Penong farmer Bruce Page said with grain prices low and the cost of bait so high, it was too risky to put the seed out. He said if farmers growing grain have to keep baiting for mice to keep them out.

 

''One year I had to do the paddocks again for a second time, and I still didn't get control of them (the mice)," Page said. "I have got better things to do with my AUD20,000 (US$17,253) or AUD30,000 (US$25,895) than see it wasted on the mice.''

 

"So once the crop's in the ground, you've got to do it or lose crops, so I chose not to put the crop in,'' he said.

 

Meanwhile, some South Australian farmers claim the bait used to kill mice in broad acre crops is not working effectively.

 

Mid-north farmer David Burford said he has reapplied the bait Mouseoff three times in one paddock to kill all the mice, but this is turning into a costly exercise. "About AUD12,500 (US$10,790), it's just another cost we don't really need," he said. "There's still too many mice still left out there, we're not getting 100% control.

 

The bait isn't doing the best job we'd like to see."