He direct-seeds wattles, eucalypts and grevilleas, has doubled the number of bird species on Mill Post and each year culls kangaroos.

''Just because you care for wildlife doesn't mean you are not prepared to cull kangaroos. Culling kangaroos can be a benefit to wildlife,'' Mr Watson said.

''In my lifetime I have seen the kangaroo numbers really explode in our region. When I was a child 50 years ago we might see a little mob of 10 or 15 if we were lucky on our farm. Now I can go into any paddock, just recently we haven't had shooting for six months, I can see 50 to 100.''

In the ACT, legal action has delayed a cull of more than 1400 eastern grey kangaroos. t

Mill Post farm is in NSW and includes a lush stretch of box gum grassy woodland and a huge dam dotted with native water birds. It also adjoins about 15,000 hectares of pine plantation and rural residential blocks full of kangaroos.

Shelter belts provide refuge for wildlife and protect the fine-wool merino sheep. The only conflict is having to keep kangaroo numbers in check. They've risen 60 per cent over the past three seasons.

''The numbers have built incredibly,'' Mr Watson said. ''They have enormous sanctuary in the ACT and these rural residential areas. Next to me is Kowen Forest where there is no shooting at all, a big slab of ACT. There would be thousands and thousands in there. They can come out of there and retreat into there and just keep building up.

''We go out with our binoculars and admire the birds and love the wild flowers and get off on nature. We love kangaroos as well.

''If the commercial industry closed down we'd be in big trouble.''

Russia's withdrawal in 2009 as a buyer of kangaroo meat caused prices to slump, followed by a scarcity of shooters. Animal activists have also disrupted export markets.

Commercial shooters took only 16 per cent of the south-eastern NSW quota of 98,385 kangaroos in 2012, or 2 per cent of the region's eastern greys.

Australia's biggest exporter of kangaroo meat, Macro Meats' principal Ray Border, said he was on the cusp of accessing China and had recovered the Russian market.

Mr Border, who also heads the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, said the industry had to engage with animal activists to overcome the havoc caused overseas.

''We've stopped culling female kangaroos because one of their biggest gripes was, if you shot one female kangaroo, you would have to dispose of the joey. Even though it was done humanely, they made it look around the world like it was clubbing seals to death. That is the tightrope we walk.

''Our No. 1 priority is animal welfare, No. 2 is food safety and the rest comes after that.''

Mr Border said farmers would prefer to shoot female kangaroos, but shooters had to turn around perceptions and show they were responsible.