Pest animals are causing millions of dollars worth of damage to Australian farmers millions each year, including to grape production which is often overlooked in the debate.
Littore Family Vineyards, one of Australia's largest independent wine grape growers, have had to invest in over 30km of feral-proof fencing to keep rabbits, hares, foxes and kangaroos off their new 1000 hectare Darling River development at their Arlington vineyard, near Wentworth on the New South Wales/Victorian border.
According to David Littore, manager of the family vineyard business, the damage caused by pest animals is extensive.
"Vines were getting ringbarked and growing shoots eaten by rabbits," Mr Littore said.
"Foxes and hares chew on the drip line looking for a drink of water and puncture the drip irrigation system.
"Kangaroos are also a problem, doing a lot of damage knocking over young vines and vine supports.
"What we didn't expect was for kangaroos to acquire a taste for the grapes.
"It seems that during the drought, they have learned to eat the grapes for the moisture content, devastating the grape crop."
To keep the pest animals out, the Littores have now erected 30km of fencing, 1.8 meters in height around the Arlington vineyard.
"When we decided to invest in feral fencing, we knew there was no point in being half-hearted about it," Mr Littore said.
"It needed to keep out all of the pests, which is hard with the range of animals we have here, and also had to last the life of the vineyard.
"The fence needed to be strong on the ground to stop the animals from digging and pushing under, as well as in the air, as kangaroos will jump when they can’t get under easily.
"We decided to use Waratah fencing products because we have been using Waratah trellis wire in the vineyards for 35 years and have been extremely happy with it."
The famiily built a 1.5 metre high fence featuring StockSafe-T, a pre-fabricated wire specifically designed for controlling feral animals.
"And it doesn't sag because of the tight knot joining the vertical and horizontal wires," Mr Littore said.
"The bottom of the fence has been rabbit proofed by overlapping the StockSafe-T with netting, which has also been dug into the ground to stop burrowing under the fence."
The fence has been very successful, and the Littores are confident it will not only pay for itself, but save them thousands of dollars worth of lost production.
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