Honestly, the only times I have seen donkeys actually be effective in a cow herd, is when people got pregnant, BLM jennies that foaled in the cow pastures. You can't get a BLM jack, only geldings,. but you can breed these BLM jennies back to domestic jacks, and they still have that predator-killing instinct with their foals. Unless someone is raising Mammoths, your cows are going to be a lot bigger than a donkey anyway. Like someone else said, you'd do just as well getting a couple of Brahma cows. Or LH. Corr, or in your area, Pineywoods.i am close to Oxford, Mississippi
With sheep, I have seen people use donkeys with success, and often as not, unsuccessfully. People have also used llamas or big billy goats, also sometimes successfully, sometimes not. LGDs are probably the best bet. A neighbor has 2 Pyrenees with his cattle, but to tell you the truth, I doubt they are needed in his Braford herd. Best thing to do is shoot dtray dogs when you can. Traps and poison are highly effective too, if you can do it without putting pets and wildlife in danger. We shoot every stray dog and cat we catch in our Kudzu pasture. Not because of the cows, but stray dogs and cats take more baby rabbits, and more quail and turkey chicks and eggs, than all the coyotes, foxes, bobcats, skunks, coons, and hawks combined.
What kinda cows do you have, @RNW ?
Best dog-killer I ever had was a Gunsmoke stallion I had in the 80;s/ His paddock was about 3 acres and square. He'd see one come under the fence and he'd act like he was grazing and ease toward it. When it got about in the middle, he'd run it down and stomp it. Ever once in a while he might miss one, or it might get away and crawl under the fence before he killed it. But if it lived, it would never get in that pasture again.
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