Canada geese can ravage a crop field in minutes, farmers say. (David Coates/Detroit News/AP)

Nova Scotia will start its cull of Canada geese early this year because populations have rapidly grown since Ontario birds were introduced.

That move was designed to solve an overpopulation of geese in Ontario, and the Nova Scotia population has increased 10-fold in the past 15 years, says the Canadian Wildlife Service, which is authorizing the hunt in Nova Scotia.

The early hunt — limited to farmers' fields to reduce nuisance and crop damage — will take place in September, before most of Nova Scotia's native geese migrate home.

Farmers have said the birds are not yet posing a major problem and the action is preventive.

"The population is set on a tangent for explosive growth," said Richard Melvin, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.

Melvin has not had geese on his 500-acre vegetable operation near Canning, but incidents of damage have been reported in Yarmouth and Truro, and farmers are taking the warning seriously.

"If a high population was to land on a field, within a matter of an hour they could decimate it. It would be disastrous," he said.

The Canadian Wildlife Service, a division of Environment Canada, said it won't know how many geese will be killed until after the hunt, but hunters will be limited to 16 birds each and must have permission to hunt on farmland.