Quote Originally Posted by gcreek View Post
You are right in most of this statement...........

I also believe that most predators prefer wild prey until they find out how easy it is to kill beef. With wild prey drastically down in numbers and a lack of will govt. to lessen predator populations these problems are only going to get worse.

Your statement of livestock loss compensation would leave readers to believe ranchers are compensated for all cattle that don’t come home in the fall and that ranchers can blame all losses on predators and be duly compensated. This is not the case, only kills that are fresh enough to be verified a predator kill by a licensed verifier will be compensated for if verifier deems the loss a bona fide predator kill. Livestock owners are allowed to kill offending wildlife on Crown range provided the proof of the problem is there.
This ranch has had 412 cattle not return home from range between spring of 03 and fall of 18. We have received compensation now for 14 of those animals. We know that the major portion of the remaining 398 were predator losses but with no verification they are a complete loss. The only reason we are still in business is the fact that we have a very cheap operation in all other ways to run.

We have spent a considerable sum of money for mitigation over the years in an attempt to lessen losses. Some years it pays, others not so much.
When you say the remaining 398 were with no verification, do you mean they could not decide what killed them, or you did not call a licensed verifier in to check them out.