Farmers across NSW are growing concerned at the number of mice breeding ahead of the winter-crop sowing window.
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Jack Brennan manages three properties in the Warren district and has been monitoring mice populations closely since they first started rising in November.
"It's only about eight weeks from when they're born to when they breed themselves," Mr Brennan said.
"Doing the rough maths, I worked out the population is going to increase by about 900 per cent, so that's around another 540 mice per hectare.
"But, it's the next step, in about 14 to 16 weeks that gets scary, because 540 by 900pc is around 5000 mice per hectare and that will be in the middle of sowing the winter crop in April/May."
Mr Brennan said he had been working with his agronomist to both control populations in their summer crop, mungbeans, and plan for winter sowing.
"We're just wondering how prepared we should be because mouse bait could become really short all of a sudden," Mr Brennan said.
"We're lucky enough to have a good profile of moisture again, that really came through in December and January, so we're pretty sure we'll get a crack at (winter) crop again.
"We're just trying to plan and budget, it's going to cost a bit to control them."
But, timing is everything.
"If you bait now you would certainly kill plenty of mice but would you be wasting your time because they'll back at a critical mass by the time the winter crop's going in the ground?" Mr Brennan said.
Mr Brennan said the conditions, plenty of food following a bumper harvest combined with a mild summer, were reminiscent of those that preceded the mice plague in 2011.
"That was when you would flash the lights on in the shed at night and the whole ground moved," he said.
"But I have a feeling that's where we could get up to."
He said he thought it was important to monitor what was happening at his own properties, instead of going off the chatter doing the rounds.
"Your own farm is often different so I think it's good to go around with a shovel and actually get a handle on what's going on."
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