Hi everybody,I have just discovered this forum while net surfing.Excellent.I am a kiwi pest control contractor(possums)who enjoys hunting red deer when I can.I am keen to move to Oz
and take up roo culling but I am not sure how to get into it,as I have read most stations have a full-time roo shooter.I was wondering if anyone can help.Thanks. Bruce

Try this forum too Bruce www.australianhunting.net

You need "deciple of Keith" to answer as he is a pro shooter

Hi Southposs,
I would like to get into roo culling too in Australia.
Does your job in New Zealand pay well?
Do you get full time work?
I have been culling badgers here in Ireland for the department of agriculture for T.B purposes, for the past 3 years.
It payed well at first, but now is thining out, due to cut backs .
Is their any chance of work do you think in New Zealand?
Or for that matter any work in Oz, culling Kangaroos anyone else?
Thanks.

Deer culling in New Zealand would just be fine too. .

Roos are culled here by professional shooters that shoot mainly for the pet meat industry . Not sure that it's quite as glorious as you guys make it sound .
Drive around all night (usually by yourself) head shooting roos which then have to be gutted and hung in a cool box . Sleep in the daytime . Plenty of isolation , blood and guts if that's what you're into . Money's not great from what I hear .

Ahh CRAP another Kiwi coming over

Welcome to the forums Bruce

I think the industry might be pretty well covered. Don't bother with that other forum, Disciple-of-Keith here is your man for the answers.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
Don't bother with that other forum,

Nitro, why not?

Don't you love the contributions where the only offering is to go somewhere else.

Plus if we have resident shooters here who can answer when they log on, why go somewhere else?

see my post/thread below
What to Hunt in OZ

Bushchook,
Do you have an address of jobs involving roo culling, e.mail or something?
Thanks.

Thanks everybody for your answers.Sounds like disciple-of-keith is the man to talk to,hope he answers.Mik I work just about full-time,11 months of year,pay is approx $NZ100-175 per day,and as it is contract work you get paid for covering the acres not how many you kill.Only problem with pay is you don't get paid till your work is monitored and is down to agreed percentage in contract,so if you fail you don't get paid and only one chance to set it right.Bushchook, I'm under no illusions that it is a glorious job.I have no problem with isolation,love it in fact,done afair bit of spotlighting for deer,possums and rabbits,and there's a fair bit of blood when you dong a possum on the head with a hammer.Thanks Bruce

As far as I know the property owners have the rights to take X number of roos.

In SA where DOK operates there are two types of permits. One is cull only and the carcase may not be taken off the property. It can be used but not off the property (eg dog meat). The second type is commercial culling where the skin and carcase can be sold.

I believe you need to set up an arrangement with landowners to cull on their property. They want the roos shot as they compete with sheep. Usually you see 10 roos for every sheep on these properties. Then the animals are taken to the meat chillers or processors.

I would guess it is more of a personal professional business than something where you can be hired as a job.

One way perhaps to get into it would be to buy out an existing prof roo shooters business but of course the property owners may still tell you to bugger off and get someone else in.

Licensing? It never used to require a licence but I know some states have introduced licensing for prof roo shooter.

DOK hopefully will comment. He must be away chasing those fallow deer he was telling me about.

Nitro
these days you have to have qualifications in food handling and soforth to be a profesional shooter this includes sterile knives and stainless steel hooks ect. it's not as simple as it used to be (bloody government)

Mik ,
NitroX pretty much covers it in his post . Most pro shooters run their own businesses and are one man operations.

Fair enough .
Thanks for the replys.

Gentleman & ladies I am glad to see you have tried to warn another poor soul of the pit falls of the Roo Shooting industry !
MIK I do this for a living So I'll give you the hard facts ....
First up in SA you must complete A game meat handling course ,Followed by A firearms proficentcey course (about $600 for the two these days I'm told ) Then you must apply for your permit .$750.00 pa Folowed by a reliable vehicle Round the 45000 mark then A approved stainless or galvenised tray (between 800-2000) then each year you must get it accredited.A futher 200pa then after all this you find properties that have no shooters on them (at the rate Blokes are going bankrupt over here that shouldnt be hard! (my sarcasium is aimed at the Gov here as my quotas were slashed from 6ooo tags pa to 750 & I shoot a number of properties)
We then get to the Prossesors (GOD LOVE EM) they pay 46-76cents per kg then re sell the product for 12.75+ perkg,& several charge us 6c per kg to employ someone to clean the chillers ! I am at the presant time shooting other species including Cammels shortly until thing s pick up again (hopefully)I hate to paint a bleak picture but.At the presant time there is no future for a new bloke in this industry !I've just been doing it to long to get out now

Thanks Deciple-of-keith.
Very interesting stuff. That stops any far flung ideas for me .
What rifle do you use to shoot all them (750) roos?
My job over here was culling badgers for the dept of agriculture, great when it started, loads of dosh for the first 3 years, but the last year would not put bread on the table. .
Im in Ireland.
You would think with a job like yours you would get a goverment vehicle. But by the sound of it you do it on private contract.

Disciple-of-keith

Some questions if you don't mind:

quote:

my quotas were slashed from 6ooo tags pa to 750 & I shoot a number of properties

Q. Are the commercial tags awarded to you personally, or to the properties you hunt on and they in effect sub-contract the harvest to you? If the latter do you have to pay to get access from the landowners?

Q. What was the rationale for cutting quotas, considering the estimates of roos in Australia only a few years ago was about 63 million and the highest ever on record. Well above the numbers before white man arrived? (the last bit for our foreign readers - yes more roos now than before colonisation). Obviously that number was pre-drought.

Is the rationale based on a decrease in roo numbers in SA? Or maybe on a economic market saturation objective ie not enough markets for roo meat, so decreased harvesting to compensate and provide higher returns per animal taken?

Q. Has the SA gov't decreased culling/destruction permits as well, or increased them?

Q. The process you mention above, I believe, is roo meat for human consumption? Or pet food? Or both ie there is no differential?

Thanks in anticipation.

MIK & Nitro thank you I will try and answer your Questions without predudice (bit hard when you have just got your licence renewal in the post)
Ok the prefered Cal these days is the .223 (The min legal cal being .222) This will on a good night.(The Gods willing ) take A ROO at 200mtrs (Neck shot).Some guys are still using 22/250s as they reckon it gives them the reach out to 300-350mtrs .Hey I'm not going to argue if they can constantly hit Roo after ROO at that range .......! Most of us Old Farts say 200 is a long shot & I'll leave it there !
Nitro great questions (let's pray the CSIRO,& DEPT OF THE ENVIROMENT. Do'nt read this ) Ok the tag system is worked out per property each species is a differant colour & these are changed each year! The Property owner applies to have so many roos culled of his property .This is assed by Inspectors then the number is aloted to the owner who then contacts A prossecer or the shooter who has permission to shoot his property.Who inturn is issued the tags by the company he contracts to (or companies in my case as I shoot for several) Yes we are sub contractors of a sence but are not bound by any contract to any one company!
The reason that our quotas are down is two fold The first is nature ! through the drought Roos do'nt breed in fact a Doe (Female Roo) in times of drought if carring a inmature Joey(baby Roo)will reverse the the Feeding prosses there by reobsurbing what goodness it can out of the infant& at the same time abort it . Hense we have Zero population growth.The second reason is the lack of foresight by the Gov to continue to issue licenses to anyone who wants to become a shooter instead of controling the number of shooters as is done in the commercial fishing industry With the No of licenses issued over all (another get rich quick scheme for the Gov)! Now a lot of Property owners & I can see their point! The more shooters on the property the quicker the problem of Roos is taken care off! But With the 33% reduction of tags issued each year by the Gov coupled with An increased number of shooters ...Well as you can see.We have zero population _+ Redused Quotas + to many shooters = Not enough work to go around .as stocks are depleated at a far greater rate.Than in normal years!
Your quite right in the fact that there are more Roos in Australia now than before White settlement due to the fact of Crops Increased water supplies due to stock irrigation really the Roo has never had it so good!I also stress that it is managed as a renuable resourse .
The thing is that bottom line is the shooter Miantains his vehical &equipment ,Supplies his own Fuel Ect & gets paid only 46-76 cents a kg for his product .Where as the same product at the end of the line is being sold to the consummer at almost $13.00 per kg & the prosseser also gets the price of the skin.I cannot realy complain as all the 20 odd properties I shoot across the nth of the state are mine exclusivly with no other shooters allowed & I'm also in the top price range of Payment (when they issue me with some more Tags!!!! )
The differance between Human consumption & Pet meat these days is Quite simple (A) This one for people ,that one for Pet Food or (B)if a ROO is head shot it wil tend to summersult backwards there by breaking it's tail this inturn bruises the meat around the Rump these are used as Pet food! This is why the Neck shot is prefered .Gut shots are rejected & the shooter is reported to the authorities For cruelty & can be finned or disqualified from shooting

Thanks deciple-of-Keith.
You have been a mind full of info.
Cheers.

D.O.K.

Thanks for taking the time to provide a lengthy answer. It was interesting and confirmed a few things and a few new facts as well.

I wonder if the rationale of decreasing the cull is mainly political and not true conservation. If there are too many kangaroos and some are starving, isn't reducing the numbers going to actually benefit the "bounder" (?? is that the correct word for a 'herd' of kangaroos ??) or 'herd' by making more food available for the survivors?

ie a quota of about 3.5 mil to 7 million is approved each year from a population of between 45 million and 63 million. Even a drought of two or three years is not going to damage the populations viability, and if a drought continued beyond that, the cull could then be reduced anyway.

But the politics of drought plus a high cull might be extreme in the eyes of greenie idiots around the world and set them off even worse than normal.

I think we should be 'farming' roos more and less sheep and cattle. Personally I really enjoy roo meat, it is red and rich, very low in fat, natural, easy to cook and healthy. It would also be good for the environment.

"Feed a vegetarian a 'roo steak today!" should be the motto.

I like that Nitrox,
"FEED A VEGETERIAN A ROO STEAK".
Nice one

The price of roo meat (or anything else) is basically set by supply and demand, up here in the N.T roo meat for human consumption ranges from approx $12.00-$15.00 kg which is very cheap compared to beef pork and lamb.

It really isn't that popular which is a shame as roo meat is very healthy, I think most of the opposition to eating it is due to poor marketing by the industry which should be promoting their product at the consumer level. It was while I was butchering for a living that roo meat for human consumption was allowed, initially there was a lot of interest from customers but the marketing of the product was shocking with prime cuts (fillet rump backstrap) thrown into a bag like dog food and frozen!

It certainly isn't the case now with attrative packaging and a good range available but sales lag behind the traditional beasts, perhaps if butchers treated roo meat as they do beef lamb etc it might pick up ground, by that I mean cut to order thick, thin, crumbed, french cutlets, corned silverside, rolled roasts..... you get the idea. There would be very little waste due to the low fat content of roos and if the butcher bought whole roo carcases the cost per kg would be substantially cheaper.

As a matter of intrest a Herd of Roos is called a Mob & yes I think that the whole Reduction of Quotas is purly Political .Due to the Fact in my experiance .The CSIRO inspectors who work out the Roo Population Nums are .Tree Huggers ,The census is done by air craft , during the daylight hours over a large area & nums are calculated by the number seen Now strangly enough I have to work at night!As Roos are nocturnal & tend to hide under the tree line during the day! I do'nt know if I'm missing something here or not? I agree with Nitro in the fact that we should be havesting Roos as apposed to intreduced animals.But I also agree with NT in the marketing stratergies are misplaced.(A)Roo meat is generaly still refered to as Pet meat & (B) when packaged for human consumption ,it is packaged as being a Gourmet meat!instead of quoting it's qualities as a healther meat so far as Fat is concerned (Personaly I don't have a great love of it ,due to the fact I was brought up on it )

A "mob" of course. Thanks.

Mik.

You have a private message waiting on your profile page.

Rgds Ian

Hi Ian, I have replied back. .

I did a bit of wallaby culling last year on Kangaroo Island. A local farmer has some pigs on his land but he really wants hunters to go out and shoot possums and wallabies for him. He took me out the first night as he said he gets bored doing it alone. The only problem was, he expected one kill per .22. And I missed a few times so got a hard time for it.

I am hoping to get over again but only if it stays dry as it is easy to get bogged on his property. Hell it is dry this year, a real bad drought year coming up I think.

Nitro Sounds like a top hunt .Your right about the drought situation .It just wo'nt give in it's as dry as a lime burnner's boot up here.My brother (the Farmer in the Family) is making noises about comming to work up Nth with me!Do'nt worry about getting heckled by a Cockie Their the tightest so&sos ever born (My Old Man & Brother would recycle their Projectiles if they could work out a way!I reckon the Old Man has the first box of .22 he ever brought)

THANKS.

I used to think it would be a good way to live.

A good thing to try after retiring at 54/11. It shows just how niave I can be.

Too good of a life style to appreciate how hard others are doing it.


I must stop browsing and replying or I will drive all you older members crazy.

Sorry

Ross

A up date on the latest way the Gov has decided to screw Roo shooters !!!!! Shortly the Shoter will be required to buy his own tags ! 100 at a time ! but they have a expirey date of 3 mths ! So if by chance I can't get out due to bad waether ext I'm out of pocket & will be at the mercey of the Np&wl service on getting a regular supply of tags ! I fell the time has come to pull the plug & get out whils the going is good !

The stupidity of government regulation can be astounding at times. In NSW roo culling permits can be issued to either a pro shooter or the land holder. The roos shot under the land holders permit must be left where they fall. They cannot be used for any commercial purpose, not even pet meat. This is thanks to the morons in the National Parks and Wildlife Service and their environazi mates.

The worst example of this type of animal libber maddness was when tens of thousands of skippies were starving to death on the army base at Puckapunyal in Vic. The animal rights freaks wouldnt let a humane cull take place and ended up running into the line of fire to stop it.

Meanwhile people like DOK battle to make ends meet whilst the carcases rot in the sun!

Scott

quote:

The worst example of this type of animal libber maddness was when tens of thousands of skippies were starving to death on the army base at Puckapunyal in Vic. The animal rights freaks wouldnt let a humane cull take place and ended up running into the line of fire to stop it.

This was our arguement through out every drought i can remember ! Ok granted the Roos had no condition but the Powers that be thought it better to let thousands of roos die a slow death of starvation & thirst than issue extra quotas so we could make something of a living & put the creatures out of thir misery !Yes I have reasons of econemy for wanting to cull Roos but It must also be noted that We as Pros are great conservationests No Roos left equals no more income & we due to the sake of economy have to make everyshot count as a hit & kill! Sorry but it is a issue I've been fighting for near 40yrs !

On alighter note welcome to the forum Ross ! Do'nt be shy about posting

I won't be mate.

This may seem strange but what I have read of your posts, you are a very down to life type of bloke.

As I have said before, at one stage I thought shooting roos for a living would be the way to go after giving away teaching.

I know now I just could not do it.

I remember when that stuff up over the Army base was going on. A couple of members of the armed forces who had to get their "public" shooters licences through me vented for ages over it.

But, apparently there are certain types of things owned by our military that can turn problems into "red mist" when there is no one looking.

Just not enough chances, of course.