Dairy joins fight for predator control

 Dairy industry funding will contribute to the Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) programme set up by the NEXT Foundation and DOC. The partnership intends to focus on new and improved ways to remove introduced predators such as rats, stoats and possums from large areas of land and keep them out.

"Diseases and pests are a threat to dairy farming and the New Zealand environment. Farmers already lose millions of dollars due to predators and we want to get behind efforts that accelerate the eradication of pests in New Zealand and protect agricultural incomes," says Fonterra CEO, Theo Spierings.

NEXT Foundation chairman, Chris Liddell says that while current predator control methods like 1080 and trapping can successfully knock back predators, reinvasion is a continual problem and the welcome injection of funding will help ZIP find innovative solutions to the problem.

"Working with the dairy industry will give us access to the dairy farms of New Zealand who are on the front line of the fight against invasive species and allow us to accurately assess the physical and reputational damage that inadequate pest control brings to New Zealand and its strongest export sector," says Liddell.

Director-general of conservation, Lou Sanson sees this as a positive step for the cross sector collaboration.

"This partnership also aims to spark new ideas about predator control and shows what can be achieved when the public and private sector work together for conservation," he says.

Five major dairy companies have committed $5 million to the partnership – including Fonterra, Open Country, Synlait, Tatua, and Westland Milk Products – which will include resources to accelerate the pace of research and development (R&D) capabilities and testing.

"New Zealand's environment and biosecurity is an important driver of our global reputation for high quality, natural dairy nutrition and we want to steadfastly protect that," says Spierings.