WestVic Dairy News - March 2011 Edition
Warning on feeding rain damaged crops to cows.
Steven Field, DPI Senior Chemical Standards Officer
Dairy farmers are reminded to always ensure they are supplied with a by-product vendor declaration when purchasing rain damaged fruit and vegetables for use as stockfeed.
Recent rains and on-going high humidity have led to an increase in rain damaged fruit and vegetables being available for use as stockfeed.
Fruit and vegetables are often treated with various agricultural chemicals, including insecticides and fungicides. Although the chemicals will be registered for use on human food crops, they may not have been registered for use on crops destined for use as stockfeed. As such, it is unlikely that the risks of feeding the treated crops to livestock have been assessed, which poses a risk given that livestock can eat much more treated produce in a given period than a human.
Some chemicals specifically prohibit treated crop waste from being fed to livestock. This information, including relevant withholding periods (WHPs) can be found on the product’s label. Examples of restrictions include:
- ‘DO NOT GRAZE OR CUT FOR STOCKFEED FOR ‘X’ DAYS AFTER APPLICATION’
- ‘DO NOT feed treated X to livestock’
- ‘DO NOT feed vegetable wastes or wrapper leaves of treated vegetable crops to livestock’.
By-product vendor declarations are available from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) website, www.mla.com.au. By obtaining a by-product vendor declaration from stockfeed suppliers, dairy farmers can assess and if necessary, manage any potential residue risks.
SafeMeat Australia has also conducted a number of specific risk assessments on the use of certain by-product stockfeeds. These risk assessments are available from www.safemeat.com.au and can help inform dairy farmers of potential risks.
While it is important that fruit and vegetable producers co-manage residue issues, it is ultimately the dairy farmer who may end up with contaminated milk, and the broader industry that will bear the costs of any loss of market access. Therefore dairy farmers should use the tools available to help them manage these issues – by-product vendor declarations.
Further information on managing chemical residue risks in by-product stockfeed is available from your chemical reseller or manufacturer, industry body or from the Department of Primary Industries website, www.dpi.vic.gov.au/chemicalstandards.
