Question for you cattle guys.

Have been working some cattle ranches in Wilcox and Dallas counties lately. I am surprised at the number of coyotes hanging around the herds of cattle. Shot 3 this weekend working around the edges of the herd. Shot another one sitting near a cow that was off by itself. I don't know if the cow was about to have a calf, sick, or just off by itself.

Surely, these coyotes are not preying on the cattle. Are they trying to catch small animals flushed by the cattle or what?

It all depends......

If they are calving, they are looking for afterbirth and such.
Or, if they are being supplemental fed, they will eat the poop.

But, you are probably right on about the increased activity of the cattle moving about makes the small critters flush and move more.

Typically, cows will go off to drop a calf. Yes they will get on a newborn calf. I think the habitat of cattle farms doesn't help. Alot of small mammals and birds and such around for them to feast on.

I have never seen a yote get a calf. I have never heard of anyone actually seeing a yote take a live calf. I have seen them eat the afterbirth and I have seen them drag off a dead calf. But, it was a calf that was already dead.

I think most people attribute dead calls to yotes without any real indication it caught and killed a live calf. Hell, most mamma cows will not let you near their babies.

They'll take a grown deer when they have to, a calf would be a much easier target, especially if there's more than one or two, to distract/harry the heifer while another kills the calf. Probably don't see it as much here because coyotes tend to hunt more in ones and twos, but out west, where they often hunt in large packs...it's an instinct thing. Bigger animal = bigger meal for all.

Most cattle ran[u][/u]ches have donkey,s for the purpose of kicking coyotes and killing them.aint no coyote gonna try much with donkeys nearby.Now turkey,s love cowpastures and may be nesting nearby may have a thing to do with it.

Owners of some HUGE ranches in N. Texas spend 6 figures a year on coyote eradication. I'm thinking they wouldn't be dropping that much to keep coyotes from eating afterbirth, dragging off dead calves, or even denting up their turkey population...

The one that comes to mind right offhand is the Four 6 ranch, up near Borger...880,000 acres, guy won it in a poker game with four 6's!...he had crews whose sole job it was was to kill coyotes. They trapped, shot, and poisoned year-round. You could drive by there, the ranch stretched about 20-25 miles on both sides of the road, and every fencepost would have a dead coyote hanging on it, supposedly to help deter other coyotes.

i've had them killed by coyotes. I've also seen where they took down big heifers and killed them. But it was always in the winter and there were large packs of them. Not the usual ones or twos you see most of the time.

I witnessed a pack of 4 coyotes hunting a sounder of hogs one night. The sounder had about a dozen real small pigs in it. They were not successful.

I have also seen 3 coyotes worry a large bull almost to exhaustion. They had caused that bull to spin in place for hours it looked like based on how the ground was pounded into mud. I watched them nip at his heals for a few minutes before I got the bull some relief by killing two of the coyotes. I was shocked they took on a mature bull.

I have been part of a 125+ head operation for 23 years and I have not seen evidence that a yote killed or even wounded any beef. I am not saying it don't happen but it hasn't happened on our farm. I think the small farms with road frontage and country folks with rifles keep them in check and they find an easier meal. We have problems from some yard dogs but mostly wild dogs.

Yes coyotes may take down a sick calf or one a mothers left laying somewhere. But I think dogs are a bigger problem around here with cattle farms.

If there are calves - they are eating the calf crap same as buzzards will eat it. Apparently they like the poop with soured milk mixed in.

I went to the farm a while back and there were buzzards everywhere, I assumed there was a dead one in the field, but they were eating the poop.