Carl Wilson’s wild neighbours have made it impossible for him to continue his swath grazing program.
The rancher from Rimbey, Alta., has been attempting to swath graze for seven years but the local elk herd, which can number as many as 100, has caused as much as $8,000 a year in damages, forcing him to give up the practice.
“We’re not happy with the situation in regards to both elk and deer. We haven’t found a way to manage them, really,” Wilson said.
“So it’s kind of left us in a situation where we’re basically giving up any future thoughts of swath grazing.”
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Wilson said he has no problem with the concept of swath grazing.
“It certainly was a cheap way to winter cows, if it wasn’t for the other problems we’ve had.”
He said it’s not so much what the elk eat; it’s how much they waste. While cattle are somewhat tolerant of swaths containing mature deer feces, they won’t tolerate elk urine and feces.
“When you go into one of these fields where the elk have been for a few days, it stinks. The cows will just go in and basically turn up their noses. They don’t like it.”
He said the elk, which wander in from a nearby provincial wildlife habitat, don’t just disturb his swaths but also his stockpiled grass.
Wilson’s frustration has been compounded by the fact crop insurance will only compensate against wildlife damage to swathed crops intended for baling or combining, but not for harm committed to those marked for grazing. He’s had several meetings with government officials to discuss policy changes, but they haven’t budged.
“It’s kind of ironic. The government puts out pamphlets promoting swath grazing and what a great tool it is,” Wilson said.
“And then, of course, when you try and do it and you have the queen’s livestock (wild animals) on it and (the government) doesn’t want to own up to it, it’s kind of frustrating, really.”
For the first year or two that Wilson tried to swath graze, game wardens attempted to intercept the elk by putting out hay bales, away from the areas to be swath grazed, in hopes that they wouldn’t travel farther.
“It was a joke, because a bale to a 100 head of elk is nothing,” Wilson said.
“They just walk over it, take a bite and keep on moving.”
He also tried propane noise makers but the sound didn’t produce the desired effect.
“We just consider that a dinner call. When they hear that, they basically come to lunch.”
Wilson said some people have suggested putting tall perimeter fences around his property, which he thinks is ridiculous.
“Who can afford to fence a quarter section with elk fence?”
However, he said it was sensible to put up elk-proof fences around his feedyard.
Ken Ziegler, a beef specialist with Alberta Agriculture in Lacombe, Alta., and a member of the Western Forage Beef Group, said he would like to see tests conducted in which existing perimeter fences are extended vertically with posts two metres high and every second wire is electrified.
Ideally this fence would be in place in the summer before the animals could find the field and develop the habit of entering it, he said.
“Elk are opportunists. They’ll feed off of the best feed source for as long as they can. They are like cows in that they have no sense of tomorrow, so they’ll absolutely and utterly waste, because it’s available today,” he said.
“If they never get into that (field to be swath grazed) and never recognize it as being a potential feeding area, then that to me should work fairly well.”
He said if a farmer has had wildlife problems before, specifically with elk, the chances of him being able to use swath grazing on a regular basis is risky because the elk will have become familiar with it and they are likely to test the fence again.
If someone new to swath grazing suspects elk might be a problem, Ziegler would encourage grazing only small numbers of cattle in small areas. If that works well, gradually expand and add electric perimeter fencing over a number of years, he added.
