Managing people movement
People can carry weeds, pests and diseases onto and around your property without realising it. Pests can be spread in soil and on plant material on vehicles, equipment, footwear and clothing.
Anyone visiting your property could bring in pests. This includes guests, people living on the property, workers, and all visitors such as suppliers, contractors, researchers, vets, transporters, stock agents, and consultants.
There are simple steps that you can take to minimise the risk these movements pose.
Inform visitors of your requirements
Make sure that staff, guests, regular visitors, and anyone entering your property know about your biosecurity requirements.
Biosecurity signs are a good way to alert them to your requirements and of the potential risk that their visit poses to your business.
Parking restrictions will limit any problems posed by their vehicles. Make sure workers know about any biosecurity risks in the region or issues on the property. They should also be familiar with everyday pests on the property and know how to report anything unusual.
If you hold a field day or equipment demonstrations on your property, clearly indicate any entry requirements and be especially vigilant in checking for new pests and diseases afterwards.
Keep a record of visitors
It’s good practice to maintain a visitor register to document who has been on your property, including where they have come from and where they are going. A suitable recording sheet is here.
Visitor records are the single most useful tool in the event of a serious pest incursion in a region. It assists authorities to pinpoint the origin and spread of any incursion.
Farm Biosecurity Visitor Register
Instructions for creating an electronic visitor register form plus QR code
Keep it clean
Since weed seeds and pathogens like rusts can enter on people’s footwear and clothing, it helps to have a clean clothes and boots policy for employees and visitors. Provide scrubbing brushes and footbaths for people arriving with dusty or muddy boots, or give them rubber boots to wear in your production areas. Footwear should also be cleaned when people leave your farm. Dedicated clothing should be used in areas of the property that you know to be contaminated. Sock protectors will minimise the spread of weed seeds.
Control people movement
Controlling and limiting access to production areas is the key factor in minimising biosecurity risks. Make sure that you limit access points to the property.
Direct all visitors to a designated parking area away from production areas and ask everyone to notify you of their presence. This gives you a chance to check people and their vehicles for any potential risks and helps you manage safety risks of having people on your property. Limit visitor contact with crops or plant materials and, where possible, eliminate unnecessary contact altogether.
Biosecurity signage
Well-designed signs demonstrate your commitment to farm hygiene. They also serve to alert people to the potential impact of their visit, and remind them that they share responsibility for maintaining biosecurity.
Place signs at the main entrances, in visitor parking areas and near wash-down facilities. Signs at entrances or near storages should direct visitors to contact the owner or farm manager to formally register their presence, before entering any production areas. Include contact details, such as the home telephone number, mobile number and/or UHF channel.
For further information on obtaining biosecurity signs for your property, contact biosecurity@melonsaustralia.org.au
Download a template for a 900x600 mm gate sign HERE
Managing high-risk visitors
You should make an assessment of the level of risk that each visitor to your farm poses.
You can then take additional steps to reduce the chance of them bringing new pests onto the farm.
Overseas travellers
People returning from overseas may pose a biosecurity threat, especially if they have visited crops, farms or markets where plant or animal material was sold. Clothes, hair and even watchbands can carry fungal spores, and weed seeds can easily lodge in clothes and pant cuffs.
Ideally, visitors from overseas or family members and employees returning from overseas, should ensure that clothing, hair and footwear have been washed before they go into crops. Check that they have not brought any plant or animal material with them.
Contractors and utility providers
Anyone who travels from farm-to-farm and region-to-region poses an increased biosecurity risk to your property.
Notable examples are harvesting contractors, earthmoving companies, power, water, gas and communications employees, research personnel, consultants and mining operators, any of whom might enter farms in their day-to-day operations.
Pests can be easily spread on a visitor’s clothing, equipment and vehicles. Controlling the movement of these visitors with signs and using a visitor’s register, is particularly important.
Where possible, engage contractors who are signatories to an industry recommended hygiene protocol or program.
You have the right to request that visitors to your property and their vehicles and equipment are clean and free from pests, weed seeds and plant material. Providing a suitable wash-down facility away from production areas is an easy way to ensure that this requirement is complied with.
