Enhancing Regenerative Agriculture: Implementing Low-Cost Dung Beetle Nurseries for West Virginia Farms

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Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: manure management, rangeland/pasture management
• Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
• Farm Business Management: labor/employment

In West Virginia (WV), pasture is a top agricultural commodity. Our systematic dung beetle sampling across 36 farms in 2022 and 2023 revealed that the majority of pastures in WV have low dung beetle abundances. Dung beetles play a crucial role in dung decomposition, increasing nutrient cycling and soil quality, and contribute to pest control. These insects can increase the sustainability of pasture agriculture. Dwindling dung beetle populations pose a significant challenge to farmers, leading to reduced pasture quality and livestock health. Farmers are reaching out to WVU entomologists for information on native dung beetle species and methods to restore their populations. In the United States, we do not have methods for breeding native dung beetles that can be easily adopted by farmers. Therefore, our project aims to address this by focusing on breeding dung beetles on a large scale. We will test two different methods of building outdoor nurseries to breed three different local dung beetle species. To identify the best method for each species, we will measure adult beetle production and conduct a cost analysis to determine the most affordable and efficient method for rearing the three species. Our goal is to develop and share successful methods by participating in podcasts, workshops, and field days and advocate for their adoption across the Northeastern United States.

Project Objective: Develop and compare two distinct low-cost methods for creating dung beetle nurseries suitable for West Virginia farms:

Our goal for this project is to compare two rearing methods for three species of locally abundant dung beetle and understand the maximum beetle output from these rearing methods, and the relative costs of each method per beetle. We will measure 1) the rate at which beetles reproduce in each nursery type, 2) the maximum stable population for each nursery type, and the 3) cost of building and maintaining each nursery type. 

We will compare “bin nurseries'' and “frame nurseries”. Bin nurseries will use a standardized potting media mixed with sand in a plastic 30-gal container that can be easily moved in and out of shelter depending on the weather conditions and during the release of the new beetles to a pasture. Frame nurseries will be built from a 1m² wooden frame with an insect mesh cover placed in-situ onto pasture soil. These methods have been developed by modifying established large-scale dung beetle breeding methods used by companies in Australia and New Zealand. 

Because they are larger, we hypothesize that frame nurseries will produce more beetles and will be lower cost to build than bin nurseries but may show more variability in production or even fail. We expect bin nurseries will show less variability in beetle production because they will be less susceptible to weather and soil conditions.

To achieve this objective, we will: 

1. Establish dung beetle breeding nurseries.
2. Assess dung beetle emergence rates and abundance for three different native dung beetle species.
3. Quantify the cost-effectiveness of the developed methods.