ON FARM NATIONAL IN BRIEF Doing more with dung Numnuts® beetles on the way research effort to turn 80 million tonnes of dungproduced by Australian livestock each year intoDung beetles are the focus of a national a multi-million dollar benefit to producers. The project will be supported by MLA with the research being led by Charles Sturt University (CSU) through the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation. Graham Centre Director, Professor Michael Friend, said the project will build knowledge of the role that native and imported dung beetles play in improving pasture/soil health and reducing the spread of flies and parasites. Dung beetles from southern Africa and southern Europe were introduced to Australia from 1964 to the mid-1990s by a CSIRO-run program which led to 23 species established in Australia. World-first technology to deliver pain relief to lambs CSU Professor Leslie Weston (pictured) said during animal husbandry procedures is on track to this new project will develop information and be available by mid-2019. pathways for dung beetles to be incorporated Numnuts® is the result of a sheep were treated using the more widely into livestock production systems. partnership between MLA and Numnuts® tool, as compared with“A key part of this research is developing Scottish product design and just having rubber rings applied.”a regionally specific dung beetle service to engineering firm 4c Design. Numnuts® founder and inventor producers, supported with extension and The Numnuts® tool incorporatesand Senesino director, Robin monitoring activities,” she said. a single-action handheld deviceSmith, said more than 15,000 “We’re also going to investigate the importation that dispenses a rubber ring lambs have been given pain and mass rearing of three new species and and injects local anaesthetic relief at marking using the two endemic species that should be more to alleviate pain when lambs Numnuts® system, and it had beensuited to conditions encountered across are castrated and tail-docked,scientifically proven to reduce theinland Australia.” ■ known together as ‘marking’. acute pain spike by up to 65%. The technology has now been Designed to be used on lambs csu.edu.au/research/grahamcentre/home licensed to Senesino for deliveryup to 12 weeks of age, it’s Watch a video about the research at to the Australian sheep industry,anticipated the Numnuts® device youtube.com/grahamCentre05 with a pilot launch set for 2019.would cost approximately $200, while the cost per procedure is Lead researcher from CSIRO, Drexpected to be around 65 cents. Alison Small, said extensive animal trialsof Numnuts® in Australia“So, assuming equal numbers haveproduced positive resultsof males and females and that . the procedure will be done on “Detailed research studies haveboth tails and scrotums, it works been carried out at the CSIRO out close to $1/lamb,” Robin said. Chiswick field station and, in addition,commercial trials wereSenesino plans to make carriedout for both Merinos andNumnuts® available to crossbredsproximately 500 sheeapon five commercial p farmsin Australia during the producers, marking contractors 2018marking season,”she said.and vets in Australia in mid-2019 for the pilot launch. ■ “There was a significant reduction in pain-related behaviours Register your interest at: such as the ‘tucked up’ posture, numnuts.co.uk/register bleating and lying down when 12