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Living with Wolves: The cost to ranchers
Posted: Feb 16, 2010 9:53 AM by Mark Holyoak
Updated: Feb 19, 2010 8:27 AM
There were 367 confirmed wolf kills in Montana in 2009, and there are at least six so far this year. But for one long-time cattleman near Drummond, the cost of wolves runs much deeper than an occasional cow carcass.
It's auction day on Ron Skinner's ranch in Hall, where fellow ranchers bought 174 of his cattle, but it's the money that got away that really hurts.
"We had severe weight loss in calves that came out of wolf areas compared to calves where there are no wolves," Skinner said.
Those heifer calves were an average of 97 pounds lighter than others and with the going rate of beef at 93 cents a pound. That's a $90.21 loss per animal. Multiply that times 150 of them and that's a total loss of $13,531.
A more visually disturbing loss is wolf depredation, according to Skinner.
"I'm a purebred breeder. This was an embryo transplant heifer, and she was worth a lot of money, and we don't know what she would produce in her lifetime, but the compensation wasn't even close," he said.
A news team interviewing Skinner for this story came across a still-warm elk carcass on a nearby mountain, tangible evidence of perhaps Skinner's greatest problem.
"The environmental damages and range management damages are worst than depredation" the rancher said.
Skinner leases land to graze his cattle. But, he's not getting anywhere near his money's worth from it because wolves continually push the cattle off the grassy slopes, away from the feed, and back into over-grazed riparian areas below.
That forced him to buy 200 extra tons of hay this year. Skinner said there are many other wolf-related effects on ranchers. There's stress, which can lead to lower pregnancy rates, young cattle that don't grade as high, extra manpower to monitor wolf activity, injury to livestock, damage to fences and danger to humans, like when wolves showed up in his corrals right next to his house driving the black bulls through the fence onto the highway at night.
"The first thing I did was get on the road with my flashers so somebody didn't get killed, and it will eventually happen" Skinner said.
Despite the constant threat of wolves, Skinner carries on as a third generation Montana rancher with a wary eye on the future.
"The real question is do you want ranchers to produce food for you? If we go through the economic pressures of wolves, some ranchers won't survive," he said.
Wildlife officials killed off the 15-member Willow Creek wolf pack in 2008 after it continually preyed on sheep and cattle belonging to Hall ranchers. But, three new wolves returned this past summer, killing another calf and a heifer.
Remember 1984 at Feb 16th 2010 2:29 PM
Often the environmentalist claim that ranchers are fully compensated for their losses, but they must realize that it is only for proven wolf kills. Many times a body may not even be found. The bones are drug off and the scavengers clean up the remains. Its not easy to prove. I recently came across a deer kill. The deer had gotten itself tangled in a fence and I presume the coyotes finished her off, but all that was left a single leg caught in the twisted wires and hair.
The arm chair animal rights activists have no sense of this as they have not experienced it on Animal Planet or the Discovery channel. They don't realize that ranchers put their hearts and souls into their work and are passionate about the welfare of their animals and go to great means to care for them.
Furthermore, wolves are not docile affectionate creatures they are made out to be by today's media. They can be vicious, murderous animals, killing for fun as evidence of the massive killing of over 100 sheep in a single night in western Montana approximately a year ago. It is for this reason that they must be managed and controlled. That management should be done by the states, not the east coast environmental lobbyists.