“The downside to (livestock guardian dogs) is when there are massive peaks in wild dog activity, there are stock losses because the Maremmas are struggling to keep up. They are acting as a non-lethal tool by spending time with the sheep and as a lethal tool by actively taking on dingoes,” Dr Kreplins said. “There is evidence they spend a large percentage of their time with the sheep flock and are actively going after dingoes and attacking them. “One of the main things we are trying to prove is if the Maremmas are staying with the sheep, if they are pushing dingoes into other areas, do they kill the dingoes or displace them.”ĭPIRD Research Scientist, Invasive Species, Sustainability and Biosecurity, Tracey Kreplins, said the video footage had revealed the Maremmas patrolling the sheep paddock. Helen and Gemma have installed cameras to monitor wild dog activity and are participating in a Department of Primary Industries and regional Development, Western Australia, (DPIRD) research trial with GPS tracking and video collars used on four Maremmas and 10 ewes since July 2021. The trapping, baiting, shooting and fencing has to be happening around them otherwise it will not work.” “They are not the panacea and are just another tool in the toolbox. “If the Maremmas don’t have a job looking after their sheep, they will be no better than the dingoes,” she said. Gemma said there were four feeding stations in the 6000ha paddock however the Maremmas were also feeding on the kangaroos, rabbits and other wildlife. “We continue to bait and trap the rest of the station to keep wild dog numbers down so we can start rotating sheep through the paddocks once more exclusion fencing is completed.” “Because of the scale of the station, we can leave a one paddock buffer or a 7-8km radius around the lambing paddock where no dog baits are laid. “The bonding needs to be based around lambing ewes – train them using older ewes protective of the lambs so the Maremmas can quickly work out not to touch the lambs. “In a normal 60ha paddock you would probably get away with two, but I would never recommend putting a single Maremma in on its own. “The reason we went with the six dogs was the paddock is 15,000 acres (6072ha) – three dogs don’t leave the sheep at all while the others are patrolling the paddock. “Last year we ended up with a lambing marking of 65 per cent and lost five per cent of the ewes inside the exclusion cell – we were heartened by the result,” she said. “The 2019 muster was the last straw – it was horrendous.”Īfter trialling livestock guardian dogs in the past, Gemma was willing to try again and purchased four eight-week-old Maremma pups and an adult pair to bond with their last remaining 560 ewes. “That worked for a while but the dingoes were just too clever and worked out how to get over grids and fences,” Gemma said. They fenced a single paddock with exclusion fencing and ran the sheep in there. Helen and Gemma tried running larger mobs in paddocks that were relatively close to the homestead and concentrated their trapping and baiting efforts. “We have the vermin proof fence running through the middle of the station with one third on the outside and two thirds on the inside, and the predation was as bad both sides.” “By 2016 the feral goats had gone down to zero through predation,” she said. Gemma said Gabyon had always been set stocked and sold an average of 4000 feral goats a year. This was despite a sustained trapping, baiting and shooting program. “Knowing you are losing that many sheep on your watch isn’t the best feeling.” “Lambing percentages in the good years were 120-130 per cent on a double joining but in 2019 we had 820 ewes in a paddock and got 560 ewes back with 17 lambs. “From then on, we started seeing larger losses to predation than we were used to and that rapidly ramped up to a 25 per cent loss of the flock each year,” she said. Gemma said the collapse of the live export market in 2013 resulted in regional landholders seeking alternative income in the mining sector, leaving stations without the manpower to carry out wild dog management. Helen Cripps and her daughter Gemma bought Gabyon in 2009 and transitioned from Merino sheep to a flock of 7500 Damara ewes in 2012. The 271,500ha station is located in a 250mm rainfall zone 200km east of Geraldton and is the second largest station in the Yalgoo Shire. Gabyon Station runs 500 ewes and 1000 cows, and will now step into trade sheep to create an additional income stream. Having a complete suite of wild dog management tools – trapping, baiting, shooting, exclusion fencing, camera trap monitoring and livestock guardian dogs – is giving a WA family confidence to diversify their enterprise.
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