DRIVE through the Western Division and the chances are you'll see high numbers of rangeland goats along the roadside and in paddocks.
Between Cobar and Wilcannia, along the Barrier Highway, and south of Broken Hill, along the Silver City Highway, goat numbers appear on par with kangaroos, but unlike kangaroos, rangeland goats have proven a lucrative "pest" for Western Division landholders who have been harvesting a tidy income from them for the past decade.
But perhaps not for much longer.
Goat prices are steadily rising along with demand - this week, export prices are at record highs sitting at 450 cents a kilogram, however, the spreading threat of wild dogs is casting a long shadow over this bright story in agriculture.
Wild dogs have been a major issue along the NSW tablelands for decades, but are steadily spreading into new areas - anecdotal reports suggest in NSW they're moving west and from Queensland they are moving south into northern areas of NSW.
In the Western Division, small numbers have been sighted north of White Cliffs and south of Broken Hill.
The West Australian rangeland goat industry was in "precipitous" decline, according to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), which along with other stakeholders, was a partner of the Invasive Animals Co-operative Research centre and helping to drive the National Wild Dog Action Plan, said MLA's goat industry project manager, Julie Petty, Brisbane.
Ms Petty was a guest speaker at the 2015 annual general meeting of the Pastoralists Association of West Darling at Broken Hill in mid-May, and her talk presented two differing views of the industry.
Australia is the largest exporter of goat meat in the world, and in 2014 Australian goat meat exports were valued at $214 million, according to MLA figures.
Yet, the problem of wild dogs threatened the industry's long-term viability.
Ms Petty outlined the findings of a WA study which indicated wild dogs "conservatively" cost the WA goat industry about $11 million in lost income annually, and the sheep industry about $14m.
"The rangeland goat population in WA has declined from about one million head in 2005 to 150,000 in 2011, the most recent estimate," she said.
"We're also seeing goat and sheep populations (in WA) being pushed towards the coastal regions, away from the more traditional inland areas.
"In the past decade goats have been driven by dogs to now only inhabit a thin coastal strip about 100 to 200 kilometres wide."
Ms Petty said Geraldton Meat Exports' goat processing plant at Geraldton would this year process just 65,000 to 85,000 head of goats when it had the capacity to process up to 400,000 head a year.
Ken Turner, Boorungie Station, Broken Hill, said there had been a "few" wild dogs in the Broken Hill region, which were possibly coming out of national parks and from properties with absentee owners.
Mr Turner has been seriously harvesting goats since 1992 and said the catch was getting bigger each year at "Boorungie" thanks to better tools and management practises.
"We also live next to the Mutawintji National Park - it breeds them and we sell them - the feral harvest is worth a quid," he said.
Only a matter of time at Wilcannia
IN NSW, landholders across the Western Division feel like they're sitting on a time bomb waiting for the wild dog problem to explode.
High-profile Wilcannia goat producer, Rick Gates, "Burndoo", said it was just a matter of time before he was dealing with the issue.
"While there's no signs of wild dog activity here at this stage - we have cameras set up across the property to monitor any movements - it's a case of when, not if the problem arises," said Mr Gates, who is also president of the Goat Industry Council of Australia.
"I'm concerned the wild dog problem is going to sneak up on a lot of people."
Mr Gates "feels" the dogs are going to arrive from the north-east scrub country in the Western Division, around Cobar and Emmdale, "but I've got no evidence to support that".
"Wild dogs have been sighted 30 kilometres east of me, but there's been so signs of dog activity here yet - no stock attacks or losses," he said.
"To my knowledge there has not been a wild dog survey undertaken by authorities - the survey in Western Australia was only an indication of goat numbers not dogs, but it's shown goat numbers have significantly declined.
"We need somebody - or group - to quantify the number of wild dogs."