IDEAL conditions for blackberry growth could have got the better of Upper Murray farmers this summer.
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But instead, they have sunk their teeth into the challenge and fought to take back productive land from the menace.
The Mitta to Murray Blackberry Action Group has brought 30 new properties on board over the summer, re-signing landholders whose three-year blackberry management agreements had come to an end, and adding another 7500 hectares to the area under active management.
The action group now has 119 properties covering 26,492 hectares of the region.
It means more people have a plan to fight a weed that could easily beat them.
The action group’s project officer Paula Sheehan said all this activity has been happening while blackberries have been hitting back.
“It’s been an extraordinary year for blackberry growth,” she said this week.
“Every time we had significant rain we had another flush of growth.
“Some farmers have been over the same areas three or four times.”
Other farmers report spending more time on blackberry control than on any other task on their properties, which has a real effect on productivity in terms of the time they can devote to their primary farming activities.
For landholders bordering crown land, access can be one of their biggest hurdles to taking back any ground.
“Some people are using deer tunnels to gain access,” Ms Sheehan said, adding that one farmer had actually come face-to-face with a deer as he was dragging a retractable hose on his hands and knees.
For action group chairman Jim de Hennin, who lives at Talgarno, he has noticed the menace gaining ground in an area previously untouched.
“This year I’ve found blackberry in every paddock at Talgarno, where we haven’t traditionally had many,” he said.
It’s because forming any kind of buffer is near-impossible.
Talgarno, traditionally a district relatively free of blackberry, is now coming under attack.
“Talgarno is now having more problems because it’s coming through the bush, it’s getting closer and closer,” Ms Sheehan said.
For that reason, the group is trying to build an argument for government to put resources into finding a biological control.
“We’ve got all these wonderful people doing all this wonderful work but it would be made so much easier with the help of a biological control,” Mr de Hennin said.
He said terrain where farmers are crawling through deer tunnels is the sort where a biological control would really help.
“We hope to really crank up the pressure on blackberry control,” he said.