Where rabbit control works

Earlier this month, a helicopter-based shooter flew for more than 21 hours to kill 32 rabbits on Galloway Station, but property owner Andrew Preston says forget the cost per animal, they were the cheapest rabbits he will ever kill.

"That's how low rabbits are," he said.

"They're the cheapest rabbits you can get because they're the ones you can't get any other way," the Alexandra farmer said.

While other Central Otago properties are grappling with a rabbit population explosion, Galloway is an example of what can happen after more than 15 years of dedication to addressing the problem, with the annual rabbit kill now almost equal to what used to be killed in a week.

Mr Preston said to get to this point required focus, a plan, some tough decisions and commitment.

The key was developing a rabbit control plan which included allocating funding and deciding that he wanted to eradicate the pest rather than just take the top off the population.

That initially meant sacrificing control on parts of the station to focus on regaining control of smaller areas, before slowly pushing the rabbit population back.

He employs a full-time rabbiter, Gary Wigglesworth, and they use every control tool available, except for 1080 poison which has not been used for the past 15 years because it has not been needed.

Mr Preston said at the start his rabbiter would shoot about 100 rabbits a night, but on a busy night it could be up to 500.

Today, Mr Wigglesworth still goes out six nights a week, and in a busy night will shoot five.

For the past eight to 10 years they have averaged 100 to 110 rabbits a month, and some of those are over the boundary fence.

If they see rabbits or fresh sign, it becomes a priority, either gassing the burrow or returning with dogs and a gun.

Mr Preston said he had changed his mindset, and now looked at rabbit control as a fixed annual farm cost and not a reactionary expenditure, usually a significant one, in response to high numbers that demanded a poison operation.

"It's not an unknown quantity that you can't control. I know the costs and I know the benefits."

Mr Preston is not too worried that the relatively mild winter meant rabbits were nesting a month earlier than normal, signalling potentially another good breeding season, because he has maintained pressure on the population.

"It is expensive to kill rabbits, but once you get them down, it's not too expensive," he said.

He urged farmers wanting to get rabbits under control to seek advice, saying the Otago Regional Council can help create a farm plan.

"It does make you see things in a logical way, and it makes you look at how you do things."

Rabbit haemorraghic disease has been through Galloway Station, but numbers are too low for it to have an impact.

Blood tests show just 14% immunity.

Mr Preston said rabbit control had the added advantage of keeping pressure on other pests like possums and ferrets, and Galloway was free of bovine tuberculosis.

As well as peace of mind, he said low rabbit numbers meant he had held stock numbers, but real dividends were paid during dry seasons because stock was not competing for grass.

While he accepted he would never kill all the rabbits on his farm, Mr Preston said that had to be his aim.

"You have got to treat every rabbit like it could be the last one."

Rabbit control
- Andrew Preston, Galloway Station, Alexandra, 13,800ha.
- Cost for year to kill 1643 rabbits, $63,762.
- 1430 hours of night shooting to kill 1565 rabbits at 0.9 rabbits an hour.
- 34.7 hours shooting by helicopter to kill 78 rabbits at 0.44 rabbits an hour.
- Also killed: 106 possums and 26 ferrets.