Cyclone Gabrielle: Poachers just one more worry farmers don’t need

Jim Galloway is president of Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay.

It will be a long haul for a significant number of farmers, growers and orchardists – and urban folk as well – to get back to where they were pre-Cyclone Gabrielle.

Livelihoods have been ruined, and we’ve all seen pictures of land and buildings covered in silt and debris.

Federated Farmers and other ‘Team Ag’ agencies have already put countless hours into contacting producers whose road access and telecommunications have been severed by flooding and slips, helping set up workarounds to address their immediate needs and begin the recovery.

It’s gratifying that Feds’ advocacy to IRD, banks and others to suspend usual hard deadlines have not fallen on deaf ears.

Councils should also show leeway on the usual RMA red tape and consents, as landowners look to restore – and ideally improve – culverts, stream crossings and other infrastructure.

MPI and Federated Farmers have restarted the livestock Feed Co-ordination Service (though that need probably isn’t going to show itself until winter) and the Farmy Army is being revived to boost the ranks of manpower/womanpower helping farmers clean up, restore fences and shovel silt.

Feds is also spearheading an initiative with the likes of Farmlands, PGW, Farm Source and RuralCo to enable people to easily make donations to dedicated accounts for fence posts, wire and water supply equipment. Internal fences on many farms have been flattened, and they need to be up again as soon as possible so that efficient management of grass and stock feed can be managed heading into colder weather.

I find it despicable that a relatively small number of individuals have taken advantage of this natural disaster to engage in looting.

One more worry that farmers don’t need right now on top of everything else is the attention of poachers and livestock rustlers. Meat in freezers has gone off because of the power cuts, and chances are there will be some who will look to replenish their stores by illegal hunting or the straight-out theft of farmed animals.

A Feds survey in 2021 found that a quarter of the 1200 members who responded had suffered from illegal hunting/poaching in the previous two years. That’s a disturbingly high number, particularly as many farms don’t have wild animals present.

It doesn’t help our courts, rather than delivering clear deterrent sentences, have been underwhelming. The maximum penalties are two years’ imprisonment and/or $100,000 in fines, but in a Google search, the highest penalty I could find was $6000, covering only partial reimbursement of a trophy stag.

It’s not just economic loss, although Ngamatea Station, which runs guided hunting trips as part of its income stream, has estimated it loses up to $60,000 a year to poaching.

Farmers face both the physical risk and emotional worry of confronting or accidentally coming across criminals undertaking illegal hunting. Most poaching happens at night, meaning the use of thermal scopes which don’t allow definitive identification of a target.

How would an urban homeowner or member of the judiciary feel if they were woken up at night by the sound of gunshots and vehicle movement? Like farmers, they’d probably feel the need to protect their property and family, and investigate.

The police do a great job catching and prosecuting these low-lifes, but the judiciary seems to let landowners down with light, totally inadequate sentences.

Jim Galloway is Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay President.