The move gives states in the continuous United States the authority to manage their local wolf populations, including by allowing them to be hunted. It will mainly affect wolf populations in the upper Midwest, Colorado and Pacific Northwest because wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were previously delisted. Wolves have never been federally protected in Alaska.

Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who traveled to Minnesota to announce the delisting at a wildlife refuge, said the gray wolf had exceeded all conservation goals and no longer met the legal definitions of a threatened or endangered species.

There are about 6,000 gray wolves in the lower 48 states, up from about 1,000 when they were added to the endangered species list in the 1970s after being hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction.

The International Wolf Center in Minneapolis estimates Canada’s population of gray wolves at about 60,000, second only to Russia’s. Worldwide, the gray wolf is considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to be a “species of least concern.”

The Canadian wolf population is considered stable-to-increasing and it remains a game species in most of Canada, according to the IWC.

Delisting the gray wolf in the U.S. is a win for sportsmen and ranchers in that country who argue larger numbers of wolves have diminished herds of big-game animals such as elk, and also prey on livestock.

“Impacted communities will be able to determine how best to preserve gray wolf populations while protecting other native species and livestock,” Utah Senator Mike Lee said in a statement.

Conservation groups said the species has yet to recover in much of their former range, including northern California and the Northeast, and said the timing of the move appeared to be an effort to win votes for President Donald Trump in Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota days before the Nov. 3 election.

“Wolves will be shot and killed because Donald Trump is desperate to gin up his voters in the Midwest,” Brett Hartl, chief political strategist at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, said in a statement.

— Nichola Groom is a Reuters correspondent covering U.S. environmental and energy policy from Los Angeles. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The wolf hunt, running from Oct. 15, 2016 through to March 31, 2017, is to be allowed in wildlife management zones 43 (Melfort, Tisdale), 47 (North Battleford, Turtleford), 48 (Preeceville, Pelly), 49 (Hudson Bay, Porcupine Plain), 50 (Nipawin, Choiceland), 53 (Spiritwood, Shellbrook, Big River), 54 (Blaine Lake, Marcelin), 55 (Meadow Lake, Pierceland) and 68N (Loon Lake).

There is no limit on the number of licenses available, the province said, though the licenses are only available to Saskatchewan residents and are not available online. Licenses must be picked up at environment ministry offices in Meadow Lake, North Battleford, Spiritwood, Prince Albert, Nipawin, Saskatoon, Melfort, Greenwater Lake, Hudson Bay, Preeceville and/or Regina.

For this hunt, wolves are considered a big game species, so all existing big-game regulations for weapon type, clothing requirements and baiting will apply, the province said.

“Livestock predation by wolves is an ongoing problem for producers in areas near the provincial forest,” Environment Minister Scott Moe said in the province’s release.

“Allowing a hunting season in these areas will remove some wolves and cause others to be more wary of moving into open areas where livestock are present.”

A previous wolf hunt ran in two zones from Dec. 15, 2015 to March 31, 2016, following a pilot project in the Weekes area in 2014, when it designated wolves as a big game species for that specific purpose.

The province said at the time it wasn’t planning to create a “general” wolf hunting season, but to focus on “specific areas which meet established criteria.”

A wolf hunt, the province said in 2014, would “only be considered after traditional control methods have failed to reduce livestock losses.”

Hunters who get a licence for this wolf hunt will have to report their results within 14 days of the end of the season, the province said Wednesday. Those who don’t comply with that requirement will be blocked from buying licences until they do. –– AGCanada.com Network

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State biologists fatally shot two members of the so-called Profanity Peak wolf pack from a helicopter on Aug. 5 after confirming five fatal wolf attacks on livestock in that area, just south of the state’s border with British Columbia. Further lethal-control efforts were later called off.

But eradication orders were renewed, and expanded to the entire pack, on Aug. 19 when the state Fish and Wildlife Department determined the same group of wolves was behind additional attacks that left two calves dead and a third injured.

Aerial kill teams have since destroyed four more wolves, including a pup, and wildlife agents are looking for the remaining five members of the targeted pack, said Craig Bartlett, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Department.

“We’ve never taken out an entire pack before,” Bartlett said, adding officials could still decide at some point to suspend the hunt and spare some of the remaining wolves if livestock attacks appear to have been halted.

In the meantime, he said, the number of cattle killed or injured by wolves in the area had grown to 12.

The Profanity Peak wolves make up one of 19 wolf packs known to inhabit Washington, 15 of them in the eastern third of the state where federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves were lifted in 2011.

Wolves are still listed as endangered under state law, which allows officials to remove wolves found to be repeatedly preying on livestock. But the population has grown steadily since 2008, when the first pack documented in Washington in many decades was confirmed, and they now number about 90 animals statewide, Bartlett said.

The current effort targeting the Profanity Peak pack marks the third time state officials have used lethal means against wolves. The two previous efforts, in 2012 and 2014, resulted in the deaths of 10 wolves, but some members of those packs ended up being spared, Bartlett said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles.

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“Directors were able to get the information out to local and regional associations ahead of time, so there were a lot of good questions and discussion. It shows that members think we are doing a good job,” says president Brian McKersie of Canal Flats, who took over from Lary Fossum of Dawson Creek.

Members were an agreeable group this year, carrying all but one of the resolutions; however, the province’s new Water Sustainability Act cast a dark shadow over the education day part of the convention. BCCA has been lobbying on this issue since the 100-year-old Water Act came up for modernization in 2009 with little to show for it. Under the new act beef producers must complete a detailed online application to obtain a groundwater license for irrigation and livestock watering.

The online bit is an issue for those who don’t have a high-speed connection or any Internet service, says McKersie who is one of those who must rely on his cellular service to access the Internet.

This was a hot issue when producers met the minister during Beef in B.C. Day at the legislature before their convention, and will likely remain so during McKersie’s term as president.

Predation continues to be a big issue in B.C. and McKersie was pleased to report on the livestock protection program put in place on January 1. It provides wildlife specialists for verification and mitigation services to cattle and sheep producers for injury, harassment or death loss caused by wolves and coyotes. The province’s conservation office will continue to handle problems caused by all other predators.

As of June, most of the province’s First Nation bands had signed off on an agreement to establish the program because rising predation pressure continues to reduce big game numbers.

A resolution to lobby government to implement the Okanagan-Shuswap District Forage Supply Strategy province-wide received full support and could go a long way to helping big game populations rebound without raiding cattle feed supplies. The strategy involves seeding grass on Crown land for big game. For example, areas sown to orchardgrass in 1985 remain some of the most populated wintering sites for elk.

On the topic of First Nations relations, members voted in support of creating a position for a person to represent the interests of cattlemen and other stakeholders in future treaty negotiations following the process laid out in the Nenqay Deni Accord. This person would be responsible for gathering information independent of government on future treaty negotiations where the rights and interests of producers and other stakeholders are involved.

Members also directed the board to work with industry and the province to develop options for a vendor-security (patrons) fund for discussion at the association’s 2017 annual meeting. They also want the board to lobby for the appointment of two RCMP livestock investigators with knowledge of the beef industry. The lone RCMP livestock investigator in B.C. retired over a year ago.

A resolution to lobby for the right for producers to stay back to defend their own property in the event of wildfires and floods was also carried. Producers have machinery and irrigation equipment and would like to at least have the choice to stay home by signing waivers when an evacuation order is issued.

On top of the busy lobbying year in store, McKersie is hopeful that the association will be able to arrange a series of tech transfer events for producers, along the lines of those introduced last year.

“I am honoured to be asked to take on the role as president because it’s nice to be able to contribute back to the industry. I enjoy the meetings and have learned a lot from anything I’ve attended,” says McKersie, who has been a BCCA director on and off for the past 15 years and served as vice-president last year.

The board regularly meets face-to-face three times a year, and he’d like to try for at least one more meeting in addition to conference calls at least once a month and the AGM.

He is grateful for his family and employees who help him run 350 cows in addition to a gravel firm. Son Cody takes care of the gravel business for the most part. His daughter Jesse is a registered nurse, but still finds time to look after the books and anything computer-related. She also helps out during calving beginning in March, branding and riding pastures. His parents, who moved the family from southern Alberta in 1963, are still on the ranch and help as they can, while his fiancée Campion, and family Behn and Julia, have been quick to learn the business. Rounding out the crew is a hired man to look after moving the irrigation wheels twice daily while McKersie takes care of the haying operations at home and about three hours away on land west of Calgary.

The post Water, predators and treaties top concerns in B.C. appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Claims history doesn’t reflect the trend because of its short history relative to the presence of wolves in Western Canada and the qualifiers involved in making claims.

Governments have offered wolf control measures since the settlement years but compensation for losses wasn’t introduced until 1974 in Alberta, 1997 in Manitoba, 2002 in British Columbia, and 2010 in Saskatchewan.

Each province specifies eligible predators and livestock, rules and rates. A common denominator is the need for a carcass as evidence of predation. The chances of finding enough of a carcass, let alone preserving the scene for a claims investigator to confirm the kill, narrows as scavengers clean up anything a wolf pack leaves behind. Missing animals don’t count even when recent predation has been confirmed and is the only feasible explanation for high death losses.

British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association (BCCA) general manager Kevin Boon says the wolf issue has been a priority and the one his association has spent the most time on lately because it affects so many members province-wide.

According to the B.C.’s 2014 Wolf Management Plan, the population is estimated between 5,300 and 11,600 with a best estimate of 8,500, compared with 8,100 in 1991, and 6,300 in 1979. Wolves inhabit most of the province, with the highest numbers in the Peace River and Skeena areas and they are now re-establishing in Kootenay, Okanagan and parts of the Thompson regions where they were considered extirpated in the 1970s.

The BCCA has a history with predation issues dating back to 2003 through 2011 when it implemented two successful Wild Predator Loss and Prevention pilot programs that laid the foundation for the province’s current plan, which is run by conservation officials (Canadian Cattlemen, January 2010).

The BCCA continues to monitor the threat via its voluntary annual survey of members and is now summarizing the first five years of feedback to identify trends.

“Raw data suggests the predation issue shifts from one year to the next, but the overall situation hasn’t really improved. One thing for certain is that the cost of predation has gone up,” Boon says.

Death loss isn’t the major cost. To that you can add the time lost treating injuries plus lost sale value, weight loss and lower conception rates among harassed cattle. One producer reported 200 of 350 cows open.

Well under 10 per cent of predation losses are discovered in time to qualify for compensation on B.C.’s remote forested ranches.

In response regional producer livestock predation committees are delivering verification training programs that teach producers how to photograph, identify and verify kills to make timely claims.

Saskatchewan’s compensation program also accepts detailed photos as evidence.

Alberta Beef Producers has created a flow chart to help producers navigate their way through five government agencies involved in delivering Alberta’s predator compensation program.

A recent study by the Miistakis Institute says 31 per cent of beef producers in Alberta have experienced some impact from wolves. The majority of successful compensation claims were for wolf kills and the majority of those happened along the eastern slopes and the boreal fringe.

Alberta’s estimated wolf population today is 7,000, well above the 4,000 winter wolf population the province’s 1991 wildlife management plan aimed to maintain. The plan is slated for an update that will include a new habitat-based population estimate.

Nobody actually counts wolves with this method. The condition of traditional wolf habitat and amount of prey relative to how much food a pack would need to survive in each type of habitat are rated and entered into a modelling program that rolls out the estimates.

In recent years Saskatchewan producers in spots along the boreal fringe have reported losses of 40, 50, 80 calves in a single grazing season, 300 calves and 28 cows in one rural municipality alone, and 128 head from a community pasture.

It’s been awhile since Saskatchewan’s official wolf population estimate was pegged at 2,700 to 3,000, says Mike Gollop, team lead with the province’s wildlife management branch. Based on the best available information, he says the population is trending to the high side and probably similar to Manitoba’s at 4,000 to 6,000.

“Saskatchewan is seeing and will continue to see more wolves on the Prairies because of the expanding distribution of populations to the east and south of the province and the traditional periodic encroachment from northern wolf populations. So maybe (it’s) wolves in more places, more so than more wolves,” Gollop wonders.

“One reason wolves are so successful as predators is that they can pioneer quite quickly into new ground,” he explains. “The old thinking was that they had to have remote areas to survive, but that’s not the case at all. The general consensus today, based on many studies, is that the only thing that limits the wolf population is the prey base. If they can find something to eat, they can live just about anywhere. They can very quickly accommodate people and survive in all types of habitat, just like coyotes.

“To put the problem into perspective, coyotes account for about 90 per cent of the claimed losses in Saskatchewan, but wolves can really hammer a producer because they can take cattle of all ages.”

Manitoba Beef Producers general manager Melinda German says predation on the whole, including wolves, is a significant issue in Manitoba. Producers are seeing more wolves and in pockets outside the hot spots of the Interlake and eastern region the number of wolf-kill and injury claims has increased. This could be due to a combination of there being more wolves and people being more familiar with the claims process.

A multi-stakeholder Livestock Predation Protection Working Group formed two years ago has been busy organizing workshops on claims procedures and wolf ecology for producers in problem areas. Work on a long-term strategy to reduce predation has started with a review of past research, and best-management practices in other jurisdictions.

Hank Hristienko, wolf manager with Manitoba Conservation, suspects it’s not the number of wolves, but the visibility of wolves that has increased with more people and more cattle moving into traditional wolf lands. His rough estimate for the current Manitoba wolf population is 4,000.

Overall, according to British Columbia’s Wolf Management Plan, Canada’s wolf population is currently seen as fully viable as wolves now occupy a majority of their historical range except in the Maritimes, where they are presumed extirpated. Wolf populations in every western province, Ontario, Labrador and Yukon Territory are ranked “apparently secure,” while Quebec’s wolf population is a notch higher at “demonstrably widespread, abundant and secure.” The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are not ranked. The grey wolf was designated as not at risk in 1999 by the Expert Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

When good wolves turn bad

Although many producers who have battled predation have been heard to say the only good coyote or wolf is a dead one, the idea that there are good ones of the live kind is gaining acceptance. Good wolves and coyotes are those that don’t prey on livestock, therefore, don’t teach their young to kill livestock, and their presence keeps those with a taste for livestock out of their territories.

“In Saskatchewan, the prime habitat for wolves is the boreal forest fringe. We have the most wolves there and the most problems with livestock there. It seems there are no problems for many years, then big problems for a few years, then it will be quiet again. Why, we don’t really know for sure. Something changes that causes a pack to key on livestock,” Gollop says.

It’s speculated that wolf predation has increased in recent years because of an increase in wolf numbers during a string of harsh winters that reduced ungulate populations, but hot spots of predation on livestock break out in areas with ample prey as well.

“Populations and problems may well be related but the correlation isn’t consistent,” says Gollop. “Circumstance is at least as important as populations.”

One circumstance is a change in pack dynamics when the alpha male or female dies and the pack breaks up. Wolves don’t usually survive for more than seven or eight years in the wild. They don’t have predators, but die from fighting with pack members for dominance or other packs for territory, hoof injuries from their prey, disease when densities are high, and most commonly from starvation, especially pups and young wolves. Lone wolves, which make up 10 to 15 per cent of the population, are usually yearlings or two-year-olds searching for new territories and they can cover long distances in a short time. It’s a vulnerable stage without the support of the pack for protection and hunting. Mortalities from trapping, hunting, removal because of depredation on livestock or to protect endangered ungulate populations, and vehicle collisions all contribute to the short lifespan.

Whatever the reason behind pack break up, the likely result is that multiple sub-dominant wolves breed and, if prey is plentiful, pup survival is likely to be high as witnessed in a Washington state study now in its 25th year.

This study confirms the principle of compensatory mortality. Simply put, a wolf (or coyote) that dies in one way can’t die another way. If one is shot another that may have starved will live, Gollop explains. It also confirms that each wolf killed increases the odds of depredation on sheep by four per cent and on cattle by five to six per cent.

Wolves were fully protected when the study began, however, when hunting was reintroduced, the ability of packs to respond when the population dropped was incredible, he adds. The eight dominant packs broke down into more packs with more breeding females that started breeding at a younger age, having larger litters and, because the prey base was stable, pup survival was good. The end result was a young, relatively inexperienced population that began to prey more and more on livestock.

In another 1970s-’80s study in the Simonette pastures of northern Alberta, every legal means was used to take the wolf population down to zero, but within eight months it was back to square one. This demonstrated the ability of wolves to travel great distances to fill vacant territories.

“So just fanning out and killing as many wolves as possible had a backfiring effect because the wolf population is so resilient,” Gollop says.

Other studies show that removing problem wolves is an effective way to curb wild ungulate and livestock losses in areas with high losses.

“If you have a problem pack in your own backyard, by all means deal with it,” says Gollop. “Ideally, take out the entire pack causing the problem and hope that the pack that moves in, because another will come, isn’t going to specialize on livestock.”

The Simonette study is still a standout in his mind because it provided some practical advice.

First, human presence is an important predator deterrent. Predation losses on the supervised part of the grazing reserve averaged three per cent compared to nine per cent on the unsupervised part where cattle were basically turned out into large forested pasture in spring and not seen until roundup.

Second, avoid turning pregnant cows out on pasture where wolves are known to kill livestock and, third, remove cattle from high-risk pastures before September. That’s the time when there are the most wolf kills because the pack’s energy requirements go way up as the pups are growing fast and they’re not experienced hunters, so not very helpful to the pack. All of a sudden there is a lot of extra stress and they’ll turn to livestock because livestock are easier prey than wild ungulates.

Melanie Dubois, a biologist with Ag Canada at Brandon and member of Manitoba’s Livestock Predation Protection Working Group, suspects it isn’t an increase in wolf numbers that sets the stage for predation to start, as much as changes in husbandry practices. Swath grazing, pasturing animals in new areas, or less human presence due to the addition of automatic watering systems in larger more remote pastures are three scenarios that come to mind.

Would altering or adding infrastructure be worth the time and expense? How much would the change reduce the predation risk? Those are questions Dubois hopes to answer with a cost-benefit analysis of various predation mitigation strategies. To that end she’s developed and field tested a predator risk assessment specific to wolves that was ready to go this summer. By scoring the features that favour predation and the vulnerabilities her assessment points out management practices that may lessen the threat. Suggested risk reduction measures will vary with the operation, the predator and the prey populations.

“A lot of producers have experience dealing with predation losses, but the advantage of a tool is having someone walk through the assessment with them to help identify factors they may not have been aware of previously and to provide information on predators in the area,” she says.

“A big part of the predation issue is the pressure on the family. It can be overwhelming. The assessment helps take the risk from everywhere and the inevitable, to being more manageable,” she says.

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• More ‘History’ on the Canadian Cattlemen: Killers to Respect

While I worked range riding for Dr. Warnock who was then running the Walrond horse ranch, Doc McEachern, who was general manager and lived in Montreal, sent out a big slate-coloured stud dog, an Irish wolfhound, as wolves were at least twice as heavy as the greyhounds and the deerhounds they used for coyote dogs. “Hector,” as the dog was named, was supposed to give his pups weight. He weighed well over 100 pounds. Well, Hector had plenty of sand but no experience with wolves. One day Lou Murray and I ran into a bunch of half-grown wolf pups. The old bitch wolf ran over the brow of the hill. Hector spotted her and after her he went. We were busy getting the pups which had scattered in every direction. When we got through with them we went after the old one. Lou felt sure Hector would kill the old bitch, if he could catch her, but I had my doubts. Sure enough, not 100 yards from the brow of the hill there lay Hector, his belly ripped open and badly mauled. It looked as though his back was broken as he had a big gash over the loins.

The High River Horse Ranch imported a big German boarhound. He weighed about 145 pounds, but he was slow and could not keep up with the pack; also being smoothhaired, I do not believe he would have stood a chance with a big wolf. A. J. McLean of the CV at Taber told me he had weighed a female wolf killed near Taber. Her weight was 176 pounds. The heaviest wolf I have any record of was killed by Frank Bedingfield on his place west of High River above the Duke of Windsor Ranch. He was coming home with a load of logs on a sleigh. His collie dog came on the high run to the sleigh and a wolf popped out of the timber right after him. Frank picked the dog up and put him on the load, but the wolf kept circling the team and Frank feared he was going to jump the horses. When he got home the wolf, who was still following, stopped on the brow of the second bench watching the dog. Frank got his rifle, put the dog back on the load and drove back up the hill. He put the collie off the sleigh and as soon as the wolf saw the dog he made for him and was not over 20 feet away when Frank shot him dead. He was such a big heavy brute that Frank had quite a time getting him on the load. However, he decided to get his weight, but having no scales he drove down the next day to the Bar U, just a couple of miles down Pekisko Creek, where the dead wolf tipped the scales at 217 pounds. I was working at the Bar U at the time but was out on the range so I did not see him weighed, but the boys who helped Frank all agreed on 217 pounds as the weight. I have killed quite a number of big wolves but I believe Frank’s wolf holds the record for this part of Canada.

While on the subject of wolves I have never known of an authentic case of wolves, singly or in packs, molesting humans. I have been in a place on Moose River, north of Athabaska, where two big packs of wolves were operating, one of over 40, the other over 30. They would pull down and clean up a big bull moose but trappers in the district never even bothered to carry a gun. They said as soon as wolves got the human scent they beat it out of sight, and only by accident could you get a shot at them. These trappers collected the bounty of $25 on only three pelts. Their story was that one night they heard an awful racket on the little frozen-over lake not over 200 yards from the cabin. Their sleigh dogs, which they kept chained up, seemed very excited, but they waited until daylight before they investigated and there on the bloody, tramped-down snow were three dead wolves, and the horns and big bones of a large bull moose.

For more of the past from the pages of Canadian Cattlemen see our History section.

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‘No one could even approximate the number of reindeer, caribou, moose, buffalo, mountain sheep, elk and deer which have been destroyed by wolves in recent years in this enormous area, but the figures must be staggering.

That the wolves are moving south is in itself some proof that the northern game herds are dwindling. With the natural increase in wolf numbers, some two or three times that of big game, plus the wolves living on the game, plus the help of trappers, natives, hunters, adverse weather conditions which wolves can take better than the game, the figure representing the difference in numbers of game on the one hand and total wolves on the other must now be growing rapidly each year.’

• More ‘History’ on the Canadian Cattlemen: Billy Henry of the Open Range

Click on the image below to open a fully-readable PDF (a new window will open, the page may take a few seconds to load).

Comments and suggestions are welcome. You can reach us via the editor at gren@fbcpublishing.com.

The post History: Killers to Respect appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Predator pressure is high in this region of the Parkland bordered by the untamed wilds of Prince Albert National Park, a forestry management zone and First Nations land. Wolves, coyotes, cougars, bears — you name it, predation specialists have confirmed kills and the presence of all of them on their ranch.

“In the beginning we were losing a market lamb — 80- to 90-pound lambs — every day to coyotes. At the time we had 400 cows and when they started calving on pasture in April we started losing calves to coyotes, 12 for certain and I suspect more,” Cody says.

The economic losses and mounting stress were enough to put them out of business had they let it. “Even if you do manage to eliminate the problem population, a new breeding pair will come in,” he explains. “That’s when we started looking at dogs. Some people say LGDs don’t work, but we’ve found that’s just not true. The dogs take their job seriously and have become an important part of our overall risk management strategy.”

“The goal is to make our dog pack formidable enough that wolves and coyotes decide to find an easier meal,” Liesl says. The pack concept grew from their experiences as they learned about each breed’s instincts and capabilities. They don’t profess to be experts, but were willing to share their successes and frustrations with producers at predation workshops organized by Saskatchewan Agriculture and with a U.S. group that showcased how the Lockharts use dogs to mitigate livestock-predator problems in a video, now on the ranch’s website.

In a nutshell, they’ve found that success has a lot to do with expectations and time spent working with and monitoring the dogs. They have to be given work appropriate to their instincts and ages, taking into consideration pasture size, terrain, size and grazing habits of the livestock, and predator pressure.

Their sheep and cattle are out on pasture year round. The main sheep pasture is six-miles square, which proved too challenging for Great Pyrenees on their own. This white breed and the Maremma dogs added later, are great for staying with stock and are trained to the electric fence early in life. They bark a lot and try to round up the animals, but they’re not much of a match for a pack of coyotes or a wolf.

“Two Pyrenees could work great if you calve in corrals, but don’t expect that if you have a coyote problem and then get Pyrenees that two will work just as well,” Cody says. Likewise, you can’t expect two dogs to cover a 300-acre pasture, especially if it has rolling terrain and you have an existing predation problem.

For reinforcement, they brought in Anatolian Shepherds. These large tan dogs are more muscled, athletic and aggressive than Pyrenees. If they put the chase on predators, the white dogs will still stay with the stock to discourage predators sneaking in from other directions.

After losing two dogs to predators and some others ripped up, they invested in another tan breed, Turkish Kangals, after they were warned of wolves loitering a half-mile from their sheep.

Kangals are even more aggressive than the shepherds toward predators and will take on a pack when necessary. They tend to patrol the perimeter and if they start a chase, it’s not over until it ends, fortunately for the Lockharts so far, in eliminating the predator.

Three more dogs were lost by the time their Kangals reached working age, so they took the additional measure of protecting all the dogs with spiked collars. At $140 each the handcrafted collars made in Oregon, have been a worthwhile investment. They haven’t lost a dog since and their veterinary bills for stitching wounded dogs back together are way down.

“Since introducing the Kangals and spiked collars we don’t have any livestock losses when we have the right number of dogs. That’s quite a change from when we started,” Cody says.

Eleven working dogs seem to be the right number for their current operation and they always have pups in training because it takes about two years to develop a great working dog. The Kangals travel back and forth on their own between the sheep and cattle three miles away and seem to maintain an appropriate number at both spots.

“You’d think with 11 dogs, they’d pack up but they don’t; they come from all corners of the fields,” Liesl says. “The pack setting is very valuable for teaching new pups much faster and so they know how to behave around other dogs, livestock and people. The support of the pack helps because the dogs are not as likely to get killed by predators and they don’t have to work so hard.”

Basic training

Socializing pups with people is part of the early training on their ranch. Firm boundaries need to be set so that they’re not hanging around the yard, but the idea that owners shouldn’t make eye contact with the dogs, pet them or praise them is old school.

“That just wouldn’t work for our situation (with three small children). There are bigger issues when you don’t socialize them,” Liesl says. “Everyone is uneasy around them and you don’t know how they will handle strangers, so for us, socializing and working go hand in hand.”

All of their dogs are now trained to sit in a kennel and be handled on a leash. Most often that’s a necessary skill when pulling porcupine quills and deworming the dogs every three months. Even then they still have to make occasional trips to the vet for repairs.

Feeding is part of the socializing process, too. They put out food, take it away and repeat so the pups don’t become aggressive about food. As mature dogs, they eat for about 10 minutes a day and then wander away. The cost for premium dog food to maintain good body condition is about $5,000 a year for the pack.

If you are buying trained LGDs they recommend choosing dogs that have been socialized because it’s difficult to change their attitude or train them to a leash the older they are.

In their experience whether they were buying trained dogs or training their own pups, once the dogs bond with livestock, that bond will hold with any group of animals they are given to guard.

“The bonding instinct is strong and you just have to nurture it so they work independently of you,” Liesl explains. The objective when training young pups is to match the tasks with a pup’s readiness and ability as it grows.

Bonding starts at weaning around four months of age with a bottle-fed lamb in a kennel run or an Electranet enclosure with a shelter. When there aren’t any bottle babies around the yard, they set the kennel out in the sheep pasture so that the first introduction between flock and dogs is through the kennel. Then they add an older lamb to the kennel as the pups gain confidence. The pup is let out under supervision until about six months of age when it’s ready for 24-hour shifts. Full-time duty at this age when a pup is still growing is too exhausting so it needs breaks from work until it is amalgamated into the pack. It’s important that the pup not be left to work alone and be monitored closely, especially when the predator pressure is high. Partnering a pup with an older dog works best, but two pups together can work, as well.

When no bottle baby is available pups can be put together in a kennel run with a shelter on the pasture, somewhere near water where they are sure to meet some cattle.

Alternatively, pups could be trained with one or two cow-calf pairs in a puppy-proof pen equipped with a safe place for the pups to get away from the cattle. It doesn’t take much for large animals to injure a pup and dampen his confidence. The pups should remain in a supervised area until five to six months of age when they are moved to a larger supervised pasture with a kennel to provide them with a secure home base.

Have patience when they hit the teen years because they can be a little too energetic for their own good and start roughing up the stock a bit. Don’t panic if a dog draws blood on an animal, it won’t ruin the dog as some say. Reprimand the dog verbally and, if needed, use a dangle stick or triangle-shaped PVC yoke collar. A dangle stick is a knee-length chain with a stick at the end attached to the collar so that the dog can’t run without knocking its knees. This stage seems to last for a couple of weeks to a month and then it’s smooth sailing.

“A six-month-old dog does lots of work for you deterring predators, but if a problem animal is coming in, it will try but it won’t succeed at killing a coyote. You’re asking too much,” Liesl says. “I’d say a dog isn’t fully working until it’s about two years old. That’s the age we trust them on their own and feel pretty confident we won’t have behavioural issues.”

Top tips for success

• Maintain the right number of dogs to cover your pasture and herd/flock size and deal with the predation pressure. There’s no such thing as a producer who needs one dog. LGDs seem to prefer to work in pairs and work together well, whereas a single dog might get bored and seek your company or burn out at a young age from working round the clock.
• Male and female dogs work equally well but they must be neutered or spayed. It doesn’t ruin their drive to defend livestock.
• Check the dogs daily when in the herd so you can deal with issues right away, such as removing deadstock so it won’t attract predators. Consider additional fencing, not so much to keep predators out, but to cut down paddock size for ease of monitoring.
• Secure the dogs well if you decide to trap, shoot or snare or call in someone to get rid of problem predators when your dogs can’t deal with them because that behaviour will get passed to the predators’ young.
• The greatest hazards are road traffic and neighbours. The Lockharts visit their neighbours to explain the dogs’ value to their operation and explain that while they look fierce, they don’t act that way toward people. All they ask is that their neighbour use the command “back to your sheep” to send the dogs on their way home, or call them to come and fetch the dogs.

In addition to wearing a spiked collar, each dog is spray painted with a large marking on each side of the body so the neighbours know they are the Lockharts’ dogs and, hopefully, hunters don’t mistake them for strays.

For more information about LGDs in general and Kangal pups for sale visit candllranch.com or call 306-724-4451.

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These returns covered 62 points in an area extending from Watino in the Peace River to Cardston and Coutts in the south and four Saskatchewan points in the east. The entire range area is considered as being represented in the returns. The 85 reporting members disclose that over a period of five years loss to predators, both wildlife and human, aggregated 4,803 head of livestock and poultry valued at $73,997. This is an average annual loss of $14,770 for this reporting group of members.

A breakdown of losses discloses that coyotes destroyed 1,091 sheep valued at $11,575, 83 cattle and calves valued at $4,295 and 2,646 poultry valued at $4,817, a total destruction by coyotes of 3,820 head of livestock and poultry valued at $20,687.

Oddly enough, over the five-year period only 14 cattle valued at $1,250 were destroyed by wolves. Bear accounted for 10 cattle valued at $1,800 and 300 sheep valued at $3,500.

Skunks took 30 poultry; cougars four cattle and beaver, by having 11 cattle and calves drown in their dams, accounted for a loss of $900.

The largest reported loss from predation is to human predators or cattle rustlers. The reporting members over a five-year period lost to the cattle rustler 364 cattle valued at $41,645, 166 sheep valued at $1,730, 32 horses valued at $1,350 and 39 poultry worth $110 or a total of 601 units valued at $44,835.

• More ‘History’ on the Canadian Cattlemen: From the Pampas to the Prairies, 1872-1885, Pt. 1

The occasional member reported losses of poultry to badgers and weasels.

As to recommendations, with two or three exceptions, all were unanimous that the bounty on coyotes should be restored in some form. This could take the form of a per-head bounty throughout the year on both coyotes and pups or the fur market could be subsidized in such a way to make the killing of predators remunerative; some recommend the supervised use of 10-80 poison. Several of the members observed that the coyote by killing rabbits, field mice and gophers, kept these two forms of wildlife under control. It was also agreed that bounties should be paid or continued on wolves, bears and cougars and should be placed on skunks.

Relative to opinions on control of human predators there was a wide diversity of opinion ranging from “hang ’em” to long terms in prison with lashes. The general feeling, however, was that the cattle rustler was getting off too lightly in fines and sentences when brought to the bar of justice. All were agreed that brand inspection, especially in districts away from the stockyards should be tightened up. A few were highly critical of the RCMP and its interest once information has been laid. Some pointed out that large losses occurred in the meat lockers and the local butcher and some method of checking the hide should be developed before meat is delivered to either locker or local butcher. Bills of sale should be given where stock is sold and if resold the seller should produce bill of sale covering the original brand. All were agreed that the practice of clearing the last brand on the animal, if declared by the shipper, was unsound.

In view of the fact that in certain areas of Saskatchewan no brand inspection is required, the Alberta government should co-operate to bring about inspection in Saskatchewan for only in this way will the Alberta ranchers contiguous to the Saskatchewan border have any measure of protection.

For more of the past from the pages of our magazine see the History section.

The post History: Livestock predators cause heavy losses appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Wolves were reintroduced to France in the 1990s under an international convention on wildlife conservation in Europe.

There are now an estimated 300 wolves in the country and the number is growing each year. According to France’s Federation nationale ovine (FNO), the national sheep producers’ organization, the number of animals they kill has risen too — by nearly two thirds since 2011 — and is likely to top 8,000 this year.

“We are asking that wolves be removed from sheep breeding regions because they are incompatible with our work,” FNO secretary general Michele Boudoin said.

She stressed that France’s “wolf plan,” which compensates farmers for sheep losses and pays for prevention measures and staff, cost the government nearly 15 million euros (C$21 million) in 2012.

“We don’t want the money, we want to do our job in good conditions,” she said as a flock of brown “Noires de Velay” sheep arrived at the meeting point.

Luc Bourgeois, a young shepherd from southeastern France, said he lost 150 of his 3,000 sheep this year. Ten were killed directly, he said, while the rest jumped in a ravine as they fled.

The farmers want the right to shoot wolves immediately if their flock is attacked, and are calling for a quota of wolf killings, currently set at 24 annually, to be increased or removed altogether.

Members of the FNO and the wider farm union FNSEA were due to meet Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll and the head of the environment minister’s chief of staff later in the day.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.

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