The Country 07/09/26: Rowena Duncum talks to Jamie Mackay

We chat to The Country’s former producer, who is also an avid hunter, about a new survey which shows New Zealand’s pest problem has reached crisis point, with farmers spending more money and effort controlling pests - but still going backwards.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country. Jamie Mackay is my name.
Good to be on. While I was away, Influenza A. Brutal, brutal,
absolutely brutal. Hamish Mackay and this person, Rowena Duncan, did
a very good job filling in. And not only do
you fill in on the show, Rowena, you fill my
freezer with wild venison. You're always welcome at our place. Now,

(00:23):
did you catch up on the story? And I'm sure
you would have because you're across everything in rural. Federated Farmers,
Richard Dawkins, the PES spokesperson or whatever he calls himself,
says we're not going to shoot our way out of
this problem one weekend at a time, but you're doing
your best. Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, definitely doing my best. Sometimes my
best isn't good enough, but at least when I arrived
at your place last night, there was certainly a lot
of venison going into your freezer. So a successful weekend,
shall we say.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
We love you visiting. Now, I know you and your
mates in the Maniatoatoe, You've got about five or six.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Six, yeah, six fallow.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
But when you're out there shooting the deer, and I
know you're picking the good young ones, what happens if
you see some mongrel old feral deer wandering past? Do
you just shoot that as well? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so anything.
What about pigs? Anything.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Anything that moves, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Can you just... It's illegal. This is a dumb question
from a very poor duck shooter. But, like, if you're
out on these farms, are the farmers happy for you
just to shoot them and let them rot? Where they lie?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
We haven't actually ever had that situation where we've shot
something and left it to rot. Everything we've shot, we've
been able to harvest just due to the nature of
the terrain that we're shooting on. Yes, sometimes it's a
bit of a climb or a bit of a walk,
but everything's retrievable. We haven't got to that situation where
we have just been culling and leaving them to rot,
as you say. But You know, it might come down

(01:48):
to that stage. I've got friends who have farms who,
you know, will happily let hunters on. They've got hundreds
of fallow. It's a massive problem through Wanganui, Manawatu, that
area there. And, you know, their rule of thumb is
if you're coming onto the property to go hunting, you've
got to leave with at least four carcasses on the
back of the ute. But it might for them come
to that stage because there's four, 800 fallow just running

(02:09):
through in mobs. And if they culled everything on their farm,
it would still come through from the neighbours. It has
been a really big issue.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Nearly one in three farmers are having to reduce their
stocking rates because pests are consuming so much pasture compared
to only one in nine in 2024. That's only two
years ago.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, it's been really interesting the way numbers have gone
over the past few years or even looking at them
over the past decade. I've got friends who can't put
crops on, they reckon, about 65% of their property because
it's just going to bring the pests through the fence
and into those crops. They're putting a lot of money
into getting that ground prepared, getting that seed in there
and cultivating those crops to be feeding a bit of

(02:50):
a pest. But another issue that we're seeing out there,
and a lot of commentary has come out after this
survey was released, is sometimes it can also come down
to access. Access can be a bit challenging for hunters,
but there's got to be a lot of trust on
both sides as well. You're letting someone into your business
with powerful rifles. So I wonder if we have something

(03:10):
like not quite an Uber system or a Tinder system
for hunters and farmers and matching them up, but, you know,
somewhere where you can say, you know, five stars, you know,
left all the gates shut or all the gates open
where they were, dropped me off some beer on the way,
dropped me off a skinned carcass ready to go. I
know they've tried it in the past and it hasn't worked, but,
you know, it's not going to solve the problem overnight,

(03:33):
but it might still, you know, open up a lot
more access for people.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Now, this has been made worse by carbon farming or
forestry Because I know in South Otago is a really,
Mark Patterson's home patch is a really good example. I
know farmers up there who, like you're saying, literally cannot
plant a winter forage crop because they just can't stop
the deer and the pig coming down from the hills

(03:58):
and eating it.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's a massive issue. And it's not all carbon farms.
You know, some have really good pest management plans. They
have contracted hunters. They have people who get access and
who go through those properties. But they're not the same
as when they were farmed as well, when there were
people out there all the time. I know, you know,
back even when I was dairy farming, every time I
went and did the pasture metering, I'd take the rifle
and shoot hares and things like that. When you're on

(04:20):
the property, it's easier when you're seeing those pests every
single day. But when they are out of sight, out
of mind, that's when those numbers can absolutely explode. And
it's been particularly good at the moment. You know, if
you see a pig out there ahead of lambing, you're
always trying to get them because you know what damage
they can do to your lambing numbers.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, we talked about the numbers, one in three farmers
having to reduce their stocking. It's a horrendous number, reducing
their stocking rates. And the report, this is from the
Federated Farmers Report, one farmer reported losing around $ 100, 000 after
a leptospirosis outbreak caused widespread abortions and ewes in heifers,
which they believed was linked to wild pigs coming in

(04:59):
from neighbouring properties.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, it's a huge issue in terms of that as well,
that animal health issue. We know possums And the TB
issue that's been coming through, especially on the West Coast,
but they seem to have got that a lot more
under control. But yeah, there's just so many facets to
this issue. And I must say, I have personally even
seen the numbers really explode. And I don't know if
it was just because of COVID and we couldn't get

(05:20):
out in the same numbers and people changed the way
they were doing things. But moving out there, you know,
it would be a really tough day if you didn't
see anything.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
OK, here's an idea for you straight off the top
of my head. Here we go.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Brace yourselves.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Brace yourselves. Federated farmers saying we're not going to shoot
our way out of this problem one weekend at a time.
A lot of.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Farmers I know are getting helicopters, so they're bringing helicopters in.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Okay, what about the army?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
They could use them for target practice, I guess.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Send in the army, because the good thing about these
is we can make it into mints for the food banks.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Absolutely, and that's the really encouraging thing at the moment.
You can actually harvest these, feed hungry tummies, nothing goes
to waste. So it's a massive feel-good factor. But there
you go, Jamie. That's much better than dropping poison.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
That's a great idea, even if I say so myself. Yeah,
right out.