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Breed your own dung beetles for the health of your soil and fields

  • 1.  Breed your own dung beetles for the health of your soil and fields

    Posted 02-02-2023 12:38
    A group of East Gippsland farmers are learning how to trap dung beetles and build the nurseries needed to breed them.

    Dung beetles clear grazing pastures of dung, incorporating nutrients and helping water permeate into the soil. However, as different dung beetle species are active at different times of the year, you need to learn how to have year-round beetles.

    "If you think about the classic sheep or cattle property, there's a lot of dung being produced every day," Russ Barrow, workshop presenter and researcher at Eco Insects, said. "If it weren't for the dung beetles that dung would remain on the surface and wouldn't be incorporated into the soil, so you're losing all that rich organic matter and you're also providing a fantastic breeding ground for flies," Dr Barrow said.

    "Rather than spending the money on buying in large amounts of beetles [farmers] can invest that time in growing them on their properties." The process involves placing dung beetles inside a large, covered container filled with soil and nurturing them with manure until their numbers increase.

    Continue reading on ABC
    or...

    Are you ready to start breeding dungbeetles?

    Watch farmers establish dung beetle nurseries for breeding and harvesting on YouTube.

    Or learn hands-on techniques at Dung Beetle Solutions International, SOILCAM: The Dung Beetle Expert, Dung Beetle Ecosystem Engineers, or Meat & Livestock Australia.
    #FarmingAgriculture
    #FarmingAgriculture

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    Emily Mason
    Sydney NSW
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