Working Group Identifies Predation Risk Mitigation Practices

Predation is a significant concern for livestock producers in Manitoba.

In 2020, a three-year, industry-led livestock predation prevention pilot project was launched with the aim of reducing wildlife predation of cattle and sheep in Manitoba.

Ray Bittner is with Manitoba Beef Producers and is the Livestock Predation Lead.

"We've been working for the last year and a half on getting producers signed up who had larger problems with wolf, bear, and coyote," he said. "Trying to find different mitigation projects that can help reduce the traffic of predators through their herds. Things like deadstock pens or fox lights, which chase off K9's are some of the things that we've been using."

The working group has identified a group of risk mitigation practices which will be analyzed to determine their effectiveness in reducing the potential for negative interactions between livestock and producers.

"It's been pretty good. We had a number of people sign up. We built some projects on a number of farms in 2021. It was hampered a bit though. The drought definitely redirected livestock producers' thoughts to survival, rather than worrying about the predators. The predators aren't going away, so we encourage people to get in contact with us and if you have predator problems, we'll work with you."