FOXES are costing Dorper breeder Scott Campbell, "Paradise", Gunbar via Griffith, a fortune in lost production.
Mr Campbell, who runs 2000 Dorpers including stud animals under the banner Gunbar Dorpers, said foxes could be costing him up to $50,000 a year.
"It's too hard to tell how many lambs they take, but it's between $10,000 and $50,000 worth," Mr Campbell said.
"If they take one stud lamb it's worth 10 times more to me than a commercial lamb."
He said mauled lambs were a regular sight.
"Last lambing it was nothing to drive around the paddock and see more than 30 dead lambs, and who knows how many others had been dragged off to hollow logs."
Mr Campbell said fox numbers had been growing since 2011, when a major mouse plague hit.
Controlling foxes is difficult with a travelling stock route on three sides of his property.
"The stock route is absolutely loaded with rabbits, which makes it really hard for me to get ahead."
These days, he only lambs in open paddocks where foxes can't lurk.
"I figure if I can avoid keeping ewes around wooded areas they have a better chance of keeping their twins or triplets."
He lays baits annually but mostly relies on a local hunter to shoot each fortnight.
Earlier this year the hunter killed 53 in one night on Mr Campbell's property, and more recently, used a fox whistle to draw 18 foxes from his neighbour's olive grove.
He backed calls for a bounty on foxes in NSW and was disappointed the government would not be adopting it.
