At this time of year with this current season, paddocks may be looking pretty bare.
There may be temptation to open up the area around the sheds to your cattle, which hasn't been grazed for years. Perhaps you are thinking of letting them in to the old house paddock, an old dip site or garbage dump.
By doing this, you may unknowingly expose your cattle to chemical resides. Stock can readily pick up residues if they have access to localised areas of high-level contamination.
Organochlorine (OC) pesticides such as DDT, dieldrin, and heptachlor are the main concerns, as these chemicals can stay in the soil for decades.
Meat processors carry out extensive residue monitoring on slaughtered stock. Any carcass with a residue above the Australian maximum residue limit (MRL) is condemned for human consumption.
Plus, as the vendor you may be liable to legal action. So how can you avoid this happening?
Firstly, a monitoring history of known contaminated sites is available from Agriculture Victoria.
It's what you don't know that may cause you a problem.
How can you identify any likely risk areas on your property? Commonly identified OC risk areas include:
Buildings, yards, fences, stumps, and power poles treated with OC chemicals for termite control;
Sheep dip sites used before 1963;
Old containers or chemicals in farm rubbish dumps;
Chemical storage, mixing and disposal sites;
Lawn clippings from OC contaminated areas;
Land used for growing potatoes and tobacco before 1986; and,
Land used for orchards before 1988 and vegetable production before 1986.
As part of your risk assessment gather all available information on past OC use, including information from previous owners.
Soil sampling may be required to determine if contamination is present and the level of any such contamination.
However, in general it may be simpler to avoid potential risks by fencing risk areas to exclude cattle.
For further information contact your local veterinarian or Agriculture Victoria veterinary or animal health officer, or in NSW your Local Land Services.