July 27, 2018
CapitalPress.com
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Wolf depredation of livestock sets
record in Idaho, commission finds
Capital Press
By BRAD CARLSON
Cattle on feed up 4 percent,
marketings keep pace
Capital Press
Cattle on feed in large
U.S. feedlots on July 1 were
4 percent higher than a year
ago and the highest invento-
ry since USDA National Ag-
ricultural Statistics Service
began the on-feed series in
1996.
USDA’s report held no
surprises. It continues the
trend of 4 percent to 4.3 per-
cent increases that have taken
place the last three months,
Derrell Peel, livestock mar-
keting specialist with Okla-
homa State University Exten-
sion, said.
“Marketings are also up,
so it doesn’t really change the
story at all,” he said.
“We’ve got more cattle,
and we’re going to see more
cattle — for 18 months any-
way,” he said.
It’s an inevitable conse-
quence of the herd expansion
that began in 2014, he said.
“There’s not much you
can do to avoid the supply
increase. But there are things
you can do to make it worse
like delaying marketings,” he
said.
That backs up cattle, lead-
ing to bigger supplies and
heavier carcass weights. The
combination results in an
even bigger increase in beef
production, he said.
June marketings of fed
cattle going to slaughter were
up 1 percent to more than 2
million head, and placements
into feedlots were also up 1
percent to 1.8 million head.
Feedlots have stayed rel-
atively current and are keep-
ing carcass weights in check,
although they’re up a bit, he
said.
“They’re showing disci-
pline in marketing more cattle
through the system,” he said.
The supply of cattle that
have been on feed more than
120 days is running some 28
percent ahead of last year’s
pace, analysts with the Dai-
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File
The number of cattle on
feed is the highest it’s been
since 1996, according to the
National Agricultural Statistics
Service.
ly Livestock Report said on
Monday.
“The large on-feed inven-
tory and the large inventory
of market-ready cattle should
keep beef markets well sup-
ported in the short term. Mar-
ketings in August remain key
and will be critical for cattle
prices post Labor Day,” they
said.
Good demand is absorb-
ing the extra supply, and all
markets through the produc-
tion chain have done pretty
good for the most part, Peel
said.
Increased
placements
were no surprise, as it contin-
ued the trend of the previous
18 months. What is notable is
the number of heifers in the
feedlot mix over the last year,
he said.
Heifers on feed on July 1
increased 8 percent over big
numbers in July 2017, which
were 11 percent higher than
July 2016. A 13 percent in-
crease was noted in October
and those heifer numbers
were up 16 percent in Jan-
uary and 14 percent in May,
NASS reported.
“The number of heifers
in feedlots has been really
big. It’s one more indication
that we are really slowing
down heifer retention,” Peel
said.
CS Beef Packers proposes
air-quality permit modification
CS Beef Packers has
requested the Idaho De-
partment of Environmental
Quality modify the compa-
ny’s air-quality permit.
The permit regulates
emissions from the packing
and rendering plant in Kuna.
The proposed permit
modification would allow
CS to increase throughput
to the rendering plant and
to increase biogas genera-
tion, with a subsequent gain
in biogas combusted in the
boilers and flare, the depart-
ment said in a release. Emis-
sions must remain within
legally allowable limits.
Idaho DEQ will provide
a 30-day public comment
period if it receives a written
request by 5 p.m. Mountain
Aug. 3.
The company said in its
July 11 application to modi-
fy the 2015 permit that while
capacity remains about 1,700
head of cattle per day, “hav-
ing operated the facility for
approximately one year, CS
Beef identified some oper-
ational differences between
what was expected when the
facility was designed and the
actual functioning.”
CS Beef proposes to in-
crease the daily meat and
bone meal throughput limit
from 102 tons to 262 tons
— initial assumptions may
have been underestimated
for the facility design, the
company said — but leave
blood meal throughput un-
changed.
Sulphur dioxide emis-
sions would increase from
two of the plant’s four
boilers. CS said proposed
changes would not affect
compliance with applicable
ambient air-quality stan-
dards.
Requests for a comment
period and related questions
should be directed to Tanya
Chin, DEQ State Office Air
Quality Division, 1410 N.
Hilton, Boise, Idaho 83706,
or tanya.chin@deq.idaho.
gov.
Wolf depredation cas-
es this year in Idaho are at a
record high, according to the
Idaho Rangeland Resource
Commission, which said the
predators have killed 61 cat-
tle and sheep from January
through June.
“There seems to be greater
awareness of cattle and sheep
producers that the potential is
there that wolves are coming
into more conflict with live-
stock,” said Todd Grimm, fed-
eral Wildlife Services director
for Idaho.
From July 1, 2017, through
June 30, federal authorities
confirmed 113 wolf kills us-
ing necropsies on livestock.
Overall, 217 ranches called
authorities to investigate pos-
sible wolf kills.
Both are a record, the com-
mission said in a press release.
“Chronic livestock dep-
redation” issues affect Idaho
counties Lemhi and Custer
in the east central mountains,
Valley in the west central
mountains and Elmore east of
Boise, the commission said,
citing state and federal offi-
cials.
Last year, the number of
confirmed wolf depredations
in Valley County more than
doubled to 38, from 17, after
Cascade, Idaho, cattle ranch-
er Phil Davis and commis-
sion staff met with ranchers
to discuss the different kinds
IRRC
Wolves have killed 61 cattle and sheep in the first six months of the
year, according to the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission.
of depredation that can occur.
Davis has had more than 60
wolf kills on his family’s land
since the mid-1990s. Three
of the six cattle that wolves
killed there in 2017 were full-
grown cows. Wolves, he said,
“are getting more bold, more
adept at it. And they’re killing
cows, not just calves now.”
In an interview, Davis said
that for years direct physi-
cal trauma was thought to be
primarily how wolves killed
livestock. But now there is
growing evidence to suggest
many of the deaths result from
myopathy, muscle weakness
caused by muscle fiber dys-
function and extended exer-
tion after a wolf attack.
“Death can come in min-
utes, hours or days from my-
opathy,” he said. For example,
a cow defending a calf could
die some distance from the
attack following extended ex-
ertion.
The commission recom-
mends that Wildlife Services
be called at 208-378-5631 to
perform a necropsy if there is
any doubt about the cause of
death.
The commission said
wolves have killed more than
700 cattle and 550 sheep in
Idaho, impacting 412 ranch-
ers statewide. Wolves, living
in an estimated 80 to 100
packs, can be found in much
of the state north of Interstate
84, the commission said.
IRRC board member John
Peavey, a rancher near Carey,
said it has been federal and
state policy from the outset
to control wolves when they
prey on livestock.
“We need to keep wolf
numbers down to a manage-
able level, and that takes per-
7
sistent diligence by all con-
cerned to work on this chronic
issue,” Peavey said. “Wolves
are here to stay, but we need
to keep them as wild as pos-
sible to ensure they’re eating
wild game. … Once they start
killing livestock, they need to
be removed because we know
they’ll go out and kill live-
stock again.”
Davis said some of the
increase in documented inci-
dents could reflect that more
livestock deaths once thought
to have other causes now are
being investigated as poten-
tially wolf-related.
Wolves killed seven sheep
in three separate attacks be-
tween July 9 and July 13 in
the Sawtooth National Rec-
reation Area outside Stanley.
The Associated Press report-
ed federal authorities in turn
killed three wolves, in addi-
tion to 46 already killed this
year through June 30.
Salmon Falls Land and
Livestock was the site of the
recent kills in a single band of
sheep despite the ranch post-
ing six guard dogs and setting
up nighttime strobe lights and
noise makers, the commission
said.
“I don’t know what more
we can do,” said rancher
Mark Henslee of Salmon
Falls. “We haven’t had any
problems in several years.
But with as many wolves as
we have had in Idaho, you’re
going to get hit somewhere,
sometime.”
Beef herd growth slowing; plenty of feeder cattle
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The number of beef and
dairy cattle in the U.S. on July
1 totaled 103.2 million head,
up 1 percent from a year ear-
lier.
Beef cows and heifers that
have calved increased 1 per-
cent year over year to 32.2
million. Their dairy coun-
terparts held steady at 9.4
million, USDA National Ag-
ricultural Statistics Service
reported on Friday.
Beef cow replacement
heifers were down 2 percent
at 4.6 million head, and milk
cow replacement heifers were
unchanged at 4.2 million.
Lower heifer retention in
the beef industry and double
digit increases in beef cow
slaughter imply a smaller beef
cow herd by next year, Dai-
ly Livestock Report analysts
said on Monday.
They estimate beef cow
slaughter is up 10.8 percent in
the first half of the year com-
pared with the same period
last year.
“Dry conditions in a num-
ber of key cow-calf producing
regions have impacted feed
supplies and likely pushed
more cows to market this
year,” they said.
“The beef industry has
a tendency to overshoot the
market during expansion,
leading to liquidation imme-
diately after. That may not
happen this time,” Derrell
Peel, livestock marketing spe-
cialist with Oklahoma State
University Extension, said.
Beef cow replacement heifers are down 2 percent at 4.6 million head, NASS reports.
A lot could happen to
change the outlook, but it
looks like cow numbers will
reach a peak, stabilize and
move sideways more than
anything else, he said.
“It almost looks to me like
we could stabilize and do a
soft landing,” he said.
But there are lots of feed-
er cattle available, and they’ll
keep coming for another 18
months.
This year’s calf crop is es-
timated at 36.5 million head,
an increase of 2 percent year
over year and the largest calf
crop since 2007. About 73
percent have already been
born with an additional 9.9
million expected in the sec-
ond half of the year, NASS
reported.
The combined invento-
ry of steers, heifers not re-
tained for replacement and
calves adjusted for cattle on
feed shows an estimated July
1 feeder supply of 37.1 mil-
lion head outside feedlots,
he said.
That’s up half of a percent
year over year. It’s not a big
number, but cattle supplies
Capital Press File
will continue to grow, he said.
“I think we’re adding mod-
estly to the herd, so there’ll be
more ahead into 2020. Even if
we stop expanding today, we
have enough feeder supply
for another year and a half at
least,” he said.
The number of beef cows
is up almost 1 percent year
over year, and he expects the
January to January beef cow
inventory on Jan. 1, 2019, to
be up 0.5 percent.
So there’ll be that many
more additional calves, plus
or minus, he said.
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