Hunters shooting feral goats over the next few months will not only be doing a favour to farmers and native plants, they could pick up some big prizes.
The National Wild Goat Hunting Competition is back, with $70,000 worth of prizes, such as a wild game banquet, hunting gear, guided hunts, and personal locator beacons.
Supported by Federated Farmers, Hunting & Fishing NZ and Te Tari Pūreke Firearms Safety Authority, the competition runs from 1 August to 26 November.
Department of Conservation director national programmes Ben Reddiex was thrilled with the response to the inaugural event last year, with nearly 700 hunters shooting more than 10,000 wild goats.
“Managing wild goat numbers is an ongoing challenge. The competition helps to reduce pressure on New Zealand’s precious native ecosystems and farmlands,” Reddiex says.
Wild goats eat smaller native seedlings, remove forest understory and change the composition of bush and forest areas.
Their eating and trampling of vegetation on slopes can cause erosion and they can also destroy farmers’ riparian and restoration planting.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says there’s a lack of information about the economic impact of goats and other feral animal populations, and what it costs farmers to control them.
“We aim to fill this gap with a Federated Farmers National Pest Management Survey, which went live on July 26.
“The survey will look to quantify the extent of feral animal management on-farm, what pests are managed, the cost of control work, and estimated farm production lost to wild animals.”
Langford says Federated Farmers is hearing from a growing number of members about feral animals coming out of public conservation land onto their farms.
“It’s a really serious problem,” he says. “We’re right behind the intent of the national goat hunting competition.
“One deer eats the same amount as two adult sheep or a one-year-old heifer, and one wild goat is the equivalent of one sheep.
“Sheep and beef farmers have enough costs piling on them without feral animals undermining their livelihoods.”
Federated Farmers members should keep an eye out for an email inviting them to complete the survey.
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
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