What to do after a flood

A flood and its aftermath can pose a unique set of challenges for livestock owners.

Initially, it is vital that producers prioritise their immediate animal welfare responsibilities by ensuring stock have adequate access to food, water, shelter, as well as checking their livestock for unusual symptoms of illness.

Check our animal safety in emergencies resource for information and find out more from other states about how to manage after a flood:

• Flystrike after floods – Agriculture Victoria
• The journey to recovery: resources to help in the aftermath of emergencies – Local Land Services (NSW)
• Disaster recovery for livestock farmers – Business QLD
• Disease Prevention: human health and animal carcass disposal –  QLD Health
• On-farm disposal of animal carcasses (PDF 86KB) – Environmental Protection Authority (SA)

For further advice or help on managing livestock after a flood, contact your private vet or the PIRSA Animal Health Team.

Growers should make sure that they know if their crops have been exposed to contaminated floodwaters.

Large volumes of water movement can spread weeds and pests across a larger area. Overall soil health such as soil quality, structure, water holding capacity and nutrient availability must be re-established to allow agricultural productivity after flooding.

Even if locally intense rainfall causes short-term flooding, flooded fields can be brought back to production by:

• removing debris and sediment
• repairing physical damage to soil with tillage and top dressing with organic fertiliser
• stimulating soil microbial activity with inoculation, and managing erosion by planting cover crops.

Find out more:

• Estimating crop yields and crop losses – Agriculture Victoria
• Mouse monitoring and management tools – MouseAlert
• Recover assets and check hazards – Agriculture Victoria
• Get information on what to do if you suspect any exotic plant pests after a flood.

Floods can cause significant erosion damage in paddocks, leaving gullies, gutters, sheet-eroded areas, soil deposits and damage to tracks and dams. It can leave debris such as washed-away fences, tree branches and crop stubbles. In some areas, water from floods can lie in pools and lagoons for months.

While the damage can be quite severe, it is limited to where the flood occurred so might represent only a small proportion of the total property area.

Before undertaking any erosion repair works:

• Wait for areas to dry out – which could be weeks or months.
• Clean up debris where fences or access tracks need to be restored (watch out for snakes in debris after a summer flood).
• Re-establish 'priority' fences but consider if this is an opportunity to redesign paddock layout.
• Restore tracks to enable movement of farm machinery to all parts of paddocks.
• Focus on managing unaffected areas for cropping and grazing to maintain whole-property productivity.

Take time to consider the location, severity and extent of erosion damage before rushing in to repair it. Earthworks can be expensive compared to the productivity returns from restored areas.

Some options are:

• Leave it untouched.
• Fence off damaged areas and plant to perennial species such as trees for shelter and shade or saltbush for fodder.
• Use tillage machinery to level off shallow erosion (to 20 cm depth).
• Fill and level gutters up to 50 cm depth with a road grader.
• Deeper gullies require skilled earthmoving operators to stabilise them efficiently and effectively.

Soils and landscape advice

For more advice and help with soils and landscape following a flood, contact a PIRSA principal regional advisor or your local Landscape Board

Animal and plant pests and diseases are common after emergency events, like floods.

You are legally required to report any diagnosed or suspected sightings of animal and plant pests or diseases immediately, so containment can occur as fast as possible.

Go to our Hotlines page to find out who to call to report a pest or disease.