Monitoring and evaluating pest predator management

Total lamb survival rates have increased by up to five per cent among sheep flocks using best practice predator management techniques in northeast Victoria.

Eight prime lamb and wool producers are taking part in a Meat and Livestock Australia funded Producer Demonstration Site project called Less Predators, More Lambs at Mansfield.

The project started in February 2021 and will finish at the end of 2023. It is led by Dr Matt Mahoney of Agridome Consultancy and supported in partnership with Greg Mifsud, National Wild Dog Management Coordinator, Centre for Invasive Species Solutions and Lucy-Anne Cobby, Community Wild Dog Control Coordinator, Australian Wool Innovation.

This project showcases the implementation of best practice management techniques for the control of wild dogs and foxes on the participating sheep properties. These control practices are incorporated into a Property Specific Pest Management Control Program (PMCP).

The FeralScan app is used by the group to record incidents of livestock attacks, implementation of control and the outcome of control programs.

The participating producers then evaluate after the lambing season if changing their predator management practices has an impact on lamb survival rates and if so by how much.

In its first year, the project had included three training workshops involving the core producers directly involved in the project and interested community members.

The workshops focused on key sheep management topics and included refresher days on Lifetime Ewe Management, increasing lamb survival and constructing PCMPs using the FeralScan app.

There was also training and accreditation on 1080 baiting. Expert speakers on each topic were involved with running each workshop, including Department Environment Land, Water and Planning Senior Local Wild Dog Controller David Klippel on proven techniques for laying 1080 baits, and setting Canid Pest Ejectors and traps.

The producers also formed their own FeralScan app group whereby they could record and view their control and damage activities occurring on their properties for both wild dogs and foxes.

This readily available free app allowed the group to create a map of where they were focusing their control activities, keep records of where they laid baits or traps and helped the group to remain connected and work with their neighbours to coordinate control to get the best outcomes.

Support also included on farm guidance from Greg Mifsud to formulate their PCMPs and use the FeralScan app. This was important to ensure each property could focus control efforts where foxes and wild dogs were mostly likely to be found.

The producers recently met to evaluate their progress so far. All the core producers involved had submitted data on lamb survival rates for the lambing season just gone for their lambing ewes monitored under their property specific PCMPs.

This was compared to previous lambing season data from each property. The results from the first year showed total lamb survival had improved on all the participating properties in the range of 2 to 5 per cent.

With more than 6000 ewes scanned to either single or twins being monitored as part of the project, this increase in lamb survival could potentially add significant dollars to the producer’s bottom line.

Post-mortems on a sample of dead lambs collected by producers were undertaken by the local veterinarian to determine cause of death. Although only 40 lambs were collected for post-mortem, 18 per cent were confirmed to have been killed by primary predation with no apparent difference in predation risk as to whether the lamb was a twin or a single.

It is hoped by increasing this dataset over the remaining life of the project this information can be further substantiated.

The producers reported they were happy with the ease of the FeralScan app use.

“The fact any employees can log into the account and see what was happening on the farm in terms of wild dog and fox activity was also considered to be a great advantage to using the app,” Greg Mifsud said.

“The community group notification process embedded in the app was also seen as a great function of the FeralScan app. The app provides a notification to all the group members when one makes a report of a stock attack.

“Not only does it notify the producer group members, but it also alerts the local wild dog management controller when a wild dog sighting or attack occurred.

“The immediate notification of the wild dog controller was seen as a key function as it had dramatically reduced the response time to incident of the wild dog attack within the group.”

The group will continue to monitor, evaluate and report their progress of the project until its completion in 2023.

For further information on FeralScan visit www.feralscan.org.au

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