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Impact Report

For plan Profitable Livestock Production (Catron County)
Date October 14, 2008, 10:03 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Catron Counties livestock production is tied to public land grazing. The reintroduction of the Mexican Grey Wolf by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has had a significant impact on the the profitability of Catron County livestock producers. In an effort to help livestock producers be more profitable I have tried to develop alternative management strategies to deal with wolf depredations on livestock. Several of the most severely impacted ranchers are seeing as much as a 50% reduction in their calf crops. To date we have been unsuccessful in developing management options to reduce depredation on calves. Other efforts have focused on the bureaucratic side of this issue. The county has declared a state of emergency and I have worked with the Farm Service Agency to try to develop a farm program to address the depredation issue. Other work has been done to educate Catron County residents on their legal rights as they relate to the wolf. This is an on going project if problems associated with the Mexican Grey Wolf continue to increase as the population grows as they would be expected to Catron Counties livestock producers face the very real chance of being forced out of business. As a result of these efforts a program was organized to bring affected producers and the Range Improvement Task Force together to address the impacts of the wolves on livestock. Producers provided input on the development of data collection system. Two trainings were conducted to teach producers and others affected by the wolves how to complete and submit data to The Range Improvement Task Force. Hopefully over time this data can be used to develop management systems to reduce livestock depredations.