Question:   Hi Eunice- I have a question that came up from a rancher wondering about stockmanship and wolves. I encourage him to re-kindle the herd instinct etc. but a question came up about calving in wolf country. Its fairly normal for a cow to move away from the herd to calve of course and so this might present a concern with wolves around. The question is, if well handled do cows calve within or closer to the herd. My answer was that most of my experience with associations on public range was that they calved out first or left ones to calve at the home place?   Thanks, Steve

Answer:  I don’t think I’m going to be much help on this, though I’ve seen cows calving in close proximity to the herd in cattle Bud and I have worked with. The only cattle we have worked with in wolf country was in Canada and they weren’t turned out on the range until after calving. Bud always thought cattle that had been worked with a dog were at an advantage in predator country since instead of panicking and running off they tended to bunch up, which offered more protection to the calves.  I know this was a big help against coyotes, not sure if it would be much help against wolves.    Eunice