Tips for success
The NZDA Farmer Assist program is a tool designed to cover many situations. If you have a single pest issue that can be solved with one visit, or an ongoing problem that you need regular control activities conducted across the year, NZDA Farmer Assist will suit both circumstances. You should keep in mind the following tips when you post a job and discuss your requirements with members who respond to your listing.
Tip 1: Consider travel times
Depending on the location of your property, you need to keep in mind the distance that NZDA members may need to travel. The majority of NZDA members registered for the program will live in metropolitan areas and there may be considerable travelling required to get to your property. If your property is located a vast distance from metropolitan areas or major regional centres, you should view any pest control activities as a potential week-long commitment by members. This will incorporate travel time both ways, as well as sufficient time to do the required task, and may allow members to more easily organise their trip around their work and personal commitments.
Tip 2: Select a team
If the above applies, it would make sense that you recruit a number of individual members. This way, you can coordinate pest control activities across the calendar, so one individual can attend for a week and then the others can individually attend at different times, regularly across the year. It will be easier for you to organise different individual members to come once or twice a year across the year, rather than getting a commitment from someone to attend individually every month to cover your needs.
Tip 3: Extra set of eyes
Legitimate hunters reduce trespassers. Invite shooters regularly onto your property, especially weekends, because this can reduce the opportunity for trespassers to enter your property unnoticed. The sight of a spotlight in the distance or activity in the area will act as a deterrent to those people who may enter your property without permission. NZDA Farmer Assist provides an extra set of eyes to keep watch on your property.
Tip 4: Detail reduces questions
Make your initial job listing as detailed as possible in regards to accommodation available at or near your property, the type of animals needing control, and perhaps even their population size. Extra information like this will make it easier for people to consider your job based on their individual circumstances. It will also ensure any contact you have with members is with people who are well-informed, aware of what the situation is and what you need.
Tip 5: Use an online calendar
When considering how best to utilise and coordinate selected NZDA members on your property, we recommend using shared calendar software such as the free online application Team Up (www.teamup.com). Effective pest management relies on the frequency and intensity of the control activity, and a versatile calendar application can help you achieve this by allowing you to schedule and organise group activities with one or more people so to plan the timing of their activities based on their availability and other activities occurring on your property. Where there are available openings in the calendar, you can decide to reuse the NZDA Farmer Assist jobs board to obtain more resources to fill in these gaps.