They may be small, but mice have made their presence known in winter crops across the Gunnedah shire.
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Mullaley farmer Peter Martin is battling rodents in all his crops, including canola on the Kamilaroi Highway between Gunnedah and Curlewis.
He noticed the damage in early August and put out chew cards to get an idea of what he was dealing with. The numbers grew steadily so he baited all his crops a week ago. Since then he has seen "good results".
Mr Martin said it was a "function of the season" and not unexpected after months of regular rain.
"We've had all good growth, grass has gone to seed, and the grass fallen over so there's plenty of feed, and cracks in the ground, so it's perfect for mice," he said.
He said the mice presented a "big risk" for farmers who are anticipating the best season since 2016.
North West Local Land Services' senior land services officer, Bill Manning, showed NVI some of the damage in Mr Martin's canola crop on the Kamilaroi Highway and said there were growing reports of mice activity.
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Mr Manning is encouraging farmers to be vigilant in checking their crops and using chew cards to gauge the level of activity because there is the potential for mice to "breed up" when they have established themselves in crops.
"They can chew on the growing points of crops and developing grains," he said.
"During the flowering and reproductive stage they can cause loss of grain ... it could be an issue for emerging summer crops."
Mr Manning said it had been a few years since farmers had issues with mice but it wasn't uncommon when drought was followed by regular rain.
The Hanlens at Mary's Mount near Gunnedah have been monitoring mice populations over the last few weeks and have decided to bait a number of paddocks.
They believe they have good yield potential for all their crops and want to protect them from further damage.
"Growers should also take account of differences in population between the edge of crops and the centre of paddocks and baiting should only occur when monitoring indicates mouse populations justify treatment as there is potential for off target damage," Mr Manning said.
