I lost 5 calves and 3 heifers during calving in 2023 to them in the summer. Got done calving earlier this year and didn't have the first issue. I have committed to moving to a shorter calving season (120 days to 60 days) for a few reasons, but this has made it high on the list.
Seems like after the first one, there was always a few hanging around watching the herd from a 100+ yards up. The cows had plenty of cover (woods), and we were checking 3 times a day.
What I could not figure out is how they would go from 2-3 to 70-80 in a matter of an hour. Is there sense of smell that good? They are known to hang around catfish ponds a few miles away, and I think the feedlot close to me had high death loss last year, so maybe that was their home base. Managed to shoot a few, but it seemed like once they killed whatever they were after and got shot at, they wouldn't come back to it. I would even camp out over the carcasses hoping some would come back to eat on them, but I never saw the first black headed one on a carcass. Some red heads would come, but none of the black headed ones.
When I was shooting at the large groups that were actively eating / killing my calving heifers / calves, some of the successful kills were red headed ones. I believe they do join the group at least when the animal is immobile.
I did hang 2 in trees as far out in the open and high as I could and found a calf picked clean under it a few days later.
Should I start having issues, I will have to try that trap. It seems like a good idea.
