PLENTY of discussion has been had about the issue of wild dogs in the northern parts of the WA Wheatbelt, but in the Southern Coastal farming area around Esperance, the local community is getting closer to a big win in the seemingly never-ending fight.
Esperance Biosecurity Association (EBA) chairman and Cascade-based producer Scott Pickering has been leading the charge to get the State Barrier Fence extended by 660 kilometres to surround the Esperance farming region.
It has been a 14-year long effort and now that dream is not too far away from reality with the group waiting for a response from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the extension submission sent in for its approval.
Submissions closed at the end of January and the EBA expects a response to be handed down in June.
Increased dog activity has been noticed in the Esperance area recently, including at farms in and around Ravensthorpe, Munglinup, Cascade, Salmon Gums and Cape Le Grand meaning the days until the go-ahead to start construction is given aren’t going by fast enough for local farmers.
The local dogger operating in the area is working flat out and there are discussions about employing a second full-time dogger to help deal with the problem along with the trapping and baiting program ramping up.
According to the EBA, about 500 dogs have been killed in the region in the past decade, with reports showing the estimated figure of livestock losses annually sitting at 4000 head.
“The thing that will put a real dent in the issues we’re having with dogs is the extension of the State Barrier Fence,” Mr Pickering said.
“So far the only thing standing between the dogs and local farming businesses has been the community getting out there baiting, trapping and shooting but if we have the fence extended, we’ll at least have some sort of containment to work with.”
Mr Pickering said one of the major flow-on issues from the increased dog presence in the local farming area was the hampering of efforts to increase the sheep flock.
“It’s tough enough already to encourage farmers back into the sheep and wool game, without the issues of dogs out there,” Mr Pickering said.
“Now that livestock and wool prices are up where they are, there’s more reason than ever to be in the livestock game.
“So it’s great to have the local community of grower groups and industry bodies getting behind us because we want producers to have the confidence to get back into livestock.
“There’s a lot of land in the Esperance region that could be running really successful sheep and wool operations in synergy with the established broadacre cropping programs and working on improving the flock size in our region is important, but the dogs are a major concern to that effort.”
Producers in the area are nervously awaiting the arrival of the 2018 lambing season, with concerns about pregnancy success rates and increased losses once lambs are on the ground.
Salmon Gums producer Murray Ayers said the dogs create a lot of issues during lambing, in particular.
“Apart from the obvious issues of the dogs taking livestock, the potential for mis-mothering will certainly increase,” Mr Ayers said.
“People are noticing their sheep are very jumpy at the moment with the dogs in the area and that can’t mean good things, especially once there are lambs on the ground and it won’t take much for the dogs to frighten mothers away from their new lambs.”
The issue is of such importance to the local farming community, Mr Pickering said while working on the State Barrier Fence extension submission to the EPA, the EBA had left no stone unturned.
“In our submission we’ve done as much as we can to meet the EPA requirements by minimising the environmental impact of the fence,” Mr Pickering said.
“We’ve answered every question the EPA had and covered all the bases and planned for as much as possible of the proposed fence to be on private property and along fire breaks, which will mean a maximum of only 300 hectares will need to be cleared to make way for the fence.
“So the hope is that the EPA will give us the go-ahead and with the funding commitment we’ve received from the State government, we hope to get started as soon as possible come June.”
In November last year, the government agreed to allocate $6.9 million in funding, which is about 60 per cent of the cost for the Esperance extension of the State Barrier Fence.
WA Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan said her team had consulted with industry and the message was clear that more on-the-ground action was needed to deal with wild dogs.
“With this investment finalised, we’re completely focused on getting this funding out the door and stepping up the wild dog fight,” Ms MacTiernan said in November.
Mr Pickering said the money will be enough to get construction on the fence started while waiting for the remaining cash needed.
“We’ve got funding applications in for federal funding for the rest because the control of wild dogs is a national issue,” he said.
“We’re hoping to meet the new federal agricultural minister when he travels to WA so we can discuss the issue with him.”
The EBA has also recently been conducting public consultation meetings in the Esperance zone about the introduction of the Declared Pest Rate (DPR) in September.
The DPR is a mechanism that provides regional biosecurity groups, such as the EBA, with on-going funds to control declared pests in the long-term with local rate payers paying a small additional fee once a year which goes to the fund, which is then matched by the State government under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007.
Before setting the rate each year, consultations will be held with landholders and once the funds are allocated to the EBA, the group is in total control of its activities and spending, governed by its committee.
EBA treasurer Peter Harkness said the aim is to ensure DPR payments are as fair as possible and feedback will happily be received to improve the system.
“It’ll be a one time payment each year from ratepayers which we’ll look forward to receiving feedback on, because we want to keep the system as fair as we can,” he said.
“The cash is earmarked to go towards taking on another dogger in the zone as well as towards baiting, community engagement and administration costs.”
Mr Harkness said so far the public consultation meetings had received no major objections to the implementation of the DPR.
“Sheep producers have been 100 per cent behind it and the total grain growers have said they can see and understand the importance of putting in the effort as a community to help deal with this issue.”
