Bears, Lions and Goats: Oh My!
California Goat Operation
Bucks the Odds in Large Predator
Country
© 2017 Brenda M. Negri
and ACRES USA Magazine.
Above: Bigfoot? No, just one of the very large bears in the neighborhood…
Below: The Shields departing my ranch with a sibling pair of Spanish Mastiff pups.
What’s the daily grind like for a
commercial goat grazier or weed
control operation sitting thick in the middle of extreme-predator load country,
where each day is a test of mettle, endurance and smarts of man, goats, and
Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs)?
Friends and LGD customers Roberta
and JR Shields who live and ranch in the historic Gold Rush country in Columbia,
California, are achieving what some would say is impossible: zero losses of
stock to predators – in a heavier than usual predator load arena - with the use
of LGDs and other non-lethal predator control.
The Shields goatherd consists of
200 head of a mix of purebred registered and commercial Boer and Boer and
Nubian cross goats who live full time in the middle of a predator load that
reads like a multi-course menu of potential death and destruction: black bear,
mountain lion, coyote, feral and domestic dog packs, bobcats, foxes,
rattlesnakes and birds of prey (Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles and ravens.)
Tough Country Not for Faint of Heart
Former cattle ranchers for 20
years; 10 years owning goats; for the past twelve months the Shields have had a
contract grazing goats on 1200 acres of brush on a mine operation in the steep,
rough Stanislaus River canyon. “Of the 1200 acres, probably only 20% of it is
flat and/or clear,” Roberta says. Chock full of Manzanita, oaks, and the
invasive Himalayan blackberry, this rough, daunting landscape is not for the
faint of heart rancher. It’s not just the terrain and predators that’s a killer,
either: the area is loaded with poisonous plants such as nightshade, hemlock,
buckeyes and oleanders. The goats provide fuel reduction for the mine in an
area that’s suffered many huge, devastating fires. Blue Mountain Minerals
produces limestone and dolomite for the agriculture industry on 300 acres of
the property and recognize the value of grazing the goats on their property in
terms of safety. Less brush is less fuel for fires.
The Shields sell their wethers to a
commercial facility in the central valley for meat. They kid out their breeding
does in March. “We source our goats from local (Northern California) breeders,”
Roberta says. “We have three large sales in close proximity to us that sell
very well bred, nice breeding stock.”
Above: Some of the dog crew. Quality makes a difference: the Shields have purchased seven LGDs from me over the years. My unique LGD breeding program which is founded on pack rearing of litters, breeding only top genetics and proven purebred lines have paid off with success.
Packing Up With LGDs
The Shields first came to my Nevada
ranch several years ago to buy LGD pups to add to their existing LGD pack. They
took home two sibling pups and returned for several more sets of sibling pairs and
adult dogs over the years - a whopping total of seven dogs from me (!) including others. The breeds they have run and/or run currently
include purebred Kuvasz, Maremma, and Anatolians; two purebred Spanish
Mastiffs, four Spanish Mastiff x Maremma x Anatolian crosses, a purebred
Pyrenean Mastiff, and two Border Collie herding dogs. They appreciate the
variety of breeds and what each breed or cross brings to the table in terms of guarding
style, unique individual temperaments and travelling ability. They also know
the sensibility of running enough LGDs to do the job right.
“The lighter breeds and crosses we
run can cover more ground in this very steep country, and typically work the
perimeters and patrol farther out,” Roberta says, “while the heavier mastiff
breeds stick closer to the herd, bedding down with them. I like this because it
means the goats are covered both from afar and up close. If a predator breaks
through the first line of defense, they then have to contend with some even
bigger dogs waiting for them with the goats.”
In addition to guarding goats, the
Shields LGDs also guard 300 beehives that winter over from Gillette Wyoming,
before going into the valley to be placed in almond groves. The mine property
sits above fog line, and is much warmer than the Wyoming winters. The dogs keep
the hives – which are big money, Roberta says – safe from marauding bears.
By running a large and diverse
pack, the Shields claim it’s allowed them to suffer zero goat losses. In a
country rife with large predators now moving in closer because of several years
of bad fires, this feat is indeed rare, but not impossible. It takes planning
and a lot of work, but can be done.
“Neighbors near us who do not run
LGDs suffer regular, sometimes catastrophic losses of sheep, cattle and goats,”
Roberta states. “You can’t bring pups into a situation where you are already
losing livestock – it’s too late for that. You need grown, broke dogs. Too many
people make that mistake.”
Indeed, a recurring theme I see in
the LGD scene lately are people who are losing livestock and, in a panic, buy
usually one, solo pup thinking somehow it’ll perform miracles. It won’t, and
will most likely end up an easy meal for a large predator. The time to buy LGDs
is before you need them, not when you
are suffering losses. It is a long-term commitment that pays off later – not
right away. Dogs, being by nature pack animals, should be run together in
pairs, trios or more, especially in situations such as the Shields live in and
face.
Roberta further states: “Predators
are unique to each place we graze. Most numbers are cyclic. Bear numbers have
been increasing since hunting them with dogs became illegal and they have not
had a disease outbreak to decrease the population.” When bigger predators
increase, it also means the smaller predators decrease, as they are pressured
out by the competition for food. “The drought California experienced in the
last couple of years caused the bears not to hibernate which put increased
pressure on food sources,” Shields adds.
Above: Bear feasting on game.
Opening Cars Like Tin Cans
Lately bears have been breaking
into Gold Country homes, crashing through sliding glass doors and ripping out
metal garage doors to get to food. Bears often associate cars with food, and
“open them like tin cans,” Roberta muses. “A lot of people feed deer around
here. They buy grain with molasses and voila,
there’s your bear magnet.” Meanwhile, when they feed “Bambi,” this in turn
attracts the lions. Roberta further states, “At some point, the deer stop
migrating and stay with the food source – the grain – and so do the lions.
People then wonder why the big cats come in to their yard. They don’t get that
they’ve actually created their own problem.”
Lions now regularly venture into
foothill towns and kill pet dogs and cats, and have even been caught stalking
people as they jogged or walked on roads. It’s not just lions and bears, either
that threaten the Shield’s goatherd. A huge rattlesnake recently showed up in their
kidding pen, and had it not been the frantic alert barking of her LGDs, could
have struck and bitten newborn kids and would have probably killed them. “Those
good dogs got extra juicy bones that night!” Roberta chuckles.
“California banned Mountain Lion
hunting in 1990,” Roberta says. “No longer do we have wild herds of Elk or
Antelope, and with a declining deer population, food sources can become
extremely scarce for large predators, whose population is on the increase.
There is only so much native habitat, and it’s decreasing with more and more
development. This in turn pushes big predators closer to humans living in rural
small acreage hobby farms and in foothill towns.”
When that happens, livestock losses
skyrocket. Long time Tuolumne County Wildlife Specialist Ron Anderson has seen
an explosion in livestock deaths as people move out in the rough and steep
country to “get back to the farm,” yet don’t prepare, or worse, are seemingly
clueless about the predator situation and don’t set their places up to protect
their herds and flocks. Ron regularly offers exclusion methods to farmers on
how to protect goats against large predators. That includes the use of guardian
dogs and electric fence, but they don’t always listen, or when they finally do,
sometimes it’s already too late.
Above: A bob cat comes to a lion kill.
When Guardian Dogs Fail
In the lower elevations where the
bigger predators are not as populous, coyotes are the main problem. Anderson
has literally sat in a field and watched packs of coyotes bait guardian dogs.
“They get some coyote pups to start yelping off behind some brush. The LGDs run
to the sound of that,” he says, “while the rest of the coyote pack circles
around, kills the sheep or goat, and drags it off even before the guardian dogs
can come back and see what has happened. Yes, they are that smart.” This is why
it is so important to run enough LGDs to do the job, not just the minimum – and
stagger them in ages so mature dogs are there to show adolescents and pups the
ropes and back them up. Puppies cannot do the job of an adult dog – so don’t
expect them to, or prepare to lose some goats.
But how to explain livestock losses
when LGDs are there on guard duty? Ron recently went to a small hobby ranch
that lost several goats to a Mountain Lion. They were running a couple of LGDs,
yet still lost several goats. The area was not prone to lion attacks, and Ron
thinks that the lack of regular predator presence, i.e., threat pressure, may
have contributed to the dog’s inability or refusal to effectively stop the
lion. “They weren’t up to practice, or lacked confidence they needed to stop
the lion,” he muses. “Maybe it’s because they don’t engage with enough threats;
maybe they lose their boldness or become confused or afraid, I don’t know. But
I often see this out here, LGDs who don’t cut the grade, and you wonder if it’s
not due to a combination of bad management, inexperienced owners, poor breeding
and a lack of practice or exposure to threats.”
I’m willing to take it even further
than that: I think Roberta’s LGD use has been to date, 100% effective, while
others there have failed, for a reason that transcends predator pressure and
even the use of the right number of proven working LGDs out of good bloodlines.
Each dog she purchased from me was raised in a huge pack of LGDs that has
numbered from eleven to twenty-five dogs on my ranch. My LGDs that she owns learned
to work as a team and a fluid, cooperative pack from puppyhood; they were
immersed in pack life since birth. That in turn made them able to effectively
and confidently work side by side with other dogs, and back each other up; in
doing so, they are more willing to go the extra mile to guard stock and
confront predators. It gives them the added self-confidence they need. I’ve
long argued that pack raised LGDs are more self assured and savvy than those
who are not reared up in a pack, and the Shields’ dogs may be my star proof of
that theory.
And in big predator country, forget
using donkeys or llamas to keep livestock safe because they are just another
meal for a big bruin, a pack of wolves or ravenous cat. “Ron said just two
farms down from where the goats were killed by the lion, two guardian llamas
were killed. The sheep they were guarding weren’t touched, but the llamas paid
the ultimate price,” Roberta adds.
Above: Forget using guardian donkeys or llamas here….
Words of Wisdom
I asked Roberta if she could share
some tips with readers
running goats in large predator country.
LGDs: “Even if you buy two LGD puppies, with big predators its not
going to work,” Roberta adds. “You have to start before you have predators because it takes time for the goats and
pups to bond, and for the pups to mature.”
“But LGDs are not for everyone,”
Roberta says, and truly, they are not. Some people are not “dog people” or lack
the time, patience and resources to raise, train, feed and keep healthy an
adequate number of guardian dogs to do the job right, and should consider other
means to keep their goats safe. If the goat operator does use LGDs, “Invest
time in getting a working relationship with the dogs and get them bonded to
your goats well. In the long run it will be a huge savings of time and money if
your dogs work,” she says.
Fencing: “Too many people try to put goats in places that are fenced
with old cattle wood or metal “T” posts and barbed wire type fences. It’s bad
for both goats and LGDs. Dogs will push through and run amok and so will the
goats. You must have good fences to contain goats and dogs both or it’s a waste
of time.” She is a big fan of electric net fencing as it keeps predators out
and goats in. “For our night pen, we double net in bad locations for Mountain
Lions. We use tall horse net, then goat net, three feet part. A double barrier
– and it works.”
Good Shepherding: Roberta goes on to say “People must be vigilant
and pay attention to what is happening. Being successful here is not easy and
we often literally sleep out with the goats in tents when we have to. We are
always here, watching, checking, aware of where our goats and our LGDs are. I see way too many people blaming goats escaping on
their LGDs when it is in fact, their own poor or total lack of shepherding,
and/or incomplete or bad fences that are the cause of the problem.”
“Use everything you can to mitigate
for livestock losses. It is something that is
preventable. Electric fence, flagging or fladry, LGDs, full time herders,
patrols, game cameras – before and during the introduction of goats; use night
pens that are ‘bullet proof.’”
Goats Are Like Potato Chips: Roberta recommends, “Do not let your goatherd
become a food source because, just like potato chips, a predator won’t stop at
just one. Once they have a taste of tame game they’ll be there for good. They
will return time and again to dine on your goats while ignoring wild game like
deer. Keep those predators wild and depending on wild food sources, not your
goats. Don’t put sweet grain out for deer or other small wildlife and invite
them to stay because the predators seeking them as a food source, will be right
behind them.”
The Shield’s commitment to using a
variety of predator deterrents, good fencing, dedicated shepherding and an
investment in good LGDs over a period of several years, is now paying off in
spades. All their efforts are keeping them casualty-free in a predator heavy
area rife with livestock loss. If you’re running goats in big predator country,
with hard work, good shepherding and a solid predator deterrent plan in place
such as the Shields’, their success story could be yours, too.
Above: Puppy Training 101. Roberta is hands on, involved, and handles the pups and dogs daily.
Their LGD pack knows their owners are involved and backing them up.
Above: A lion caught on film. Night penning goats with a double set of electric hot fences and serious top-notch working LGDs has kept the Shields' extensive goat operation fatality free.
Below: LGDs alerted to this huge rattler in the kidding pen; the Shields were able to kill the snake before it could strike and injure or kill a goat kid.
Resources & References:
Farm
Show Magazine, Pack Raised
Guardian Dogs Work Harder, (2012,
Vol. 36, No. 4), by Brenda M. Negri https://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?aid=25763 A brief article about my LGD operation where pack rearing pups is stressed, and how it results in superior working LGDs.
People and Carnivores,
www.peopleandcarnivores.org. This
Bozeman, Montana based group works with ranchers, hunters, rural residents and
scientists to keep large carnivores in the wild, and away from livestock and
out of trouble.
Wolves on the
Landscape: A Hands-on Resource Guide to Reduce Depredations. Excellent tips for stockmen in
large predator country.
