Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group host dung beetle experts

The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group Isle of Man (FWAG) recently hosted Sally-Anne Spence, a leading entomologists specialising in dung beetles, and Rob Howe, a large animal veterinary surgeon and Nuffield Scholar with a particular interest in dung beetles.

Dung beetles are some of the unsung heroes for farmers. They break down the dung, pulling it down into the soil and improving the aeration of soil as well as fertilising the grassland. They help to reduce pests, carbon emissions, and increase soil fauna activity as well as being a good food source for bats and birds.

This was Sally-Anne’s third visit to the Island and she is hugely passionate about the dung beetle and the important role they play in underpinning the ecosystem. Sally-Anne’s enthusiasm is infectious and most farmers, after listening to one of her talks, will have gone home and kicked over their dung pats to see if there were any dung beetles present!

The dung beetle is however affected by animal treatments, mainly some of the worming products and fly treatments used with both cattle and sheep. Whilst these products are key to animal health, Rob Howe explained how farmers can prevent, assess and treat animals themselves to reduce potential issues. Good farming practices - including quarantining new animals, good nutrition, vaccination, rotational grazing, and the use of different forages such as chicory and plantain - can all help prevent and reduce the need for treatment. Assessing the situation with regular Faecal Egg counts, monitoring, weighing of animals, and forecasting disease pressure can all help ensure that, when there is a treatment required, it is targeted, considered, best practice and necessary.

Both Sally-Anne and Rob brought it home by highlighting the financial benefits that come from looking after your dung beetles, both in terms of the benefits they bring and the savings that could be made with some small tweaks and changes.

Sally-Anne and Rob hosted a practical in-field session and helped local farmers Daniel Creer and Alice Forster to find and identify dung beetles on their tenanted farm. Sally-Anne also held an education session with over 70 children from Arbory Primary School, successfully hunting for dung beetles on Dave and Rob Cooil’s dairy farm at Ballabeg.

Chris Kneale, Director of Agriculture and Food, thanked the speakers and summed up the talks by highlighting that a highly functioning ecosystem requires farmers and livestock with livestock being essential to the dung beetle.

Thanks to Paul and Hillary Fletcher, the FWAG team, and David Cooil.

Learn more about FWAG here.