FARMERS gathered at Buchan last week to talk about how to get the government to act on wild dog predation, as some producers claimed up to $100,000 of sheep and cattle were being lost to the feral pest each year across the region.
Sheep and cattle graziers travelled up to three hours to attend the meeting. Most had lost considerable numbers of stock to wild dogs.
Patricia and Philip Neven, with Philip's parents Helen and Alan, run Angus cows and calves alongside Merino and Corriedale sheep at Tubbut and Angus cows and calves at Bonang.
"We'd like to run sheep at Bonang, but in the past two years wild dogs have killed 500 hoggets and grown lambs," Philip Neven said.
"We only have 170 Merino ewes left from the attacks at Tubbut. We should be able to run 600 ewes at Bonang and 900 comfortably at Tubbut.
"We also want to build up our cattle numbers. But it all depends on electric fencing and getting the wild dog numbers under control.
"We've tried alpacas. They've been successful against foxes but not the dogs. In the past 15 months, we've installed electric fencing and undertaken trapping and baiting.
"All our ewes are now joined and we recently bought Maremma dogs to guard them. They are our last chance.
"It'll be interesting to see how many lambs we have, how many we mark and how many we sell."
A few days ago, Peter Moon, of Wulgulmerang, shot a wild dog that had been attacking his sheep.
Dogs are killing sheep every night and he is bringing one of his two mobs into the yards every night to avoid attacks.
"I caught one of the dogs in a trap near the yards," he said.
"There's still one dog I haven't caught.
"Since early December, I've been bringing the sheep into the yards every evening – that takes about an hour, with my dogs, to bring them in.
"In the morning I'm out at daybreak – it takes me about 45 minutes to check the traps and then let the sheep out and move them back into the paddock. I've got five traps I'm checking every day."
Emma Sellers, of Dellicknora, said wild dogs were crossing the border between Victoria and NSW, and that cross-border management needed to be considered.
"Dogs cross borders," she said.
"NSW also allows things that aren't allowed in Victoria, like aerial baiting and coordinated shooting programs.
"The managers of DPI need to come up and see what we do.
"We have electric fences but we have to check them regularly.
"Snow, trees, branches, wombats and kangaroos can all damage and short-circuit the fence and then the dogs are in. They are cunning; they find the gaps.
"Ten years ago there were no dog attacks at Bendoc, now they occur weekly.
"Sporting shooters could be encouraged to hunt in the public land areas where wild dogs are predating."
High country farmers say there needs to be more wild dog controllers (or dogmen).
Bert Ah Sam, of Omeo, said a training program was needed to attract younger dogmen, while others have suggested training local people to fill short-term contracted roles.
"Local blokes should be offered training so they can be contracted to deal with the problem in their local area," said Tim Woodgate, of Buchan.
"DPI should have a list of names of people with the necessary qualifications who they can call on.
"DPI needs to decide they are going to listen to farmers who need trapping and shooting."
Ensay producer Craig Lloyd says it all comes down to communication, citing direct contact with the wild dog controllers was the only way to get real action on the ground.
"We want dogmen who will respond to people's stories and go to the sites where the dogs have been seen," he said.
"And we want managers who make it possible for the dogmen to do that.
"If they (DPI) don't have evidence of sightings, they don't think there's a problem.
"We need to report, report, report every sighting.
"We've lost confidence in the department because we report and no-one responds, so we phone the dogman direct.
"But we do need to report, so it goes on the system."
Another issue highlighted at the meeting was the amount of time spent out of the local areas by wild dog controllers, travelling to Bairnsdale for training, meetings and to log the data of sightings, kills and other reports.
Stock & Land believes the wild dog controllers are to receive mobile technology that will enable them to input data and reports in the field.
This was confirmed late on Friday by a DPI spokesperson, with a focus on supporting farmers in Gippsland, north-eastern Victoria and, to a lesser extent, north-western Victoria.
"The current management footprint for DPI exceeds three million hectares of wild dog control areas across 15 Local Area Control Plan Zones," the spokesperson said.
"Across these areas, there were 90 wild dog sightings reported in 2012, with the majority of livestock losses being reported from the Gippsland area."
DPI data reveals that in 2012, wild dog controllers trapped and killed 511 wild dogs across Victoria, with 243 being trapped in the Gippsland area; an additional 430 wild dogs were killed for the wild dog bounty.