It found 90 percent of farms actively managed pests, with farmers spending an estimated $82 million in pest controls over the past year.<\/p>\n
They reported spending an average of $6.18 per hectare on pest controls, up 13 percent over two years.<\/p>\n
However, two-thirds of those surveyed reported that pest numbers had increased over the past five years, up from around half in 2024.<\/p>\n
Brushtail possums, deer<\/a> and wallabies were ranked the worst pests nationwide, though rats, Canadian geese<\/a>, wild pigs<\/a> and rabbits were major worries in some regions.<\/p>\n The group’s meat and wool chairman, Richard Dawkins, said there was a huge amount of hunting happening in rural New Zealand, however farmers were reporting populations of pests like deer<\/a> were still increasing.<\/p>\n “Ninety percent of farmers are engaging recreational hunters either themselves or friends or family, and a further 50 percent were actually getting outside help as well,” he said.<\/p>\n “So this is clearly not a problem where recreational hunting and weekend shooting can actually solve it.”<\/p>\n Rooting animals like deer, wild pigs and goats were more common on sheep and beef farms than on dairy farms, where Canadian geese were the most common species.<\/p>\n Arable farms had greater numbers of rabbits, and problems with unlisted species like birds and hares, though fewer deer, pigs or goats.<\/p>\n Pesky pests on-farm<\/p>\n Pest animals posed many problems for farmers<\/a>, like competition for pasture with their livestock, damage to infrastructure and the spread of diseases like tuberculosis or leptospirosis among livestock and workers.<\/p>\n Both those diseases were commonly spread by possums, which were found to be present on 9 in 10 of the farms surveyed, and rats on virtually all of them.<\/p>\n Dawkins said one farmer reported losing $100,000 after a leptospirosis outbreak, believed to be spread by wild pigs, that led to pregnant stock having miscarriages.<\/p>\n “There’s the damage to infrastructure; damage to fences and gates, etcetera, by deer, pigs, goats,” he said.<\/p>\n “You then have the pasture that they’re consuming. So every kilo of grass that a wild animal eats, that’s a kilo of grass not actually going into your productive livestock.<\/p>\n “But then thirdly, you really have that risk of disease spreading across your farm with significant impacts.”<\/p>\n Despite hunting in rural New Zealand, Federated Farmers says its members were reporting populations of pests like deer were still increasing.<\/p>\n Supplied<\/p>\n Sheep and beef farms experienced greater production losses from pests than for their dairy counterparts, with total losses hitting an estimated $384m across all affected farms nationwide.<\/p>\n Around 30 percent of farmers said they reduced their stocking numbers due to pests, especially sheep and beef again in areas like Tair\u0101whiti, Hawke’s Bay and Southland, Otago – believed to be correlated to deer and wild goat hotspots in these areas.<\/p>\n Dawkins said a national strategy to manage deer<\/a> in particular was well overdue.<\/p>\n The government announced in June it would fund three pilot projects to tackle wild deer<\/a> on privately-owned production land.<\/p>\n Established by the Ministry for Primary Industries, the $750,000 would back catchment groups in Rangit\u012bkei, Wairarapa and North Canterbury to test ways to measure deer populations, assess their impact on farmland.<\/p>\n However, other groups including the Game Animal Council and University of Canterbury ecologist David Norton joined the call for a national deer strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Looking to possums, OSPRI managed the TB free programme against bovine tuberculosis primarily for animal disease management.<\/p>\n![\"Fallow](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4JXT2QU_fallow_deer_1920_jpg.jpeg\")
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