A recent report from the National Wild Dog Action Plan claims lamb survival rates have jumped from 30 to 100 per cent thanks to wild dog exclusion fencing on one western Queensland sheep station.
The Banks family runs a 22,000 head self-replacing Merino flock protected by 120km of exclusion fencing on 48,500ha 100km west of Blackall.
The family has found the fence is not the total answer to the problem with their wild dog monitoring and control program ongoing as incursions continue.
Lamb mortality and lice treatment is down in the Bank family flock post exclusion fencing on their Blackall station.
Co-principal Ben Banks said wild dogs had not been completely eradicated from the property but the enterprise was still well in front of where it was six years ago.
The reduction in stress on the ewes has meant conception, lambing and marking rates, and wool cuts have all increased while attacks have fallen.
“Our lamb mortalities have diminished hugely –in 2012 we were getting lambing percentages down around 20-30 per cent on scanning,” Ben said.
“In 2016 after the fence went up, we marked and weaned 100 per cent – prior to the fence we wouldn’t have dreamt of achieving that.
“Prior to fencing we were trapping, baiting and shooting. Four of us were spending 25 per cent of our time on wild dog control.”
The entire property was fenced by the end of 2015 at a cost of $8,000-$8500/km using their own labour.
“Now we are budgeting for a five foot high (1.5m) fence closer to $10,000/km,” Ben said.
“It is a five foot netting fence if starting from scratch but if retrofitting an existing fence we put four foot netting with two barbs on top to take it to a five foot high fence.
“All our external fencing has a 30cm apron – after six years the wild dogs are starting to outsmart it and we are getting a lot more intrusions than when it first went up.
“At the start it really curbed the numbers but in recent times the dogs have started to work these fences out and they are now going over and digging under them.”
Ben said there had been no need to treat the flock for lice for the past two years.
“That is purely because we have the fence up and we have complete control over our stock – that has saved us $35,000-$40,000 a year.
“We are in a cluster with one neighbour and no other feral fences coming off our fence anywhere but now two big places on the outside of us are fencing.
“This will be huge for us as it is another barrier outside – that is happening everywhere throughout western Queensland.”
Reduced stress on eyes from attacks has meant conception, lambing and marking rates, and wool cuts have all increased.
As a commercial sheep pregnancy scanner, Ben has noted increasing sheep numbers within existing wool enterprises in western Queensland partly due to exclusion fencing.
“If you take Dorpers and goats into it, there is certainly a lot more small stock back in the region,” he said.
Ben has also observed more native animals and birds on the family property since the cell was completed.
National Wild Dog Management Coordinator Greg Mifsud said as the amount of exclusion fences increase, there is risk of a reduced emphasis on ongoing baiting and control programs outside of the fences.
“This is a real and ongoing issue with large numbers of wild dogs using unfenced areas and stock routes – some of those areas are quite problematic for management,” Mr Mifsud said.
“For those landholders on the periphery of exclusion fencing, if those wild dog control programs aren’t being delivered, then they are the ones at the greatest risk.
“Wild dog control is a shared responsibility – just because landholders may be inside other exclusion fences, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be contributing to the control program as part of a shire.”
To watch a video produced by Leading Sheep and Australian Wool Innovation of Ben Bank’s tips on exclusion fencing click here.
For more information on the National Wild Dog Action Plan click the link below.
