Need help with pest animals?
We provide a free service
Farmers and landholders do not need to pay to register for the program and there is no fee for our members' pest control services.
You have total control
Farmers and landholders have total control over who comes onto their property and what conditions our members must follow.
Accredited shooters only
SSAA members registered for this program have undertaken a shooting skill test that is equivalent to tests undertaken by professional shooters.
Covered by insurance
All SSAA members participating in this program are covered by the association's $20 million public liability and personal accident cover.
Testimonials
I have found the Farmer Assist program to be extremely helpful in controlling feral animals on our drought stricken property. I would recommend the program to other farmers.
Key Program Aims
SSAA Farmer Assist supported by
Latest News
Can you help? Queensland Flood Recovery
Follow SSAA Farmer Assist on Facebook
The survey is closing soon so make sure you participate before it's too late. Make sure you share this survey with family and friends.
Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia - SSAA National
This survey has now closed. The SSAA sends its thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey for the future of our sport and will publish the results as soon as they come to hand.Members pl...
BENEFITS OF RECREATIONAL SHOOTING SURVEY NOW OPEN
Recreational shooters, world champions, farmers, Olympic athletes, small businesses and those with an interest in firearms are invited to take part in the first ever nation-wide survey to measure the economic and social benefits of the sport.
There are over 1 million Australians who are registered firearm owners, with over a hundred thousand participants every week engaged in the sport across the country.
Most are engaged in recreational shooting at thousands of clubs nationwide and many use firearms as part of their daily work in pest management and farming.
The study will seek to quantify the social and economic contribution the shooting industry makes to Australia. Local shooting clubs, regional sports events and shooting tourism can be pivotal economic drivers.
The local employment of over 1,000 firearm dealers and the wider firearm manufacturing industry that support this activity needs to be better understood. Demographic information, along with health and wellbeing benefits for participants, is also being examined.
“There’s never been a comprehensive look at what recreational shooting as a sport and pastime contributes to our country,” the Minister for Sport, Senator Bridget McKenzie said.
“We really want to get under the hood of this sporting industry and understand what it is contributing each day, in dollar terms to our regional economies.
“Shooting should be treated just like any other sport that is successful in winning Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals. It is a little known fact that shooting is Australia’s 7th most successful sport at the Olympic level (after swimming, athletics, cycling, rowing, sailing and equestrian).
“We have shooting champions that continue to inspire the next generation of athletes yet it is treated as poor second cousin to other more ‘glamourous’ sports.
“And that is why we are undertaking the first-ever study to understand just how important shooting is to our economy.”
A Victorian study into that state’s sector alone found that gun sports contributed $430 million to the economy and generated 1500 direct jobs.
Similarly, NSW has estimated that recreational hunters spent $100 million in 2016 purchasing equipment and food associated with hunting, which contributed around 860 jobs to the economy.
“Without national data however, we can never hope to expand, improve, measure and promote sport shooting in the same manner that every other sport enjoys. Without hard data about the economic benefits of the shooting, our ability to tap into higher level funding, events and cultural dialogue will always be hindered,” Minister McKenzie said.
In the 2018-19 federal budget, the Liberal Nationals Government announced it would invest an additional $230 million in sport and physical activities over five years.
To access the survey, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/r/PLMQKZ5
National Recreational Hunting and Sports Shooting Survey 2019
surveymonkey.com
Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.We have had a number of members suggest that SSAA Farmer Assist should aid farmers that have been impacted by the recent Queensland floods. After investigating the most efficient and practical way to do this, and after discussions with AgForce Queensland, the SSAA Farmer Assist team has concluded that our members can best help by volunteering through the organisation BlazeAid. BlazeAid already has the infrastructure and programs to assist in this type of clean-up and rebuilding activity.
BlazeAid runs basecamps that are staging areas in specified locations to accommodate volunteers who will undertake rebuilding damaged fences in the local areas. You don’t need any fencing experience, just a willingness to give it a go and learn on the job. You can volunteer for a day or two or a week or more. All you need to do is contact the camp coordinator a few days before you are ready to attend a basecamp.
More information on how to volunteer for BlazeAid to help flood-affected farmers can be found on their website: blazeaid.com.au/volunteering-information/being-a-blazeaid-volunteer/
As a Farmer Assist member, if you feel like leaving your firearms at home and assisting farmers in a different way, this is certainly a worthwhile way to do so. This will show the wider community that members of SSAA Farmer Assist are not just concerned about shooting pest animals but that we also care about our rural community. SSAA will provide all members who register to participate in flood recovery work with a free SSAA Farmer Assist cap to wear while they are on site. This will ensure that while you are helping rebuild farmers’ damaged infrastructure, you will also help build awareness of our program.
To receive your free SSAA Farmer Assist cap, please email your details to farmerassist@ssaa.org.au once you have contacted and committed to joining an activity managed by BlazeAid. We will then have a SSAA Farmer Assist cap sent to you.
Volunteering for BlazeAid is not restricted to SSAA Farmer Assist members so feel free to invite family and friends to join you in a worthwhile community support initiative.
To ensure that you receive system messages and that we have your correct contact details, its important to keep your profile details up to date.
It's also good practice to shoot a copy of the assessment target every time you sight your firearms in so you have a recent copy of the target in your profile.
Remember targets are only valid for three years so it makes sense to redo the target shoot often when you visit the range.
DO YOU NEED PEST ANIMALS CULLED? 🦘🐕🦌
There might be a shooter willing to help you out.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) runs a program called Farmer Assist, which lets landholders submit jobs to a system for trained shooters to take up.
The service is free, and SSAA Farmer Assist National Coordinator Matthew Godson hopes that if more farmers sign up it will help reduce the number of pests in the state.
"The program was designed to give farmers a way of finding volunteer shooters to assist them with pest management," he said.
"Landholders just need to sign up to the website and ask for assistance by creating what we call a 'job'.
"That is only a five minute exercise, and as soon as they're finished the job's live and our members can start to apply to provide assistance to the individual farm owners."
Mr Godson says the shooters are fully trained and accredited, and that there's capacity in South Australia to handle more jobs.
SSAA will also be working with Livestock SA and the State Government to try and tackle overabundant kangaroos.
FILE PHOTO: Audience submitted/Darren Gall
Can you spare some time to help show the true value of hunting and sports shooting in Australia?
This survey is very important and we ask all hunters and shooters to participate and spend 15 minutes of their time to help shape the future of our recreational activities.
Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia - SSAA National
This survey has now closed. The SSAA sends its thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey for the future of our sport and will publish the results as soon as they come to hand.Members pl...
End the roo taboo!
Millions of Australia’s escalating kangaroo population are starving during the drought. This video shows what happens when we don't properly interact with the environment and why sustainable management of game is critical to the welfare of Australia's wildlife. Experienced ecologists Dr Katherine Moseby and Dr John Read are among those saying kangaroo management measures, like culling and eating them, must be put in place to end the suffering but first the commercial meat market needs to be strengthened (see our story in Great Australian Outdoors ‘Why eating kangaroo is harder than you think’).
Due to landowners being plagued by overwhelming populations of kangaroos, the SA government and Livestock SA has partnered with the SSAA to connect farmers to the SSAA Farmer Assist program, which enables landowners to access skilled qualified shooters for the purpose of culling kangaroos.
This will reduce the grazing pressure, damage to the environment and cruel drought-related deaths.
Calls for more kangaroo harvesting grow
stockjournal.com.au
LANDHOLDERS plagued by overwhelming populations of kangaroos are being encouraged to participate in the commercial harvest of the pest to help reduce the grazing pressure.Shooters! We need you to head over to our latest magazine's Facebook site and like or follow the page. We have about 1000 follows at the moment but want to add a zero to the end of that! Great Australian Outdoors is the new magazine that explores Australia and explains the benefits that shooters like you have to the environment. We need your support and why not enter the competition to win a Hema GPS while you are there?