Capturing and quantifying the impacts of grasshoppers and locusts across central and north-west Queensland

Abstract

Over the past four years, grasshopper and locust species have been increasingly causing impacts to pastures across central and north-west Queensland. This has caused substantial damage to pastures, prevented pasture recovery on a number of properties and contributed to significant economic consequences. A Grasshopper Impact Survey was initiated in 2020 and re-done in 2021 with the objective of capturing comparative data and key impacts across the affected regions, with 56 and 59 business participating, respectively. Issues focussed on in the survey included grasshopper distribution and numbers, resultant pasture damage, management responses and estimated economic impact. When grasshopper populations started emerging in 2018 producers were unprepared in terms of planning or budgeting for the impacts. However, this earlier experience allowed producers to be adaptive in their management practices during the population boom in 2021. These practices still came at a cost to producers.