Duncan Family Farms Uses Falconry to Guard Organic Produce
GOODYEAR, AZ - Duncan Family Farms is taking the word “natural” to the next level in its growing operations, having introduced an innovative method for bird abatement at its Arizona farm: falconry. The 100% organic grower—specializing in baby lettuces, greens, kales, beets, chards, and herbs—has collaborated with Falcon Force, using a team of trained falcons, to deter nuisance birds.
“It’s pretty amazing to see the results—we can actually watch the nuisance birds leave the area and not come back,” said Jeremy Vanderzyl, Technical Services Manager at Duncan Family Farms, according to a press release. “A single falcon can cover a large area effectively and efficiently and allows us to avoid putting our personnel in uncomfortable or potentially unsafe conditions.”
For nearly all vegetable growers, small birds can cause big issues—they not only eat seeds after they’ve been planted, but can also shed feathers or defecate in the fields, requiring additional food safety measures. Before this big breakthrough, Duncan Family Farms would have staff patrol the fields with shakers or slings to scare birds away, but the birds grew tolerant of the method quickly, becoming progressively harder to deter.
Falcon Force draws on the natural predator/prey relationship for long-term results, with the primary goal of chasing the birds away without killing them. Once a horned lark sees one of its natural predators flying and swooping nearby, it’s going to immediately find a safer place to forage for food. An additional benefit of the trained falcons flying in the fields is that native predator birds will also leave the area to find new hunting ground, meaning they are less likely to kill a prey bird in the field and cause a food safety issue or product loss.
“It’s immediate, it’s sustainable, it’s organic, and it’s biodynamically perfect,” said Kalen Pearson of Falcon Force. “Birds are always going to be afraid of other birds; it’s never something they’re going to get used to like a scarecrow or noisemaker.”
As an organic grower that is committed to sustainability, Duncan Family Farms was motivated to find an effective process that did not involve the use of traditional approaches such as flares, firecrackers, or Mylar, all of which are harmful to the environment and have the potential to leave debris in the fields and cause product losses. These methods are also not effective long term as birds will get used to them in about 48 hours.
Falcon Force will be at Duncan Family Farms in Goodyear through the end of April and Duncan has plans to continue the relationship at other growing locations with different bird abatement challenges such as large migratory birds like ducks and geese.
