Around $200,000 is what Jason and Sherri Taylor estimate they could have lost in production to wild dogs on their property at Alpha in central Queensland, before they began proactively trapping.
Twenty-seven months ago they were testing for leptospirosis and fearing that they hadn't needled their cattle properly as they sought reasons for the drop in their calving rate.
Then they employed a dogger and said their questions were answered.
"We weren't seeing any carcasses, just cows without calves," Ms Taylor said. "The night our trapper started, he set 20 traps and caught five dogs. There were a lot of older ones and we've noticed a lot of them are bitches."
In the two years since Longreach-based Rod Costin started, he's trapped 138 wild dogs at Creek Farm. Together with the dogs the Taylors have shot, they say the total would be in excess of 150.
The couple operate a Brahman stud as well as a commercial herd, selling bulls locally and to breeders in the north west of the state, so the loss of 200-250 calves on their business is considerable.
"Because of the drought we've been feeding and weaning early - if we hadn't started trapping we doubt whether we'd have any calves left now," Ms Taylor said.
"It costs us $250 a dog but we can't afford not to be doing it.
"There's no end in sight - in the last quarter from July to September, 15 dogs have been trapped.
"When it rains we're going to need every calf we've got to build our numbers back up."
Barcaldine Wild Dog Group chairman Paul Doneley speculated that drought and consequently less food sources could be contributing to the extra numbers being seen in the region.
Responding to suggestions that more money be allocated to deal with the situation, Mr Doneley said that sometimes money wasn't there and wasn't the whole answer anyway.
"Fencing is definitely the best avenue to control wild dogs but not everyone can take advantage of that," he said. "Having said that, not everyone might realise cattle producers can apply for the schemes out there."
He said the group had suggested the fencing loan idea being operated by the Longreach Regional Council to Barcaldine councillors, who preferred to point interested people in the direction of QRIDA loans rather than opting to facilitate a scheme themselves.
"Our committee also put forward the idea of a trapper for the area but the council didn't want to be seen as proportionally helping one group of landholders so that was a no.
"Having said that, the council supplies meat for baiting for free."
Barcaldine Good Neighbour coordinator Larry Lewis said he had been concentrating on finding an Alpha representative for the wild dog committee, and convincing more landholders to take responsibility for wild dog control.
"People have been talking to me about the large number of dog bites they're seeing on their calves," he said. "I've been going through all the tools available, which includes a baiting campaign at the end of October, and being a good neighbour."
Barcaldine landholders are no stranger to wild dog problems - the district was one of the catalysts for the exclusion fencing funding movement within the last decade.
It's seen 16 properties from Barcaldine Downs in the south to Politic in the north and Lochnagar on the Alice River to the east band together to form the Barcaldine Wild Dog Syndicate Inc and employ Tom Lumby as their trapper.
He has seen one of those properties go from an 8pc calving rate to 98pc after 300 wild dogs were removed.
"Everywhere that I look after there's still dogs but only in small numbers now," he said. "Most of my work these days is outside the fences - they're trying to get me to work further out, to put less pressure on the fences."
He's paid $300 a day plus GST but said a calf was worth $300 not long after it was born.
"A dog and a bitch can take out three calves a week without people even realising what's going on," he said.
Mr Doneley said participation in baiting programs had dropped off in parts of the shire as fences went up but his group continued to promote it as one of the tools that were still necessary in other areas.
"Dropping control will put us in a hell of a bad place down the track," he said.
He took part in a meeting in Alpha last week called for landholders to share their issues, which was attended by 14 people in total.
"We are pushing for people to use the FeralScan app so we can collect data and map the hotspots in the shire to concentrate our efforts on," he said.
Ms Taylor said she wasn't sure if people realised that Alpha had a big wild dog problem.
"We've been here for 23 years and always had dogs but never as many as two years ago - it just escalated.
"We've tried to get others on board to share costs. It would lower the cost for us all."