When Harrison Glasson went to shear his merino flock he was shocked to discover 300 lambs were missing.
But he immediately had his suspicions about how it happened.
"We had a disaster last year — there were two female [dogs] that we didn't get [trap], and they had nine or 10 pups," he said.
For years the western Queensland grazier has protected the 5,000-head flock on his family-run properties near Yaraka from wild dog attacks, but he said those efforts were no longer enough.
Hundreds of sheep have been lost between Isisford and Yaraka in the past year, with some graziers reporting up to a quarter of their new lambs dead or missing.
With funding uncertainty leaving Australia's only wild dog action plan in doubt, Mr Glasson said it was people like him fighting on a front line that was becoming harder to hold.
Holding the line
The problem began when record floodwaters knocked down about 20 kilometres of wild dog exclusion fences on Mr Glasson's property in late 2025.
The fences have been credited with saving the west's sheep industry, which collapsed from 8.5 million head to just 1.8 million between 2001 and 2016, largely due to the ravages of wild dog attacks.
"We got a lot of dogs in when the fence went down," Mr Glasson said.
"We thought [within] two or three months, we got it dog-proof."
But since fixing the fences, he said the animals were still finding ways inside, often through cattle grids or creeks.
"They're being chased and killed."
While most of his breeding ewes fell pregnant, he said only about half the lambs survived in the months after they were born.
He said each animal in his surviving shearing flock produced about a kilogram of less wool per head than in previous years, which he believed was due to injuries and stress caused by the attacks.
"They're very touchy and they're doing a lot of kicking."
Pressure mounts amid uncertainty
The federal government estimates wild dogs cost farming $302 million per year, primarily through stock losses.
Since 2014 the Commonwealth has helped fund the National Wild Dog Action Plan and its coordination committee alongside industry groups and state governments.
But funding for the "blueprint strategy" is set expire in October.
Greg Mifsud is the National Wild Dog Management coordinator — funding for his role is set to expire in September.
He said working together had proven to be one of the most successful strategies to reduce wild dog impacts, but it was also one of the key challenges.
"Getting people to work collectively even when they aren't necessarily having a problem for the benefit of their neighbours is important," he said.
He said reports from local governments, the FeralScan app and industry groups indicated wild dog populations were rising.
"With that the impacts have increased, particularly with the small stock producers."
A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said the on-ground management of wild dogs was primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments and landholders.
"The National Wild Dog Action Plan is an industry-led initiative that supports collaboration between governments, landholders and researchers to improve adoption of humane, best-practice wild dog management," they said.
"Since the establishment of the plan, the Australian government has invested more than $20 million to support wild dog management."
The National Farmers Federation has backed a funding request from the committee for $250,000 in federal funding per year over five years to maintain the role.
President Hamish McIntyre said farmers spend "millions of dollars and countless hours" managing wild dogs.
"It's vital that the national coordinator is reinstated," he said.
Costs add up
At a sheep and cattle station south of Isisford, Joe McKillop has been baiting on his 44,000 hectare property ahead of lambing in late winter and early spring.
He is required under Queensland's Biosecurity Act to manage pest animals on his property, but more than that, he said wild dogs "send you broke".
"We lost $120,000 easily in lambs, and then we've probably lost another $100,000 in ewes to dogs," he said.
He has lost 500 ewes and a quarter of the new lambs in his 6,000 head merino flock, and while he cannot know for certain, he said there was evidence wild dogs were present.
"Every day we'd go out we'd see two or three dead freshly killed ewes," he said.
He said exclusion fencing had made managing wild dogs less labour intensive, but it might no longer be enough.
"I don't know how or what, but the dog pressure is getting bigger and bigger and bigger," he said.
"(We're) trying to manage things as well as we can, but something needs to change."
