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August 24, 2018 CapitalPress.com 7 Idaho wolves kill six cows in one week By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press Cascade, Idaho, rancher Phil Davis said wolves killed three of his cows in early Au- gust. Separately, three other cows were killed nearby. “We lost three cows to wolves this last week, three days in a row,” said Davis, who for decades has studied Idaho wolf issues and has been outspoken about wolves’ impacts on livestock. The kills were Aug. 2-4 on Davis Cattle Co. property. USDA Wildlife Services confirmed the three cows were killed by wolves, as well as three other cattle on prop- erty close by, Public Affairs Specialist Tanya Espinosa said. In necropsies to deter- mine the cause of death, the agency found bite marks and associated hemorrhaging, she said. “There was extensive trau- ma, particularly on the nose and face, on all three cat- tle, plus other places on the body,” Davis said. “We are on track this year to lose as many or more cattle than we ever have to depreda- tion,” he said Aug. 7, referring to Davis Cattle. “We are at nine right now. In the typical year it has been five to seven for the whole year.” He expects the Long Val- ley, a high-altitude stretch of meadows and mountains from Cascade north through Mc- Call, to see more depredations than ever this year. The Idaho Rangeland Re- source Commission recently reported wolf-involved dep- redation cases set a record high for the fiscal year ended June 30 and are continuing at a strong pace. Scott Lake, Western Wa- tersheds Project Idaho direc- tor, said this reflects Wildlife Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission Katlin Caldwell, daughter of Davis Cattle Co. President Phil Davis, at work recently on the ranch near Cascade, Idaho. Services’ new method to con- firm livestock deaths. “It is the reporting method and the Wildlife Services outreach ef- forts, encouraging ranchers to report more livestock deaths as possible depredations even where there is no outward sign of predation.” In Cascade, Davis runs his cattle on private, irrigat- ed pasture, so livestock kills are in short grass and easier to find than they would be in trees or thick brush, Idaho Rangeland Resource Com- mission spokesman Steve Stuebner said. In remote trees and brush, it could take weeks or even months to find the carcass of a potentially wolf- killed animal, if it is found at all, he said. In forest environments, “quite often, bears will con- sume the carcasses after they are killed by wolves and be- fore ranchers or cowboys can find them,” Davis said. Canine marks on a hide confirm a wolf killed a cow or calf, he said. “But sometimes there is so little trauma they are not con- firmed,” Davis said. “But I be- lieve they died of myopathy.” Myopathy is muscle dys- function or weakness. Da- vis said it has been a factor in wolf-related deaths, even where on-carcass evidence is minimal or lacking, as the cow later falls some distance from the encounter site. Lake said Western Wa- tersheds disputes that field investigations can confirm deaths were caused by myop- athy related to wolves. Davis said he has asked Wildlife Services to “en- courage their research arm to research myopathy so that confirmations can be more clinical” and less open to sub- jective interpretation.” Gordon Murdoch, Univer- sity of Idaho associate profes- sor of animal physiology, said reliably confirming myopathy as a factor in cattle deaths from wolf attacks will depend on test accuracy, the number of tests taken over time — and across different time periods and situations — and the abil- ity to validate results. Traumatic myopathy, as opposed to genetic or hered- itary myopathy, results from physical injury or a change in pathology, he said. Low oxy- gen carrying capacity, low he- moglobin levels or an illness are non-injury examples of traumatic myopathy. “It’s possible we could identify some animals that were captured and killed where one of the underlying causes is myopathy,” Mur- doch said. “I wouldn’t want to say it wouldn’t provide useful information, but it’s not going to answer the whole story.” Livestock producers are losing fit, less-fit and very young animals to predation, he said. “There might be some animals suffering from my- opathy, and they would be susceptible to predation. But there are multiple factors,” Murdoch said. Snow, fences and other barriers hinder even the fittest cattle, “so it’s possi- ble a very fit animal becomes prey to wolves that hunt in packs.” Exertion can be a factor. “If you are continually under threat, that can result in exhaustion and make you more susceptible,” Murdoch said. Whether myopathy or an- other condition exists, “any- thing that causes reduced ca- pacity for muscle performance in the animal is going to hin- der their ability to escape,” he said. Myriad factors — such as other illnesses, excessive heat and reduced nutrition intake — “can participate in their sus- ceptibility to predation.” “People don’t realize what’s happening,” Davis said. “This management is not working. We can’t continue to get more and more depreda- tions.” Stuebner, of the Rangeland Resource Commission, said there have been many more wolf kills of livestock on private land than federal and state wildlife managers ex- pected when they first placed wolves in central Idaho under Endangered Species Act pro- visions in 1995 and ’96. Justin Haug/WDFW The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to add 94 acres to the Revere Wildlife Area in Whitman County. Cattle grazed on the land before it became a wildlife area. Washington plans to add to wildlife area Conservation group offers donation By DON JENKINS Capital Press A wildlife area in Whit- man County will grow under a proposal to be presented Friday to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commis- sion in Olympia. The department staff is recommending the state accept a 94-acre donation from the conservation group Pheasants Forever to enlarge Fish and Wildlife’s 2,291- acre Revere Wildlife Area 9 miles southeast of Lamont. The land is valued at $118,000 and will cost the state an estimated $1,200 a year to maintain, according to a staff report. Pheasants Forever will fund restoring a portion of the property to grasslands, according to the report. The wildlife area was ac- quired in 1992 by Fish and Wildlife and the Army Corps of Engineers to make up for habitat lost to dams on the Snake River. Before that, the land was used for cattle graz- ing, according to the depart- ment’s management plan. Mule deer, coyotes, bad- gers, raptors and game birds such as pheasants and quail are on the land, according to the department. Sharp-tailed grouse have been document- ed nearby. The Revere Wild- life Area has 150 acres of irrigated farm land leased for hay production, according to the management plan. Fish and Wildlife owns or manages approximately 1 million acres and is regular- ly acquiring more land. Dairy farmers seek solution to ‘desperate times’ By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Courtesy of Mark McAfee Mark McAfee, left, board member of the California Dairy Campaign and California Farmers Union, with Nick Thurler, board member of Dairy Farmers of Ontario, during an industry meeting in Albany, N.Y., on Aug.13. duce more milk to increase their revenue. When prices are high, they produce more milk to make up for earlier losses, he said. It’s led to “cannibalism” in the industry, and it doesn’t work. Even large and effi- cient dairies are no longer safe, he said. CDC’s Sustainable Milk Inventory System Act is a simple three-point plan aimed at solving the problem, and it’s been vetted by board members of large co-ops. It involves farmer-driven con- trol of milk prices and milk supply by region and apply- ing discipline to imports, he said. The plan includes legis- lation to give USDA the au- thority to establish a national program of inventory man- agement under the Federal Milk Marketing Order sys- tem. It would be farmer-con- trolled, but USDA would provide the infrastructure to regulate it, he said. 24-4/106 Dairy farmers from across the U.S. gathered in Albany, N.Y., recently to focus on a solution to staggeringly low milk prices and to rein in growing volatility. The meeting was hosted by Agri-Mark, a Northeast dairy cooperative, and drew 300 people — dairy farmers, industry leaders, legislators and attorneys. Mark McAfee, a board member of the California Dairy Campaign and Califor- nia Farmers Union, was there to present CDC’s proposal. He told Capital Press the fear and pain in the room was overwhelming. “It’s literally desperate times, and there doesn’t ap- pear to be any solutions on the table,” he said. Dairymen are under wa- ter with milk prices running $3 to $5 per hundredweight below the cost of production. Markets have been down for four years with three more forecast. Volatility has al- ways been part of the system, but markets aren’t recover- ing, he said. About 500,000 U.S. dair- ies have gone out of business since 1970, and Wisconsin is currently losing two dairies a day, he said. The problem is dairy pro- ducers aren’t controlling the milk supply, he said. When prices are low, farmers pro- 34-3/106 34-3/106