BLACKBERRY MENACE

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2148, 24 April 1928, Page 7

BLACKBERRY MENACE

GOATS USED FOR ERADICATION.

Blackberry control is a serious problem in many districts to-day, and especially so in the northern Hawke’s Bay district, where thousands of acres are steadily going back (states a correspondent of the Napier Daily Telegraph). Ploughable land does not offer any serious difficulty as constant working up eventually kills both the blackberry and gorse, but hill country always presents a problem, and if the area is large successful control is well nigh impossible. Goats have been tried with some success, and the results on a Taranaki farm would seem to indicate that where the paddocks are of reasonable size both blackberry and gorse can be brought under control with goats. For a number of years a farmer in the New Plymouth district has kept his 100-acre farm in perfect order by means of goats, and, as his land was heavily infested when he first took it over, it seems that goats offer one of the best possible methods of control. The method he adopted when he took over the farm was to get a large herd of goats —over 200 —in addition to sheep and aattle. After dividing the farm into small paddocks he stocked it heavily with cattle, followed with sheep, and then turned the goats in. By the time they had arrived the grass had been completely eaten, leaving only the blackberry and gorse for these useful animals. So effectively did the goats tackle the weeds that in two years the farm was practically free of gorse and blackberry. Since then the farmer mentioned has kept about 40 goats on his farm in addition to sheep, and to-day his hundred acres are among the most productive areas of the district. The method undoubtedly offers great possibilities to any farmer with limited area to handle, especially as goats can usually be obtained for very little'. The ones used on this farm cost 5s each, and the £SO spent on them very soon returned in the added profits from the clean farm.