Nows the time to stop rabbits eating your profits away
Nows the time to stop rabbits eating your profits away
Dont let rabbits continue to
nibble away at your profits.
Now is the time to hit the
pest hard, urges consultant
Roger Trout of Rabbit-Wise
in Farnham, Surrey
TRADITIONAL rabbit management is timed from November to the end of February, or March further north. The reasons are very simple – cover is at its lowest and rabbits start to breed during the early months of the year, so every adult female rabbit killed now results in about 20 fewer young to eat crops during the growing season.
Ideally, control should start in early winter because early-born young survive five to 10 times better than later born young. However, on many farms and estates rabbit management does not start seriously until after the shooting season because the shoot manager erroneously believes rabbit management disturbs game bird shooting.
So, get stuck into your rabbit problem immediately, not in August when the damage is done and enormous numbers of rabbits will anyway succumb to myxomatosis or rabbit haemorrhagic disease.
Even a few per cent loss from rabbit damage makes a large difference to profits – one rabbit/ha may remove about 1% in cereal yield, equalling several pounds per rabbit! And you only see about one rabbit for every four grazing a field. Even if the crop at the edge appears to recover, damage may well extend into the field.
For some farmers the rabbit ravages are virtually the last straw – they cannot afford to pay for a management plan, they cannot afford to do a planned management campaign by themselves, and they cannot afford to suffer the losses incurred.
The answer is to work with neighbours to plan a co-ordinated progressive campaign, where each contributes to an organised series of control "sweeps".
That is very different from the old rabbit clearance societies, where some farmers paid only for their worst land and an underpaid operator ran from hotspot to hotspot with no planning other than to ensure there were enough left for his job next year. Rabbits can travel further than you think and any small area cleared will quickly be reinvaded.
Neighbour co-operation is in everyones interests to reduce the waste of money from covering only part of a joint problem. The railway, road and water authorities in some parts of the country are changing their attitude towards co-operation. The incremental burrowing into banks is a long term problem for them.
Most methods of management are costly, so use resources wisely. There are three strategic principles – keep them out, kill them, dont grow anything they like to eat. No individual management method is appropriate everywhere, so use a combination of the methods listed below over the year.
RABBIT CONTROL POINTERS
• Plan either to deliberately increase your rabbit-free areas or reduce specific rabbit infested parts rather than a thin ineffective splash overall.
• Fumigation: Either hand or power-operated gassing pumps for cyanide or applicators for phosphine based products. Expensive but good if correctly done by trained staff.
• Wire fencing: You get exactly what you pay for – including time for maintenance. Dont skimp to save money because cheap, imported wire rabbit netting far below the British Standard fence specifications (19 gauge wire 31mm mesh) can have breaks in it as you unroll it. Beware of false labelling of thinner gauge or DIN mesh size so large that half grown rabbits can still get through to graze the crop. Compare roll weights.
• Multicapture traps: Have great potential all year round when placed in fences or walls.
• Electric fencing: The best netting or multi-stranded types can provide help for a short period until crops get away, provided they are correctly erected, well maintained and the current stays high all the time. Not so good with heavy infestations.
• Cropping plans: Winter cereals are heaven. Use your setaside wisely, switch to unpalatable crops or try spring sowing to reduce the rabbits winter food supply.
• Shooting and ferreting: Very popular because its fun, but very rarely cost effective. However, if outsiders offer those services free – or even pay – consider them as additions to your strategic plan in targeted locations, not the plan itself.
Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease
• RHD exclusive to rabbit.
• Sudden death occurs only 30 hours after infection following a huddled coma or short fit.
• Animals die in good condition (no myxomatosis eye swelling). The only field signs are lying dead with the head pulled back – sometimes blood in the nose or lungs and legs straight out. Many die in burrows.
• A multi-funded project on the distribution and impact for farmers and important grazed conservation areas is underway. English Nature at Peterborough (01733-455000) have information sheets.
HAEMORRHAGIC DISEASE
• RHD exclusive to rabbit.
• Sudden death occurs only 30 hours after infection following a huddled coma or short fit.
• Animals die in good condition (no myxomatosis eye swelling). The only field signs are lying dead with the head pulled back – sometimes blood in the nose or lungs and legs straight out. Many die in burrows.
• A multi-funded project on the distribution and impact for farmers and important grazed conservation areas is underway. English Nature at Peterborough (01733-455000) has information sheets.
RABBITCONTROLPOINTERS
• Plan either to deliberately increase your rabbit-free areas or reduce specific rabbit infested parts rather than a thin ineffective splash overall.
• Fumigation: Either hand or power-operated gassing pumps for cyanide or applicators for phosphine based products. Expensive but good if correctly done by trained staff.
• Wire fencing: You get exactly what you pay for – including time for maintenance. Dont skimp to save money because cheap, imported wire rabbit netting far below the British Standard fence specifications (19 gauge wire 31mm mesh) can have breaks in it as you unroll it. Beware of false labelling of thinner gauge or DIN mesh size so large that half grown rabbits can still get through to graze the crop. Compare roll weights.
• Multicapture traps: Have great potential all year round when placed in fences or walls.
• Electric fencing: The best netting or multi-stranded types can provide help for a short period until crops get away, provided they are correctly erected, well maintained and the current stays high all the time. Not so good with heavy infestations.
• Cropping plans: Winter cereals are heaven. Use your setaside wisely, switch to unpalatable crops or try spring sowing to reduce the rabbits winter food supply.
• Shooting and ferreting: Very popular because its fun, but very rarely cost effective. However, if outsiders offer those services free – or even pay – consider them as additions to your strategic plan in targeted locations, not the plan itself.