Farm hygiene is an essential component in the control of pests. It involves the consistent safeguarding of all hygienic measures on the agricultural production farm.
Hygiene is:- In a broader sense, the totality of all measures to prevent diseases and reduced performance
- In a narrower sense, it is preventive measures to create and maintain an environment suitable for the performance of livestock:
- Thorough barn cleaning in spring
- Ensuring adequate ventilation
- Whitening if possible
- Sanitising possible breeding places for pests (calf pens, deep litter in loose housing, floating slurry cover)
Hygiene in the broader and narrower sense creates an excellent basis for successful animal husbandry! Without this basis, the pest pressure becomes too high for the individual farm and any control becomes ineffective and uneconomical.
Which pests are primarily encountered on the farm?
- Hygienic pests: flies, horseflies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, lice, mites and rodents
- Plant pests: corn borers, potato beetles, mealy bugs, scale insects, aphids, etc.
- Storage pests: grain weevils, flour beetles, rice weevils, mites, rodents, etc.
In relation to livestock farms, we are mainly talking about hygienic pests that transmit diseases, cause restlessness and discomfort in the animals and can thus cause performance losses!