Mali, the new Cover Girl

Thank you to Lauren Dixon for a great article on utilizing LGD to prevent predation.

To read the whole article, you can go the link here:
The Rise Of Livestock Guardian Dogs

Update Barn Fire

Feb 27, 2015

A small update:

I am overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of so many people. The number of sweet comments, words of encouragement, emails and messages has been enormous. Although, I do not have the time to thank each and every one who has sent me a message, please know that they are read and appreciated, and taken to heart.

Thank you to Jess, Jacquie, Eileen, Charles, Jan and so many others who have coordinated an effort to try and help us replace some of the things we have lost. We are touched by so many people’s generosity. We actually feel rather awkward about accepting the donations to us, as I mentioned in a previous post, we feel there are so many other worthier causes, people who have suffered greater losses. We are used to paying our own way, if times are hard, we work harder, cut back and do what we need to do. Your kindness has been so heartening, thank you.

If in any way we can pay it forward, we will.

Lambing time is a day or two away. It feels like a freight train is headed in our direction. It is a little paralyzing, as it is hard to know where to start.

So, on the business side of things:

We have found round bales of straw, so this weekend Eric will haul them home so that we can build a windbreak for the ewes.

We have borrowed some cattle panels to build a corral, to place the straw bales around.

We have ordered some lambing supplies, things like bottles, stomach tubes, teats, marker sprays, tags, applicators etc.

We have ordered hog panels to make some temporary lambing jugs.

We have also bought a small tarp covered “building” that we can set up sometime next week for the weak animals who will need more care and shelter.

The insurance people and the fire people have been looking for the cause of the fire, once we get clearance we can start the cleanup. 

We hope to have the power and water going sometime next week.

Within the chaos and disorganization; is work to be done.

Eric is the type of guy that plows through, gets busy “fixing” things, he is in organization mode. Often, a little curt, maybe at times a little too direct, but it is his way. Roy, is plugging along, helping out wherever he can. Jess will be coming home this weekend to help with building a shelter.

I like to write, rather than talk about these things. It helps me create order and perspective. So, with this update, I would like to share another small survival story.

We have an old red cat that we inherited with the farm. This cat is the one who hangs out with the pups, shares their food, he is the squirrel and mouse catcher, the dog trainer and he is a pet. He is also a survivor. He has used up his quota of nine lives. About 5 years ago, he got run over by our 1 ton dually. He disappeared and we could not find him. A few days later, I found him, his belly was open, his intestines were dragging on the ground, his ears and tail were frozen. He was at death’s door. I brought him into the house, gave him antibiotics, cleaned his wounds and comforted him. I had resigned myself that he would not make it. His condition was so poor. Well, this old cat did survive, he did lose part of his tail, his ears are shorter and he still has a small drainage hole in his belly. He is recovered, looks healthy, his coat is shiny and we are now 5 years further. The barn was his favorite place to be, due to the warmth of the furry puppies, yummy puppy food, mice and all the other perks ( attention, ear rubs etc) of being a loved barn cat. 

This old cat, once again used up some lives, he managed to get out of the fire, while our other 2 cats did not. His paws are black with soot, but he is out greeting us every morning again.

I think he is invincible.

The beautiful sunrise over the ashes reminds us that every day is a new day.

Feb 28, 2015
Lambing has started,  we are scrambling.

Fena, "watching" at a polite distance from a ewe who has just lambed.

2 March, 2015

The first two days of lambing went okay, however last night and this morning was brutal. An icy north wind, minus 14C. Huge wind chill factor.
 Checking every hour, moving moms and babies into stock trailers, giving them a drink of colostrum, towel drying them and hoping they will be okay.
We did lose a few last night.
At 3 am moved the whole flock to a different spot, that should give them more protection from the wind.

The wind was howling today and the drifting snow was like a sandblaster.
My skin is raw.

All, I am wishing for is some milder temperatures and no wind.

A busy week

This week has been busy.
Calving is going steady with some hiccups now and again.
The calves on the ground are doing good.

The weather has changed and now all the snow is melting,

so everything is mud again...

I HATE MUD!

This weekend is going to be busy.

We have the local spring rodeo in town,

Jess is doing the grand entry,

my horse is also doing the grand entry... just with another rider..

Our sheep are doing the muttin bustin..
Oh, and Jess has entered the barrel racing competition.
I am sorry that I am missing this...

I will be away in Canmore this weekend,
so will leave Eric and the kids to do all the work and chores here...
and go to the rodeo.

Have a great weekend!

And, don't butt heads!

The insanity continues..

Photo: Shelley Black

A few days ago I posted  HERE about laws that Idaho (USA) want to pass regarding using dogs (and other animals) as live bait in order to be able to lure wolves in, so that they can be killed.

Kris Paige sent me the following information about a bill in Wisconsin that is in the process of becoming law, that will allow the hunting of wolves with a pack of  (no more than 6 dogs), as well as legally being able to snare pregnant animals...

Once again the ethics or rather the lack there of is astounding.
Here is the piece that Kris sent me:

Wisconsin (USA) is preparing to pass a new hunting bill that will allow hunting wolves with dogs.
From Kris Paige

We all need to be very concerned about the new hunting bill that was passed by the WI Senate Committee this week in Madison. It was written and introduced by the Bear Hunters Association. It is now on its way to the full Senate to be passed into Law sometime this next week. SB411 can be found in the link below. This is not a bill about wolf management but it is an all-out war on our wolves. It allows hunting, trapping, baiting and snares 24 hours a day for over 4 months (Oct. thru Feb.). This goes on during peak breeding season and will allow pregnant females to be killed.

Another important reason this bill should concern each one of you is the section which allows hunting wolves with dogs day and night.

This practice is allowed in some third world countries today but has been outlawed in the US for over a century (with good reason) and now this very cruel practice is going to be brought back.  Hunting Wolves with Dogs is NOTHING like hunting any other game species and it is simply legalized dog fighting. Wolves will not tree like a bear does, they will stand and fight. Wolves will not run like a coyote does, they will stand and fight.

There are no trained wolf hunting dogs in Wisconsin yet that I know of. But these people WILL be looking for large breed dogs to train and sacrifice to the sport. I urge you all to be cautious about grey hounds and bully breeds being adopted to these people. They may try other large breeds too. I also urge you all to write to your Senators and ask that this bill be amended to a November season only. No Night hunting. NO DOG hunting and only in areas where wolves have been causing problems for farms.

And by the way, WI taxpayers will still be required to pay for hunting dogs killed by wolves.

Use of dogs  A person may hunt wolves using dogs beginning with the first Monday that followsthe last day of the regular season that is open to hunting deer with firearms and ending on the last day of  February of the following year.

SB411,7,86 
No more than 6 dogs in a single pack may be used to trail or track a wolf, regardless of the number of hunters assisting the holder of the wolf harvesting license.

To read more about what others say about this

CLICK HERE

Shepherd Magazine

One of my photo's of a ewe and her lamb is gracing the March cover of the US publication
The Shepherd.

Yay!

If you are a regular visit to my blog,
you will have seen this picture somewhere,
on this blog before.
 However, this photo has now graduated from a simple blog pic to a magazine cover!

To learn more about this publication or to subscibe you can go to their website:

www.theshepherdmagazine.com

More interesting reading and the dilemma of ethics

So, the Idaho Wool Growers Association supports a bill that is being proposed,
that will allow the use of dogs as live bait
to lure wolves in in order to be killed.

Consider this,
Idaho does not allow the use of live bait for fishing!!

The ethics of this dilemma is mind blowing
(not just the ethics that Bekhoff mentions).

That the  Idaho Wool Growers can support such ideas is just plain scary...
With bills such as these,
the wool growers run the risk of turning public opinion against the sheep industry,
an industry they should be supporting and educating on how to reduce conflict with predators in the first place.
Instead they chose to back a few ranchers, with questionable morals.

Read this:

KUSA - Dogs could soon be used to lure wolves in Idaho as an effort to kill off the wolves that attack livestock. Idaho Senate Bill 1305, introduced by State Sen. Jeff Siddoway (R-Terreton), faced the Senate Resources and Environmental Committee for a hearing Monday.

Wolves were protected by the Endangered Species Act until December 2011. Wolves are now off that list because their population in North America has improved. However, their removal from the endangered species list makes it no longer illegal to kill a wolf.

"We killed wolves, we reintroduced wolves, and now they've been removed from the Endangered Species Act," Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado-Boulder, said. "So there's a real ethical dilemma here. You kill animals and you bring them back and then you kill them again and so it's a waste of time, a lot of person power and money."

Siddoway, who proposed the Wolf Depredation Control bill, is a sheep rancher. The bill would amend existing Idaho laws relating to the control of wolves and would give more freedom to ranchers.

Under the measure, if a wolf killed livestock, the rancher could hunt down the wolf and kill it without a permit within 30 days of the livestock attack. Bekoff has studied coyotes for years and says it takes a long time for a person to be able to reliably identify a wolf or coyote that they've seen.

"It's going to result in mass killing of wolves because people will say, 'Well, the wolf came in and I just killed the wolf who came in,' but they'll have no evidence of that at all," Bekoff said.

The proposed legislation would allow ranchers to use a number of different ways to kill the wolves, like using live bait to bring the wolf to a particular area to be killed. Domestic dogs, sheep and goats are some of the examples cited of what could be used as live bait.

"From a dog's perspective, being used as bait would be a terrifying experience," Bekoff said. "They would know that there's danger out there. It would be terrifying and, physiologically, it could kill them. It's known that animals under these conditions lose weight, they stop eating, just imagine yourself being used as bait."

Members of Idaho's livestock industry believe the bill is needed to control the predators.
Many ranchers at the hearing Monday supported the bill, saying they've lost thousands of dollars worth of cattle from wolves.

"I applaud this bill, the Idaho Wool Growers Association certainly is in support of this," Harry Soulen, Idaho sheep and cattle rancher, said. "We need all the tools out there that are available to us to hopefully curtail some of our losses."

The legislation would also allow ranchers to use a number of different ways to kill the wolves, including the use of night-vision scopes to shoot the wolves and even the use of an airplane to shoot the animals from the air.

As it stands now in Idaho, an animal that is killed by a wolf has to be verified by state officials before any action can take place.
Because the legislation faced only a hearing Monday, there was no vote on it. The committee will take this bill up again on Wednesday.

"I think this bill could pass in the state of Idaho which is notorious for killing wolves," Bekoff said. "I'm holding my breath that it won't but in some ways after reading some of the comments in the newspaper articles about it, and just seeing the zeal with which these legislators are going after it, I think it's got a good chance of passing."

Written by Tara Meyer
Link
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Fame

Ok, not exactly..

My fame lasted a full 2.5 whole, complete minutes!

For those that missed it,

and understandably that can happen with hundreds of TV channels

Here is the interview with Alberta Prime Time about our ranch.

Click here to watch it!

And, after this,

life was back to normal.

I spent yersterday afternoon vaccinating over 100 calves, ear tagging and doing a few other ummm "jobs" to male calves.

Today, Eric and I vaccinated about 265 ewes in preparation for the next 3 weeks of lambing!

Article

This article appeared in the Alberta Farmer Express as well as the Manitoba Co Operator.
Last year I gave a talk at the Alberta Sheep Breeders Symposium about raising Livetsock Guardian Dogs.

Click HERE to read the article.


I believe that a lot of good dogs are wasted due to too little effort from the owner.
Somehow, some ranchers feel that these dogs should "just do it",
(even well bred stock/herding dogs need training..)
When the dog has been neglected for months,
has never had to learn anything ever,
 and then,
one day starts playing with lambs,
thats when the poor dog gets shot....
and the owner goes and looks for his next dog.