Less mites, more feed: It’s all in the timing

After retiring, rural journalist Murray Arnel bought a run-down dairy farm near Echuca. Rather than slowing down, he said he planned to “stay curious”.

“I’ve spent a lifetime reporting on top farmers across southern Australia. This was my chance to have ago myself,” he said.

Six years on, Murray has renovated his pastures as part of a broader farm improvement program and is actively testing new management approaches.

Through MLA’s ‘Less mites, more feed’ Producer Demonstration Site (PDS), Murray provided a paddock to test revised redlegged earth mite (RLEM) control strategies.

The PDS, which was coordinated by Matt Mahoney of Agridome Consultancy and run by the Ky (Kyabram) Farmers group, focused on using decision-support tools such as TIMERITE® to optimise spray timing and reduce mite populations before they affect autumn feed.

Real-world research

MLA’s PDS program supports producers to design and lead on-farm demonstrations that tackle regionally relevant challenges. The initiative helps fast-track adoption of best practice by showing producers how these approaches perform under real commercial conditions.

“When we crawled over the paddocks in 2023, we couldn’t find any mites,” Murray said.

“The previous year’s flood may have reduced numbers – but in 2024, they came back strongly.”

Three irrigation bays were used to compare TIMERITE® spray dates:

• one unsprayed control
• one treated on the ‘old’ TIMERITE® date (19 September)
• one treated on the ‘new’ updated TIMERITE® date (around 1 September).

Pre-spray assessments by Aston Arthur from Cesar Australia found mite numbers as high as 3,846m² in one of the trial bays, well above what was considered the threshold for economic impact, especially in newly sown pastures.

Spray results

Both treated bays recorded zero mites four weeks after spraying. In contrast, the unsprayed control jumped to 4,635 mites/m².

“We saw a clear result,” Murray said. “The sprays worked, and the earlier timing was just as effective. Even though we sprayed 10 days after the tool’s suggested date, we were still within the window.”

Follow-up assessments in May 2025 showed the impact of spring spraying carried through to autumn. Compared to the untreated control, RLEM numbers had dropped by 84% in the ‘old TIMERITE® date’ bay and by more than 90% in the ‘new TIMERITE® date’ bay.

While Murray didn’t notice visible mite damage in his pastures in the spring prior, he’s convinced of the strategy’s value.

He said the common approach is to only think to spray when mites are observed in autumn – but by then, the damage has often already been done. By controlling RLEM in the spring at the new TIMERITE® date before they enter diapause, fewer mites hatch the following autumn, meaning a stronger feedbase can be established for the following season.

Pasture utilisation

Spray timing also matters for pasture utilisation. “Autumn is when we need every bit of grazing we can get. If I’m spraying then, I’m taking paddocks out of rotation at the worst possible time,” he said.

Murray believes MLA’s PDS program reinforces the value of group-based learning and producer-led trials.

“It’s been a great experience, sharing results with neighbours and bouncing ideas around. I’d absolutely do it again

“These tools help you to be proactive rather than reactive. And the difference that makes – to your pastures, your inputs, your planning – can be huge.”