This project is looking at the potential agricultural production/ Conservation benefits resulting from commercial use of kangaroos, feral goats and feral pigs in the Australian rangelands

Under best practice pest management guidelines, commercial use may improve the economic feasibility of pest management. Commercial use of pest animals has been suggested as a method of reducing pest impacts whilst providing an economic gain. However, this idea has not been tested.

The main issue in considering the use of pest animals is whether commercial harvesting will reduce numbers to a level at which pest impact is acceptable. I am testing this idea in regions where kangaroos, feral goats and feral pigs are commercially harvested.  I am attempting to define the conditions under which commercial use can successfully be integrated with conventional pest control activities.

IA CRC PhD student Kylie Singh, based out of NSW Department of Industries' Vertebrate Pest Research Unit at Orange, is combining multiple objective optimisation methods with bioeconomic models to develop optimised sustainable use of rangelands for extensive grazing enterprises, whilst achieving the constraint of promoting conservation values.