Michael and Beryl Ryan used to dread waking up to check their livestock each morning, fearful of the carnage they would find after wild dogs had gone through their property overnight.

Key points: Farmers have been working with local authorities to remove wild dogs from their property

Farmers have been working with local authorities to remove wild dogs from their property Wild dogs weighing up to 35kg came to the property to prey on lambs and calves

Wild dogs weighing up to 35kg came to the property to prey on lambs and calves Before baiting the wild dogs, the farmers were losing about 80 per cent of their lambs

The dogs would wander down to their farm, near Talbingo, at the foothills of Kosciusko National Park in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

Calves would be missing, and the gory scenes included mutilated lambs.

WARNING: This story contains graphic images some readers may find distressing.

"It was stressful, you would get up in the morning and go around and there were dead lambs everywhere," Mr Ryan said.

"You would think, 'Why am I doing this?' You would want to improve your place, but you couldn't because the income was gone.

"Three years ago, it was very hard, the whole management system fell apart," he said.

But life on the land has been changing for the Ryans — the lambs are surviving and the calves can be accounted for.

Talbingo farmer Michael Ryan is a lot happier now his cattle and lambs are no longer being preyed on by wild dogs. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

This has been due to a co-ordinated approach in their war against the wild dogs.

The Ryans have been working with Riverina Local Land Services and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service for the past three years to aerial and ground bait wild dogs in a bid to stop them from entering the property to feast on their livestock.

"We are a lot happier now as it's not so morbid going out and finding dead lambs — for the first time in 22 years we actually have lambs to sell," Mrs Ryan said.

Mrs Ryan said the survival rate for their dorper lambs was now 100 per cent.

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"Before we were losing about 80 per cent of the lambs and up to 30 calves from our 300 angus breeders each year," she said.

"The cows were all pregnancy-tested in calf, but the calves would just disappear.

"A couple of years ago before the baiting and trapping, it just wasn't worth running sheep here."

Mrs Ryan said the wild dogs mostly attacked larger lambs, eating their kidneys and livers.

"Sometimes they would just leave behind the leg of a lamb, whereas with the calves, sometimes all we could find was a leg left in blackberry bush," she said.

Mr Ryan said the stock losses had a significant financial impact.

"If we sell a steer for $1,400 and you lose 30 calves a year, that's a lot of money, and our lambs might average $180 to $200 — you do the figures and it's very disappointing," he said.

The Ryans were losing up to 80 per cent of their Dorper lambs to wild dogs each year. ( Photo supplied: Beryl Ryan )

United front in war on wild dogs

Mr Ryan said their situation changed when Riverina Local Land Services (LLS) and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service joined their battle.

"We had to go to numerous meetings to get this point of having a co-ordinated approach. They are now very helpful," Mr Ryan said.

While the Riverina LLS and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were taking care of aerial baiting, the Ryans put out about 300 ground baits annually.

The baits were laid mainly between autumn and spring and Mr Ryan found baiting with 1080 poison buried in mounds the most affective.

"It's time consuming as it takes a couple of hours to make the mounds, bury the baits, and then I have to check the baits a couple of times a week and replace baits that are not there," Mr Ryan said.

He said another baiting method — M44 — had not been as successful.

"With M44 you don't know what is taking the bait, whereas with the 1080, a dog will destroy the mound and a fox will just sneak and pull out the bait," Mr Ryan said.

Some of the wild dogs that have been trapped, baited or shot have weighed 35 kilograms. ( Photo supplied: Beryl Ryan )

Mr Ryan said they had been able to target the areas where the wild dogs were accessing the property.

"We knew they were coming off the Snowy Mountains Highway at Talbingo down to Jounama Dam and they were accessing the other side of the property from Talbingo Dam as it was just a thoroughfare for them," he said.

"As soon as we got a cold snap up top and a bit of snow we used to get them travelling down."

Mr Ryan said only two years ago it was typical for him to hear up to 15 wild dogs howling while he was sitting on the veranda.

"They aren't all gone, but the difference now is there is a buffer zone, and they are in the forestry area about 15 kilometres away," Mr Ryan said.

"Before we never had a buffer zone, the only buffer was our boundary fence, but now with aerial baiting in the park we have a buffer."

Mr Ryan had sighted and trapped plenty of wild dogs.

"They are big dogs, we have trapped dogs that weigh up to 35 kilograms. One year we trapped 15," he said.

Another level of protection

The next tool in their kit will be six kilometres of exclusion fencing on their boundary line that backs onto Kosciusko National Park.

Riverina Local Land Service and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service will provide the materials and the Ryans will provide the labour to erect the fence.

"The exclusion fence will be a great help, not only with the wild dogs but also with deer and kangaroos," Mr Ryan said.

A 6 kilometre exclusion fence will be built on the boundary of the Ryan's property and Kosciusko National Park. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

They hope to add a further 6 kilometres of exclusion fencing next year.

"It's just another tool, we still need to bait and trap," Mr Ryan said.

"I just hope it doesn't go to the stage where the LLS and National Parks say, 'You have an exclusion fence now' and cut down on the baiting," he said.

Now with the livestock thriving, the Ryans just need rain.

Their average annual rainfall is 1,250 millimetres (50 inches) — last year they received just 550mm (22 inches) and this year they have had only 75 millimetres (3 inches).

"We are feeding and if we don't get rain now it will be a long drawn out winter," Mr Ryan said.

"We are lucky compared to some people as we have water."