower quality than what I would normally expect, and this is a result of the large amount of growth. This poor quality is being supported by reports from several producers who have seen a reduction in livestock performance.

• Sheep will generally pick the best of the best in a paddock and will find all the green and legume to be found. For this reason, along with a couple of others, generally there is no benefit of protein supplementation with sheep. They really require an energy supplement like grain if the goal is to improve performance or if they are in the late stages of pregnancy or early lactation. 
• Cattle do not have the ability to be as selective as sheep. So, there are different options. Feeding an energy supplement will also give increased performance but will cause feeding substitution, where cattle will eat less dry feed and more supplement. With cattle, they can be fed a protein supplement.  By doing this, cattle can increase consumption of poorer quality dry feeds by 14-24 percent. Feeding a protein supplement increases the animal’s appetite and enables them to eat more. This leads to increased intake, which improves performance.

In the last few years there have been properties where all the above methods of protein supplementation have been used successfully, though some have had mixed results. Producers need to work out the cost of the protein and what they are trying to do to get their animals to increase in weight, maintain weight or to control weight loss. Blocks are satisfactory at minimising weight loss but are not very cost efficient as you are paying a lot for convenience. Making your own blocks can minimise the cost.

There are several different types of dry licks. They can be used to both minimise weight loss and to promote some weight gain. Dry licks with grain or protein meals as a base product will tend to promote some weight gain through the energy content of this feed. Dry licks can be known to achieve weight gains of up to 0.8kg/head/day with steers. (People seeking dry lick recipes can contact me.)

Protein meals are generally where the best results have been seen. Most of these meals have very high energy contents (some as high as grain) as well as supplying very high protein levels (22-50%). Most protein meals are safe with very few risks, the only exception to this is soya bean meal when it is not fed regularly enough.

Before using any of these products producers need to work out what they want to do and what targets they have for their livestock. Then you need to sit down and work out the cost and your need of convenience.

Office closure over December and January  

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 🎁🎄 

We will be taking a short break over the holiday period and will be closed from 4.30 pm Friday 23 December and will be back on deck on Monday 9 January 2022.  

So, if you’ve got any enquiries until then, get in touch on 1300 795 299 or use our online enquiry form! www.lls.nsw.gov.au/contact 

From everyone at Local Land Services, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll see you all again in 2023! 

EOI for PROGRAZE® Courses
(closes Jan 16)

PROGRAZE® develops skills in pasture and animal assessment, teaching skills to improve the productivity and sustainability of your grazing systems. 
Find out more here. 

Environmental Innovation and Sustainability awards ceremony

Held at the Botanical Gardens in Orange, the awards ceremony will be held Friday 31 March 2023, from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Register for this event.

Beneficial Insects - Predators in pest management

There are many insect and spider predators in our ecosystems who are more than happy to join us in the fight against insect pests. Hear from Dr Lizzy Lowe (Cesar Australia) about a range of different predators, including spiders, ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and hoverflies, and how we can support them in our agricultural systems.

16 February 2023. Book now

Our mailing address is: PO Box 31 Mudgee NSW 2850   Copyright © 2022 Local Land Services, All rights reserved. The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing. However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that the information upon which they rely is up to date and to check the currency of the information with the appropriate officer of Local Land Services or the user’s independent adviser. For updates go to www.lls.nsw.gov.au