Respondent spread 24 respondents 14 from South Mainland Lyall - PDF document

05/09/2014 Preliminary Results of the Shetland Greylag Goose Survey Respondent spread • 24 respondents • 14 from South Mainland Lyall Halcrow Graduate Placement – Environmental Health Shetland Islands Council What is affected? Financial damage • 92% of farmers affected • Total damage of £109,770 • Average of £4,990 per farm • Geese target fertilised crops particularly • Vegetables: turnips, carrots, potatoes • Does not include damage to pasture or silage. • Grasses: barley, oats, rape, pasture Turnip damage Other vegetable damage • Substantial damage to carrots and • Twelve reported damage potatoes. • Damage valued at £54,575 • Two respondents experienced significant financial damage to carrot crops • Two thirds reporting damage of 90-100% of • One gave up after losing an entire crop their entire crop. • Three quarters have stopped growing. 1

05/09/2014 Permanent grassland / Silage Droppings damage • Goose damage from eating, trampling and • Half raised concerns about droppings droppings. • Increased re-seeding • Concerns about animal health Two farmers have reduced stock • Two thought research had to be done concerning droppings and diffuse Keep animals inside for pollution. longer / increase feed imports. Difficulties in limiting damage Current goose scaring methods • Rated each method used out of 10 • Shooting – 3.2/10 • Visual scarers – 2.4/10 • Auditory scarers – 2.1/10 • Large numbers (average flock size 400) – 95% • Selecting fields for cropping 1.1/10 • Legislation – 57% • Availability of shooters – 40% • Knowledge of methods – 10% Rating possible improvements The open season in management methods 120 % of respondents experiencing goose damage • Extension of open season – 8.6/10 100 • Egg oiling – 8/10 80 • Remove restrictions on wild meat – 7/10 60 • More commercial / private shooting 7/10 40 • Compensation – 6/10 20 • Funding for scaring – 5/10 0 Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul • Funding in the SRDP – 5/10 The open season for hunting geese; 1 st September - 31 st January Half of damage is out with the open season 2

05/09/2014 Summary Population size • Famers feel the population is at a • Overall population of resident and unsustainable level. • On average they are losing £4990 per year. wintering geese: 8400 • Changing cropping patterns. • Stopped growing certain crops. • Most frequent: deduction to 2000 (a • Problems with the availability of local quarter of the present population) produce. • Average: reduction to 974 (an eighth of the • Current control methods are ineffective. present population) • New thinking is needed to control the population. 3