Canada Geese are being taken off the game list, meaning farmers will soon be able to shoot them at-will as pests.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson says Canada Geese are being removed from Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Act 1953 and listed on Schedule 5.

Canada Geese.

It means Fish and Game will no longer manage the geese as a hunting resource and a permit will not be required to shoot them.

It's a move Eastern Region Fish and Game manager Rob Pitkethley says will backfire, resulting in more, instead of fewer geese.

'We think total non-control is probably going to result in more Canada Geese around than there ever has been,” says Rob.

'What will happen is they will adapt very quickly to pressure and they will go from fewer big mobs to lots of small mobs.

'When they are in small mobs, in a situation of continual disturbance, they are actually a lot more difficult to control.”

He's expecting people to shoot many easy targets in the first 6-12 months before the geese wise up.

'Our feeling is we will end up with more of a problem in the long run,” says Rob.

Canada Geese are not considered a major problem in the Bay of Plenty.

There are half a dozen properties in the whole eastern region where they occasionally get to problem numbers, says Rob.

'The biggest problems have been out in the East Cape/Ruatoria sort of area,” says Rob.

'There are some relatively big populations out there that cause some crop issues.”

The traditional culling time is December during the annual moult, and the geese are planned to be unprotected by then.

The move is being made because the current status where the geese are being managed is not working, says Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson.

'Farmers have been getting increasingly frustrated with these birds fouling pasture and damaging crops,” says Kate.

'They also pose an aviation hazard due to their large size and this change will allow for the birds to be more effectively controlled where they pose a risk to aircraft safety.”

In 1995 the South Island Canada Goose Management Plan was agreed set the maximum Canada Geese population at 20,350.

In 2008 the geese numbers were estimated to be 35,000.

Four to five geese will eat as much grass as a sheep, an impact on farmland further compounded by fouling.

Geese can cost individual landowners thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of damage to pasture and crops in a year.

Kate is expecting Fish and Game to continue to work with landowners to assist with managing geese around the country.

'The geese are well established and on top of that farmers will have an incentive to provide hunting access to reduce their goose control costs.”