The SRM meeting also featured a half-day session on ways for ranchers to co-exist with predators. One of the most interesting sessions at the conference, Kent Reeves of Whole Picture Consulting; Hillary Zaranek, a Montana cattle rancher; and Matt Barnes, executive director of Keystone Conservation, all discussed ways to co-exist with wolves. These are four basic principles I have summarized from the entire session.
All dead carcasses and sick, weak animals must be removed. They should be immediately taken far away from areas where cattle or sheep are grazed. Everybody agreed on this. Dead carcasses attract predators, and may encourage them to develop a taste for beef or lamb. Indiscriminant killing of wolves or coyotes is a bad idea. Wolves and coyotes form stable territories. Individual packs will develop a taste for different specific foods.
A wolf pack that dines on elk and leaves cattle alone will keep other wolf packs out. This same principle applies to coyotes.
The best approach is to remove individual problem animals or a male and female pair that are caught in the act of killing cattle or sheep. Years ago, I learned about this same idea from a Colorado rancher named Dayton O.
Today, those ideas are being accepted. Killing a predator that avoids cattle is very counterproductive. Isolated animals that are running away become easy prey.
The great herds of bison that once roamed the Plains would form in a group to provide protection from predators. It is the presence of predators that trigger that instinct. An attempt to force cattle into a tight bunch does NOT work, as the cattle will scatter as soon as the cowboys leave.
When handlers move back and forth on the edge of the pressure zone, like a border collie does, it can trigger the innate instinct in cattle to bunch up. Soft bunching as a herd is not panicked milling where cattle move in a circle and the strongest animals force their way into the center of the milling mob.
The debate over the conservation potential of wildlife farming is likely to attract widespread attention next month, when the member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species CITES meet in Johannesburg.
Neighboring Swaziland has proposed legalizing the rhino horn trade, in a bid to make rhino ranching a commercial enterprise. That effort is almost certain to fail. Wildlife farming is of course not new. Aquaculture dates back at least 8, years, to small eel ponds kept by aborigines in southeastern Australia. Farmed carp, salmon, trout, and other fish species, as well as mollusks and crustaceans, now supply more than half of all seafood produced for human consumption.
Nor is the idea of wildlife farming as a conservation tool particularly new. Ranchers in parts of southern Africa that are too dry for domestic livestock began raising wildlife more than a century ago, for trophy hunting, the meat trade, and tourism. A pilot study in Vietnam last year identified farmed species in that country alone, including porcupines, flying foxes, crab-eating macaque monkeys, Asian palm civets, wildcats, and multiple rodents and reptiles.
In parts of Asia where eating wildlife is a status symbol, people may be willing to pay that added price. But that does not appear to be the case in much of Africa, where hunters seek bushmeat for basic nutrition. Even relatively wealthy and educated consumers in the developed world are often reluctant to pay for sustainability.
For instance, people who keep saltwater aquariums prize brightly colored mandarinfish. Hence mandarins are already commercially extinct in many areas. Grazing is so important to Australian stations, ranchers are known as grazier s. A round-up, called a muster in Australia, is a gathering of all livestock on a ranch.
A round-up is usually conducted by cowboys on horseback, ATV , or other vehicle. It can be done for a wide variety of reasons: health care such as immunization shots for the animals, branding, or the shear ing of sheep. A round-up is one of the most difficult responsibilities of ranchers and cowboys. Animals often do not want to be rounded up and herded into a small, confined area.
Even the most docile cattle or sheep are likely to become aggressive during a round-up. Round-ups also involve a large number of ranch personnel performing different tasks at the same time: veterinarian s administering care to the animals, cowboys herding the animals, and wrangler s caring for the ranchs horses.
A cattle drive is a massive effort of moving a herd of cattle from one place to another. In the s and s, cowboys on horseback took a year or more to drive cattle thousands of kilometers. Cattle drives start on ranches and usually end near points of major transportation route s, such as a harbor or railroad station. From there, cattle are loaded into vehicles and shipped to slaughterhouse s. Branding is the process of permanent ly marking an animal to indicate ownership.
The traditional brand is known as a hot brand. A rancher or cowboy heats an iron instrument with a design unique to his ranch. Each animal belonging to that ranch has the design burned into its skin. The scar left by the burn is the animals brand. Hot brands are less frequently used on modern ranches. Ear-tag s and ink tattoo s are more common. Many ranchers use microchip s instead of brands.
A microchip is implanted under the skin of the animal. The microchip uses radio-frequency identification RFID to not only identify the animals owner, but also to relay information about its location and health. Livestock raised on ranches are an important part of a regions agriculture. Livestock provide meat for human and animal consumption.
They also supply materials, such as leather and wool , for clothing, furniture, and other industries. Some ranches, nicknamed dude ranch es, offer tourist facilities.
Some of these sites are working ranches that allow guests to help out in real ranching activities. Others focus on horseback riding, offering lessons and trail rides. Still others allow visitors to hunt native or imported animals. Resort ranches provide a more relaxing experience, with fun activities like trail rides and sing-alongs. History of Ranching People raised livestock throughout the Middle Ages , but usually only in small numbers on small areas of land.
The practice of raising large herds of livestock on extensive grazing lands started in Spain and Portugal around CE. These early ranchers used methods still associated with ranching today, such as using horses for herding, round-ups, cattle drives, and branding.
Ranching was only firmly established in the New World of the Americas. When the first Spanish explorers came to the Americas, they brought cattle and cattle-raising expertise with them. A variety of ranching traditions developed in the Americas, depending on the region the settlers came from and the characteristic s of the land where they settled. Gaucho s are cowboys of the grasslands or Pampas of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In Central Mexico, particularly the state of Jalisco, cowboys are called charro s , like the charros from Castile, Spain, who settled the region.
In Northern Mexico, wealthy ranchers known as caballero s employed vaqueros to drive their cattle. Ranching in the western United States is derived from vaquero culture. Throughout most of the s, ranchers in the United States set their cattle and sheep loose to roam the prairie.
Most of the grazing land was owned by the government. This was the so-called open range. Ranchers only owned enough land for a homestead and sources of water. Twice a year, cowboys rounded up cattle to brand calves in spring and gather steers for sale in autumn. Several factor s contributed to the end of the open range. One was the invention of barbed wire in Farmers began to fence off their fields to protect them from being destroy ed by livestock. This limited access to grazing land.
Farmers and ranchers often came into conflict over land and water rights. Overgrazing was also a problem. As more and more ranchers grazed their animals on the open range, the quality of the land became degrade d. Cattle are not native to the Americas, and had to compete with native grazing animals, such as bison, for forage.
Grasses did not have time to grow on the open range, especially in winter. The winter of , one of the harsh est ever recorded, killed hundreds of thousands of cattle that were already weakened from reduce d grazing.
Many large ranches and cattle organizations went bankrupt. Afterwards, ranchers began fencing off their land, which they often leased from the American government. However, in the s, more than one-third of all cowboys in the United States were Mexican vaqueros. Others were Chinese or Filipino. African Americans, seeking greater freedom in the West, also worked as cowboys and ranch hands during this period. Working Animals Ranches include animals other than livestock.
These working animal s help with the job of herding and rounding up livestock. Horses are perhaps the most familiar working animal on ranches. If you imagine a cowboy, you probably picture him sitting astride a horse. Horses allow cowboys to travel over rangelands quickly and keep up with moving livestock. Horses are also strong and responsive, making them excellent herding animals. The sport of rodeo developed from the skills required of cowboys and ranch horses.
Informal competitions among ranchers and cowboys tested their speed, agility , and endurance. Today, events such as roping, barrel racing , and bull riding demonstrate those same qualities among professional athlete s. Dogs are also common on ranches. Several types of dogs have been bred for their herding abilities.
Many of these highly intelligent, agile animals are simply called shepherds; Australian shepherd s and German shepherds are probably the most familiar. Collies and sheepdogs are also used on ranches. Livestock guardian dogs do not herd animals, but are used to protect herds from predators.
For example, the Great Pyrenees was bred to protect grazing animals from wolves and other predators native to the Pyrenees mountains in Spain and France. Ranching Around the World Today, ranches exist on every continent except Antarctica.
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