Leafy Spurge, a noxious weed poisonus to cattle and horses, is a serious problem along much of the Powder River. Ranchers cannot run sheep profitably, however, if predation losses are too high. Running sheep can help ranchers stay in business, which is good for grasslands threatened by development and plow-up. Some ranchers are finding sheep to be helpful in utilizing the otherwise ruined pastures, and that by grazing the aggressive weed, the sheep help give native plants a chance to compete. For a month Robin and I rode our horses along the Powder River, where the bottomlands are heavily infested with leafy spurge, a plant poisonous to cattle and horses but tolerated by sheep. Sheep can also be a huge help when dealing with certain invasive noxious weeds. They can also more efficiently utilize the forage on their land because sheep tend to prefer leafy shrubs and forbs and cattle tend to prefer grasses.
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By running both cattle and sheep, ranchers can diversify their business and reduce their exposure to fluctuations in the beef, lamb, and wool markets. There are a few reasons why cattle ranchers might want to run sheep.
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We heard their calls often, though we only saw two coyotes over the three months we were on the road. The coyote numbers in much of the Northern Great Plains have climbed steadily over everyone’s living memory. While eagles and mountain lions take their share, the biggest problem is usually attributed to coyotes. Everyone we talked to suggested the same reason for this shift – just too many predators to run sheep now, they said. Sheep once grazed most of the country we rode through. The old Tallow Creek School house, where Leo Barthelmess let us spend a few nights on his family’s sheep and cattle ranch. Before they brought in guard dogs, losses from predation made running sheep economically impossible. There is still some loss every year, particularly around lambing, and some years depredation is still significant, but now it is manageable. Essentially, he explained, keeping the dogs has successfully reduced predation, at least to the point where it is possible to run sheep again. We looked out over the vast grasslands where Leo, his wife, and brother have run sheep and cattle for decades. “Well, without the dogs we couldn’t run sheep, and with them we can, so I’d say they’ve worked pretty well for us,” he told me. They work in teams of up to 8 dogs, each team protecting hundreds of sheep out on open range. Too curious to hold back my questions until the morning, I was pestering him about the dynamics of his 18 to 20 Livestock Guardian Dogs that watch over the sheep on his place. Our horses grazed amid the playground equipment, eagerly seeking out the overgrown clumps of alfalfa scattered throughout the former lawn. Robin and I stood in the fading light of a too-long, too-hot day, happy to see the evening come, next to the old one-room schoolhouse where we would be spending the night. “So have you had success with your guard dogs?” I asked Leo Barthelmess.
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A Livestock Guardian Dog back at the barn with her flock