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.
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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-
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