Out of the Blue Clear Sky – Part 4

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Nutrient dispersing. Pat smother reducing. Water penetration improving. All attributes of the dung beetle, a beneficial bug. We’ve established this week that they do great things in a grazing system and that we want more of them. So, where do they come from?

Hayes Goosey Montana State University…

“For the most part, what’s here is already here. To see more of them, you just provide an environment for them to show up and do their thing.”

Added organic matter can add to that environment and these beetles can travel if they’re tempted…

“In Africa, there’s studies of them flying – I’m going to get this wrong, but you’ll get the point – but it’s detecting like an elephant pile of dung, which is huge, up to almost 10 kilometers, which would be a little over five miles away.”

And while I’ve been jokingly saying “black market” for dung beetles, these are things that you can shop for. There are actually dung beetle exchanges online…

“They’ve showed up inadvertently, one, just by coming along with livestock or, two, there have been introductions in the states.”

We’ve been talking about them all week. Ready to go scout? Some pointers tomorrow in your Southeast Regional Ag News.