It is not every day you have a dung beetle named after you.
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But that is the case for John Feehan who recently dropped in to the Southern Highlands to share his knowledge of the beetle which could help farmers.
The Exeter CWA sponsored the presentation from Mr Feehan, a widely regarded expert on the dung beetle, at the Exeter CWA hall on November 21.
Mr Feehan has, in fact, had five other insects named after him – an ant, two grasshoppers and a mite.
With 28 years of experience at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and articles published in, Australian Geographic, Outback Magazine and Achres USA, Mr Feehan’s objective is to have Australia fully stocked with beetles.
From 1963 to 1991, he worked with the CSIRO and from 1993 he set up Soilcam Pty Ltd.
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Soilcam has enabled harvesting and redistribution of different dung beetle species and has relocated more than 5000 starter colonies.
“I’ve sent off over five and a half thousand colonies of beetles to farmers,” Mr Feehan said.
“I’m very proud of that and these farmers I send the beetles to, I’ve never met them and not once have I had a bad debt.
“It goes to show how honest the Australian farmer is.”
Dung beetles help aerate soil, reduce internal parasite and fly burdens, increase rain water penetration and ground water retention.
The Southern Highlands has a vast amount of greenery and Mr Feehan’s talk had important information surrounding our grassy areas.
“Tufts of grass, if parted, a cow pat will be found,” he said.
“The nutrients and vitamins from it will help the grass grow but it produces a rank coarse grass.
“Livestock will eat around these tufts of grass. If the grass isn’t eaten, the paddock may as well be covered with thistle, it’s costing farmers money.”
There are 28 million cattle in Australia and 300 million cow pats are dropped a day. This equals to 500,000 tonnes of dung dropped each day.
“Nature never intended for cow dung to sit on the surface of a paddock,” John said.
Research in the USA revealed that 80 per cent of the nitrogen and phosphate in dung, when left on pastures, was lost in the atmosphere. When buried by dung beetles 80 per cent of that nitrogen and phosphate is retained and placed at the grass root zone.
These excavations allow grass roots to penetrate deeper soils and lock up more carbon.
With 320 different native species of dung beetles in Australia, these little farm warriors are essential to a healthy way of life.
The indepth presentation on the dung beetle at Exeter attracted plenty of interest with more than 80 Highlanders and guests from South Coast, Queanbeyan and Sydney.