WELLINGTON -- South Island farmers have rejected working directly with a government or local government authority to monitor rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD).

Instead, a farmer- dominated rural trust has been given a further cash grant by the Agriculture Ministry to monitor RCD and spread advice on its use.

The Rural Futures Trust was set up two years ago by farmers in the South Island high country and given $330,000 by the Environment Ministry, but both MAF and trust officials declined to say how much the trust was being paid.

Trust spokeswoman Claire Mulcock said she had no idea how many trust members had been involved in spreading RCD before it was made legal on Wednesday but that she saw no conflict if some members had spread the virus.

The farmers who had the information on how to spread the virus were keen to share it with other farmers, she said.

The trust expects to distribute preliminary information on do-it- yourself RCD next week.

Ms Mulcock said her observations in the Mackenzie Basin during the past few days suggested the virus had been "far more widespread and effective" than had been reported.

"Kills of over 90 percent, and still rising as the virus continues to work, are common. Evidence that the virus is spreading as a biocontrol can also be well substantiated."

The trust had also talked to the Department of Conservation to find what sort of information it wanted from farmers on predator numbers and behaviour after mass rabbit deaths.

MAF rural policy director Alan Walker said a meeting of 27 rural stakeholders on September 17 had decided the monitoring and information effort had to be farmer- led rather than council-led.