Banish slugs, even in optimal pest conditions
Around 2020 mm of rain per year and a temperate climate create an ideal environment for slugs to flourish.
Chris Hatfield
And, at the Hatfield family’s Murchison property, they have exactly that.
Chris and Stacey Hatfield have a 100 ha dairy farm, milking 180 cows. Their system is mostly grass, although they’ve recently introduced maize. Chris Hatfield has a long-term vision for their business and is focussed on setting up a foundation for whatever the next generation of his family wants to achieve. He also believes in an investment and result, rather than just a cost approach.
It’s paying off.
“The more yield and quality you produce, the cheaper the crop becomes. Every mouthful the cows take, you see the benefit in the vat. When you’re spending money, you want to see the best return.”
He says that also shows in cow health and welfare. However, new, high density, high performing pastures give slugs more places to hide and more enticing feed. Hatfield’s approach is to go in hard with a 7 kg/ha application of Ironmax Pro to take out not only the adults existing in the pasture but also the next generation.
“It catches all the waves of populations. Otherwise, it’s the equivalent of slugs going from one McDonalds to the next!”
With pets and kids on the farm, Chris says the safety aspect of low toxicity Ironmax Pro is also important.
Alex Easton, UPL NZ regional manager upper South Island, agrees. He says he’s so confident in Ironmax Pro’s performance and safety he has no hesitation in using it in his home garden, even though there are small, hands-on children around. He says slug pressure is particularly high because of the crops in surrounding paddocks.
“There’s nothing slugs like better than brassicas in nice, straight rows!”
Easton says Ironmax Pro has significant advantages over old-school coated baits.
“Coated baits only have a lick of the active on the outside. Ironmax Pro is manufactured with the finest durum wheat using a unique wet manufacturing process ensuring the active ingredient is mixed all the way through. Not a bite is wasted.
Looking for dead slugs is not the best way to access a bait’s efficacy. Instead check for crop damage. No damage indicates an effective bait programme.”
His colleague, Pieter Van Der Westhuizen, UPL NZ regional manager upper North Island, says slugs will always ingest a lethal dose of Ironmax Pro, even juveniles.
“I had a field representative say to me that they’d seen slugs still in the field after Ironmax Pro had been applied. I suggested a simple test: Squeeze the slug. If there’s visible blue residue, it means they’ve eaten the bait and won’t be eating anything else, they’ll be dead.”