The advent of ‘conservation agriculture’ (CA) farming using zero- or no-tillage practices and an accompanying change in crop rotations in the last 10–15 years has potentially led to less disturbance of mouse burrows and increased cover and food supply. Given the irregular outbreaks of mice in grain cropping regions in Australia and the damage they cause, it is important to understand when and where mouse populations increase so that management strategies can be improved. We utilised a 20-year long-term mouse population data set collected prior to the introduction of CA farming practices and a more recent 8-year data set after CA to compare changes in mouse population abundance in a typical dryland grain cropping system in north-western Victoria, Australia. Mouse trapping data were used to compare abundance in crop and margin habitats during crop growth and non-crop (fallow) periods before (‘conventional’) and after introduction of CA. Mice are now resident year-round within crops and stubble and appear to only spill over into margin habitats. Previously developed recommendations for mouse management that include their control while in margin habitats may no longer be valid.

在过去的10到15年中，采用零耕或免耕作法的“保护性农业”（CA）农业的出现以及随之而来的农作物轮换变化，可能会减少对小鼠洞穴的干扰，并增加覆盖面积和食物供应。考虑到澳大利亚谷物种植区老鼠的不定期爆发及其造成的破坏，重要的是要了解何时何地老鼠种群增加，以便改进管理策略。我们采用了在引入CA耕种方法之前收集的20年长期小鼠种群数据集，以及在CA实施之后的8年最新数据集，以比较北部典型旱地谷物种植系统中小鼠种群丰度的变化。澳大利亚维多利亚州西部。老鼠诱捕数据用于比较在引入CA之前（“常规”）和之后在作物生长期间和非作物（休耕）期间作物和边缘生境的丰度。现在，小鼠常年在农作物和残茬中居住，似乎只溢出到边缘栖息地。以前开发的有关鼠标管理的建议，包括在边缘栖息地的控制可能不再有效。