About 40 to 50 people attended a meeting about the issue organised by police earlier this month and, despite arrests being made, farmers are still fearing for their safety.
A Middlemarch farmer, who declined to be named for fear of being targeted by the poachers, said farmers were worried.
"These poachers aren’t just shooting wild animals; they’re also shooting livestock.
"They’re so brazen about it too — we know that some of them have entered on to property at 2pm when it’s in broad daylight."
The farmer said about "40 to 50" people attended the community meeting.
"It’s been the community working together that has assisted in catching these guys, but it’s scary.
"We’ve had a gutsful of these people. They’re not just shooting at these animals, they’re wounding with intent."
Farmers did not want to go too public for fear of "upsetting the apple cart", he said.
"Many of the farms in the area are easily accessible by road, so they've become targets."
Sheep and beef farmer Marty Deans told the Otago Daily Times the significant turnout to the meeting reflected the level of concern in the community.
"From our understanding, there were several farmers feeling a bit hamstrung about the whole thing.
"Poaching has become quite common across our area."
Mr Deans said Constable Allan Lynch, a local police officer who spoke at the meeting, had arrested poachers recently, with matters expected to be before the courts in the coming weeks.
"He was wanting farmers to be extra-vigilant as poaching on the property — which included shooting deer and other animals — could lead to more serious activities on the farm.
"But he was reminding farmers not to take matters into their own hands."
Farmers in the area were "very concerned" about the rise in reports of poaching, Mr Deans said.
Last year’s Federated Farmers’ rural crime survey showed that of more than 1000 farmers who responded to the questions, 67% said they had experienced a crime or suspected they had, in the instance of hard-to-prove incidents such as livestock killing or theft.
Federated Farmers rural policing spokesman Richard McIntyre said any incidents of poaching were a concern, because they involved offenders coming on to farms with firearms.
He said when hunters asked a landowner for permission to enter their property, there was an opportunity to let them know where houses were, where staff were working and where livestock were located.
“With people hunting illegally, or looking to steal livestock, that whole safety element is out the window.
"We’ve got people shooting semi-randomly about the place without any understanding of the safety risks."
Police were unable to provide comment by deadline yesterday.
