A Maranoa councillor with experience in predator control fencing, Jan Chambers will be a guest speaker when the Surat Predator Control Day gets underway at the local racecourse reserve on Wednesday, November 22.
It’s been organised in partnership with the Balonne Shire Council, the Maranoa Regional Council, Leading Sheep, and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Jan and her husband Graham are dedicated wool producers at Glenelg, just south of Mungallala.
Glenelg had been under increasing pressure from wild dogs, despite ongoing baiting and trapping.
Jan, in her role with the Maranoa Regional Council, had been the inaugural chair of the Maranoa Wild Dog Management Advisory Committee, a group of Maranoa graziers who make recommendations to council on wild dog control.
Jan had also organised the Mungallala area aerial baiting.
In 2014 the Chambers family decided to erect their own exclusion fence, spending $180,000 on materials.
Much work was put into fence line preparation, with great importance placed on runoff diversion.
The Chambers erected the fence themselves with help from their son Matthew, completing it in 2016.
Jan said despite limited rainfall, 2017 saw their sheep in their best ever condition at shearing.
“With the dogs we were losing a couple hundred of sheep a year.
“Currently our stock numbers are at 4000 sheep and 250 head of cattle.
“Removal of the dogs has had a huge effect. The stock are calmer, have plenty of feed and don’t have so many roos to compete with.
“Fencing has made a phenomenal difference to the condition of the sheep and also the amount of wool grown and the lambing we have had.”
Jan said moderating the total grazing pressure from kangaroos has meant they now have grass growing in places they never thought it grew, and where they had spent a lot of money on pasture development over the years without seeing returns.
“To privately fund our own fence was the best investment we have made and should have done it many years ago,” she said.
The field day will have a “one stop predator control shop”, where landholders will have the opportunity to look at different control methods available and talk to the experts about these products.
Entry is free, starting at 8.30am. Online registrations are being taken with Eventbrite.
