Friday end of the Week Wrap up on a Thursday.

[bucket]

“But this all reminds me of the 1980s without high interest or the 1990s when Canadian farmers were told to suck it up buttercup we cant go head to head against the European or USA farmers, You're on your own. “


So we don’t have high interest rates in 2019....big deal!

FACTS:

1980 land price= $125,000/quarter. Interest rate 18% = $22,500.00 cost of carry

2019 land price= $350,000/quarter. Interest rate 6.5% = $22,750 cost of carry.

1980 wheat : $5.00 per bushel

2019 wheat: $5.00 per bushel

Nominally.... what is the difference....play with the numbers if you want but it feels like the 1980’s all over again to me.

Could you add in fuel and machinery price comparison ....

[Sheepwheat]

Sheepwheat, apart from the income potential of catching coyotes do you not not believe in the theory of leaving the ones that live with your sheep alone? My neighbour does - they have a pair of LGDs that keep the coyotes at bay. Their thinking is if you kill those one more will inevitably move in and possibly will be more trouble to the sheep being unfamiliar with them. If you have some that behave reasonably it's almost like an outer ring of protection beyond you LGDs as new coyotes don't tend to come in and drive existing ones out of their territory.

This theory simply doesn’t work. There is no way to get only the ‘bad’ ones. I could not get the ones that were getting lambs earlier this fall and I pulled out all the stops. They kept sneaking in on me somehow. I hear often of the theory. But it doesn’t work. Coyotes are so abundant and their territories overlap. If a family group somehow had control over an area, you would never catch 5 adults in one night within a hundred yards of each other like I have. Yes, some yotes are worse, but I strongly doubt that any would pass up a twenty lb lamb if they had the opportunity.

I get the theory. But as a student of coyote behaviour and many years of hands on practical experience, I see no sign whatsoever that it holds water. Our guard dogs are generally great, but nothing is 100 per cent.

My theory as to what happened is that last winter I caught fewer coyotes than prior years. They were there, they just were not actively hitting baits, so my catch was down hard. More made it through winter and had pups in spring than should have. That meant higher predation. In the springs following years where I caught twice as many as last year, predation was nil, because fewer pups were born.

Good thing I am catching more this winter again imo. I wish the theory is how it worked I real life, but it simply isn’t...

[Sheepwheat]

I have heard that if you take the dominant male and female out ....the remainder coyotes reproduce like crazy....

I don’t buy that. They are not pack animals like wolves are with a dominant male and a main female. They pair up, and they ALL reproduce regardless.

[farmaholic]

Honestly, who would want to go through trapping and skinning muskrats for 4 bucks a pelt? 4 bucks?

And I thought grain farming was a tough gig. Even the yodelers, it all sounds like a labor if love to me.

I suppose if you need to control them you may as well get something for your efforts rather than waste them.

As gross and disgusting as this may sound, would leaving afew skinned coyote carcasses laying around the far reaches of the perimeter of your sheep quarters deter the live ones from coming around? Or wouldn't they recognize what they were and the danger? What about unskinned ones? I know if I always saw dead people near the buffet table or noticed part of the pack or family missing and dead near the buffet table.....I would probably find somewhere else to eat, but coyotes probably don't think reasonably and rationally like me, fire away!

Mother Nature hates a vacuum and will always try to fill the void.

[helmsdale]

I know if I always saw dead people near the buffet table or noticed part of the pack or family missing and dead near the buffet table.....I would probably find somewhere else to eat,

Beauty!

This is why I still frequent this climate change forum.

[burnt]

This theory simply doesn’t work. There is no way to get only the ‘bad’ ones. I could not get the ones that were getting lambs earlier this fall and I pulled out all the stops. They kept sneaking in on me somehow. I hear often of the theory. But it doesn’t work. Coyotes are so abundant and their territories overlap. If a family group somehow had control over an area, you would never catch 5 adults in one night within a hundred yards of each other like I have. Yes, some yotes are worse, but I strongly doubt that any would pass up a twenty lb lamb if they had the opportunity.

I get the theory. But as a student of coyote behaviour and many years of hands on practical experience, I see no sign whatsoever that it holds water. Our guard dogs are generally great, but nothing is 100 per cent.

My theory as to what happened is that last winter I caught fewer coyotes than prior years. They were there, they just were not actively hitting baits, so my catch was down hard. More made it through winter and had pups in spring than should have. That meant higher predation. In the springs following years where I caught twice as many as last year, predation was nil, because fewer pups were born.

Good thing I am catching more this winter again imo. I wish the theory is how it worked I real life, but it simply isn’t...

Man I don't know if you're doing the right thing by killing them so indiscriminately; here's why:

If you leave those coyotes that have turned from their natural ways and apparently become vegetarians, "We know that actually someone who has engaged and turned away from that hateful ideology (of killing innocent sheep) can be an extraordinarily powerful voice for preventing radicalization in future generations and younger (coyotes) within the community...”

And those words came from a very wise man, they say...

[farmaholic]

Beauty!

This is why I still frequent this climate change forum.

You left out the best part of the quote.

[tweety]

"Friday end of the Week Wrap up on a Thursday"

You sure you didn't write the paper drinkbox water bottle speech for Justin?

[blackpowder]

Friend of mine was at a public forum on coyotes years ago.
One green lady asked why we can't neuter the coyotes. One old rancher said " lady, the coyotes are eating the calves not duckin them"

You can fill 5 snares in a few feet of fence line. Hungry needs to eat.

[Sheepwheat]

Farma. I put out my skinned carcasses in the sticks. Usually coyotes don’t touch them, it certainly does nothing to scare them off, and there have been times where coyotes have eaten their own kin. If you arrive at that buffet, with ppl gnawing on each other, would that deter you, or make things more easy to join in? Lol

A good muskrat trapper can once set up catch many rats a night. They are about the easiest fur to skin and stretch. A rat can easily be skinned in under a minute. But you need to catch a lot fast. I don’t see many places around here where you could catch twenty or so a night for a few weeks. Back in the fifties, my dad would set traps and ride around the lake on horseback all day pulling rats. He caught hundreds that year, sold them for a couple bucks each, did pretty fair for those days! I still have the receipts, cool to look at stuff like that and envision whether he used rat money to make a down payment on land he bought that year for less than twenty bucks an acre? That is an eye opener to me at least. Lol

A coyote might take a half hour to process well. Max. Snaring is ridiculously easy and once set up takes no time hardly at all to check snares.

I honestly can say I make far more cash per hour catching coyotes than grain farming. But yes, it also is a labour of love. Some of us are strange folks indeed.

[GDR]

This theory simply doesn’t work. There is no way to get only the ‘bad’ ones. I could not get the ones that were getting lambs earlier this fall and I pulled out all the stops. They kept sneaking in on me somehow. I hear often of the theory. But it doesn’t work. Coyotes are so abundant and their territories overlap. If a family group somehow had control over an area, you would never catch 5 adults in one night within a hundred yards of each other like I have. Yes, some yotes are worse, but I strongly doubt that any would pass up a twenty lb lamb if they had the opportunity.

I get the theory. But as a student of coyote behaviour and many years of hands on practical experience, I see no sign whatsoever that it holds water. Our guard dogs are generally great, but nothing is 100 per cent.

My theory as to what happened is that last winter I caught fewer coyotes than prior years. They were there, they just were not actively hitting baits, so my catch was down hard. More made it through winter and had pups in spring than should have. That meant higher predation. In the springs following years where I caught twice as many as last year, predation was nil, because fewer pups were born.

Good thing I am catching more this winter again imo. I wish the theory is how it worked I real life, but it simply isn’t...

There is some merit to Grassfarmers idea. I use the theory if they dont bother me I don't bother them. Have only lost 2 lambs in 34 yrs. One was already dead and I decided to leave it in the pen till am, so really only one lamb lost. I have a friend who snares big time too, he also says I'm wrong and figures a high percentage are transient.

I'm happy to hear when guys like you have a plan and sell furs, dont like so many guys killing them without harvesting the furs. I know they can be frustrating if the cause problems but they do have a purpose in nature. Rodent control but more so the clean up of dead and dying animals.

I was at a predator control workshop one time and they said litters vary from 1 pup to 17 and are quick to adjust to natural population control in the area.

Good luck snaring!

[Sheepwheat]

Transient! That is the word I was looking for explaining my experience. What I find is coyotes make great loops through an area, in my area it seems like a maybe two week rotation. I would be more than happy if a breeding pair had control over an area. Wipe them out and it would take time for new ones to move in. That is not the case at all.

On another note, I have caught enough mangy and scrawny coyotes that would have for sure died soon, in a much less appealing way than in a power ram. Feel bad for those.

Bottom line is I think there are far more coyotes around than we think. I hardly ever see coyotes, yet wow, when you get set up, they come out of the wood work for free meals!

[grassfarmer]

This theory simply doesn’t work. There is no way to get only the ‘bad’ ones. I could not get the ones that were getting lambs earlier this fall and I pulled out all the stops. They kept sneaking in on me somehow. I hear often of the theory. But it doesn’t work....

Sounds like you maybe have a dog problem as well as a coyote problem. The neighbours here run 100 ewes with 2 LGDs plus another 2 LGDs that free range over the rest of their property (and some of mine) They haven't lost a lamb in years to coyotes. Maybe it's not a case of "good" coyotes or "bad" coyotes but coyotes that your dogs can manage or not manage.
Less coyotes packs around here than there was in AB. Most I see is 2 at once - I once saw 17 in a pack going through my cow wintering field in AB!

[Sheepwheat]

Sounds like you maybe have a dog problem as well as a coyote problem. The neighbours here run 100 ewes with 2 LGDs plus another 2 LGDs that free range over the rest of their property (and some of mine) They haven't lost a lamb in years to coyotes. Maybe it's not a case of "good" coyotes or "bad" coyotes but coyotes that your dogs can manage or not manage.
Less coyotes packs around here than there was in AB. Most I see is 2 at once - I once saw 17 in a pack going through my cow wintering field in AB!

For sure guard dog failure. Will be adding more for next year. New pasture with tough terrain is all I can think of.

17 at once is nuts. Yeah here most you see are singles or sometimes two, if you see them at all. Coyotes around here are true wild animals and rightfully fear man.

[SASKFARMER]

Seen five a few years chase a really big buck through our fields by the RES and the buck made the wrong choice crossing a small lake. Ice was thin and he went down. The coyotes went after him and circled till he went under. It was a mutual of Omaha wildlife moment.

None of us harvesting had a gun with us or they would have been gone also.