Livestock Biosecurity Network regional officer for Tasmania Jess Coad held workshops at Campbell Town, Winnaleah and Smithton this week and will head to Flinders Island next week.

Dr Coad said the workshops were similar to ones she held three years ago and was impressed with how awareness and attitude knowledge surrounding the importance of on-farm biosecurity had grown.

“The awareness of on-farm biosecurity was not there [three years ago], a lot more people are thinking about it now,” she said.

The workshops focused on purchasing and selling livestock and the biosecurity issues that could arise during that procedure. It also focused on livestock agistment and emergency situations, such as floods.

Dr Coad said she used the example of the floods to show why biosecurity planning was important – to have foresight to think of what would happen in emergency situations.

Questions from the floor also touched on the floods, with some farmers discussing things like how to deal with displaced livestock, or dead carcases – did they have a place they could bury large amounts of livestock and if so what would the management of that land be following the burial.

Displaced and dead livestock can bring the potential for disease and Dr Coad said emergency incident planning was an important part of biosecurity plans for any property.

“The forethought that goes into having something written down, it’s becoming increasingly important,” she said.

Dr Coad said most farmers had some sort of biosecurity plan but a lot of them had it in their heads and she wanted to impress the importance of documenting the plan.

The workshops also gave participants a template of a biosecurity plan they could use for their property to take home and fill out. Dr Coad said it was important a documented biosecurity plan was in place for all livestock farmers because it was often required as part of modern quality assurance programs.

She said farmers that supplied to abattoirs often had to have a biosecurity plan for when they were audited as part of quality assurance compliance. More than 50 farmers attended each the workshops, which was triple the amount that attended three years ago. The final biosecurity workshop will be held on Flinders Island on September 13. To register contact Jess Coad on 0488 400 209 or jcoad@lbn.org.au