The Manitoba government announced earlier this year the launch of a three-year applied research project to identify and test ways to reduce economic loss from wildlife predation of cattle and sheep herds, and is hoping to hear what livestock producers across the province are experiencing.
One of the first steps of this initiative is to survey cattle and sheep producers before mitigating efforts are established as more than 2,000 commercial animals are lost each year in Manitoba through predation.
"The survey is a kind of baseline to figure out where the most serious predation problems are with beef cattle and sheep in Manitoba," says Raymond Bittner, Project Lead with the Manitoba Beef Producers. "We're trying to find out where the areas are, what type of characteristics about the farms that are having the most problems and see if we can insert some mitigation techniques into those farms that have the most serious issues."
The project’s key activities will be:
• conducting on-farm predation risk assessments and planning in consultation with producers,
• testing on-farm predation prevention and removal practices, and
• sharing information with producers about management practices and research project results.
Bittner says livestock producers face significant predation threats from coyotes, but black bears, wolves, foxes, and cougars are also responsible for the deaths of commercial animals each year. The project will help producers most affected by predation to develop individual risk management plans, while also supporting broader industry-wide efforts to test a variety of risk management approaches and share knowledge and best practices to reduce losses.
"Well certainly, we need to know what the problems are and who's got the problem. But secondly, if producers enroll and get involved in the project, then what we can do is there's going to be some people that actually receive goods and services that will actually move this along to demonstrate which ones work well and which ones don't work so well," he explains. "So, if you engage in the survey you have an opportunity to actually become part of the project."
The survey has been mailed directly to sheep producers and included in the latest edition of a newsletter provided to beef producers, and needs to be completed and returned by Dec. 21. If producers have not been provided with this survey, they are encouraged to contact Manitoba Beef Producers directly.
Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen noted when this initiative first launched that the research project will target the highest-known predation areas and emerging problem areas. Currently, the highest incidence of predation is in the northern Interlake and Parkland regions. The governments of Canada and Manitoba currently provide compensation to affected producers through the Wildlife Damage Compensation Program, up to a maximum of $3,000 per animal. This program has paid producers an average of more than $1.8 million annually in compensation in recent years.
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