Dannevirke: Tackling grass grub in an out of the (bird) box way

Dan Hartridge sets the drench container on the post, with help to keep it steady. Photo / Leanne Warr

For many farmers, grass grub can become an expensive problem.

Along with Porina, a moth that flies in spring, grass grub can have devastating effects on pasture, which then becomes a costly exercise to get rid of.

John King, a Canterbury-based educator who specialises in problem solving and farming creativity, said grass grub would eat the pasture and the roots, while Porina would harvest the leaves and drag it back down to the soil

"They create significant pasture damage, particularly in the autumn."

He said on the east coast, it was the autumn season that set farmers up for the spring.

"If you don't have any grass in the autumn, you're not going to have much in the spring."

Farmers could buy treatments off the shelf, but sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't, King said.

Which became expensive.

He said there had been one couple who had a big problem with the pest but had farmed through it because they'd seen their neighbours spraying every year.

"That's become an addictive expense. It means you're not actually addressing the root cause of the problem and because you're not addressing the root cause of the problem it becomes an overhead of the business."

Dan Hartridge and John King cut the posts for the bird boxes. Photo / Leanne Warr

King met with the Hawke's Bay Cockie Curiosity Club got together last week at a Dannevirke property, Highgate, to work on a solution.

And that solution? Bird boxes, made from used drench containers.

King said the group, part of a nationwide network, met several times a year to help farmers rediscover observation skills, reduce inputs, and step off the inflation cycle.

He said the meeting was also an opportunity for support after a tough month of bad weather.

Building the bird boxes was a fun way of working together as well as having its practical side.

King said the bird boxes were hoped to encourage starlings to nest in paddocks away from tractor sheds closer to a food source.

Nesting starlings can create a problem for farmers as they often nest in tractors, especially inside engines.

Dannevirke fire chief Peter Sinclair said there had been a number of tractor fires over the years caused by birds nesting inside.

He said when the engines heated up, that led to combustion of the material used to make the nest.

A lot of farmers now left the bonnets of their tractors up so it would encourage them to check the engines for any nests.

Building bird boxes also provided several benefits, King said.

Using the drench containers meant they were recycling them and it was a relatively cheap way of addressing the issue of grass grub, he said.

"You don't get rid of it, but you do reduce it."

The meeting also allowed local farmers to catch up with each other and network.

"You can't do this on a beef and lamb field day because you can't have 200 people doing this," King said.

He said in a small group, everyone was more relaxed, which made it a much easier platform.

Making bird boxes was something a little bit different but it was hoped to get other farmers thinking about different ways to solve such problems.

Highgate owner Dan Hartridge said the bird boxes had been something done before by his father.

He said he'd been experimenting and playing with different ideas, trying to find more natural ways of dealing with pests rather than bringing in chemicals.