{"id":656102,"date":"2026-03-14T23:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T23:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/656102\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T23:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T23:09:25","slug":"farmers-hit-with-rising-costs-and-lost-production-as-battle-against-rabbit-crisis-worsens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/656102\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers hit with rising costs and lost production as battle against rabbit crisis worsens"},"content":{"rendered":"

A farmer in southern New South Wales has avoided planting crops on certain paddocks for the past three years, due to damage caused by a growing number of rabbits.<\/p>\n

The pests have been a thorn in the side of Peter O’Brien at his property near Coolamon for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

\"Farmer<\/p>\n

Riverina farmer Peter O’Brien cannot plant canola in certain paddocks due to the rabbits.\u00a0 (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“At night-time, when you look out with a thermal [camera], the rabbits are as far as you can see them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It would probably be between 5,000 and 10,000 rabbits from where you are standing.”<\/p>\n

A 120-hectare paddock can no longer be used for canola, after rabbits ate part of the crop in 2023.<\/p>\n

“I think it was probably a destruction of 50 per cent,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

The Riverina farmer said it is between $50,000 to $100,000 a year in lost production and hundreds of hours of labour when taking part in baiting programs.<\/p>\n

\"Farmer<\/p>\n

The rabbits are damaging fences to get to the crop.\u00a0 (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth)<\/p>\n

Mr O’Brien took part in the first baiting program of the year this week, with seven other landholders in the area.<\/p>\n

With the help of Local Land Services, farmers distribute carrots, which contain the chemical Pindone.<\/p>\n

“We are probably averaging around 200 kilograms of carrots to each landholder to be put out,” Mr O’Brien said.<\/p>\n

“I would imagine we would kill 5,000 to 10,000.”<\/p>\n

Although that is a small dent in the number of rabbits nationwide.<\/p>\n

Virus resistance<\/p>\n

More than 200 million rabbits threaten over 300 native species in Australia, according to the Invasive Species Council of Australia.<\/p>\n

CEO Jack Gough said rabbit numbers are increasing because the biocontrol measure, calicivirus, is becoming resistant in the remaining population.<\/p>\n

“Biocontrols have a life in terms of their efficacy of only about 10 to 15 years; we are getting to a point where that is rapidly dropping off,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, right now there’s no new biocontrol in the works.<\/p>\n

“That is because in 2022, the government cut funding for what was called the rabbit biocontrol pipeline project.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The calicivirus was released in 2017 and wiped out around 60 per cent of the rabbit population in Australia.\u00a0 (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (CISS) have put forward a proposal for a new virus, but it requires further funding.<\/p>\n

Mr Gough said it could be between eight and 10 years before the next one is developed.<\/p>\n

The rabbits have not only destroyed farms but have also spread to nearby towns.<\/p>\n

\"Rabbit<\/p>\n

A rabbit has burrowed under this grave site at Junee in the NSW Riverina.\u00a0 (ABC Riverina: Cara Jeffery)<\/p>\n

Grave sites at the Junee cemetery remain damaged due to rabbit warrens.<\/p>\n

Mayor of Junee Shire, Bob Callow, said the council cannot afford to pay $30,000 for every baiting program.<\/p>\n

“We’ve added all of that up, across all the areas that we are doing, and it’s roughly a million dollars a year, if we were to do that,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Regional councils are struggling to keep up with rabbit control.\u00a0 (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Mr Callow said there is nothing else they can afford to do “unless we cut services somewhere else”.<\/p>\n

Government under pressure<\/p>\n

The Invasive Species Council of Australia is calling on the federal government to prioritise further investment in rabbit biocontrol across Australia.<\/p>\n

“This should be a national priority,” Mr Gough said.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s been some complacency that has crept in.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Jack Gough from the Invasive Species Council says the federal government has been complacent over rabbit biocontrol.\u00a0 (Supplied: Invasive Species Council\u00a0)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said more than $1.2 million in federal funding is supporting wild rabbit projects, including rabbit biocontrol research.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The government will continue to collaborate with researchers, governments and industry to take forward recommendations in the National Rabbit Biocontrol Pipeline Strategy.”<\/p>\n

Peter O’Brien said a new biocontrol virus would mean a “huge difference” to their operations.<\/p>\n

“We simply don’t have the labour to continue to do this baiting, shooting, ripping.<\/p>\n

“A biological control would essentially work for itself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A farmer in southern New South Wales has avoided planting crops on certain paddocks for the past three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":656103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,120039,2142,50,146862,63804,278045],"class_list":["post-656102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-biocontrol","tag-federal-government","tag-news","tag-pests","tag-rabbits","tag-rabbits-and-farming"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116230053429469389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}