On Becky Weed and David Tyler's ranch here at the base of the snow-flecked Bridger Mountains, there are no rifles hanging in the rear window of a pickup truck to shoot coyotes that might attack their sheep. And there are no leg-hold traps set in the fields to capture the predators.
The first line of defense against coyotes is a llama named Cyrus. Coyotes used to slink into the pastures and help themselves to a lamb, eating up profits along with the meat. On most sheep ranches coyotes are routinely killed. Here, the llama simply runs them off."He kicks at them and swings his head," Weed said. "We have coyotes around here. I heard them in the pasture this morning. But we haven't lost a sheep to coyotes in four years."
The llama is one of a handful of creatures in an animal arsenal that Weed and a small but growing number of other environmentally minded Western ranchers hope will replace lethal means of coyote control. To that end Weed and a handful of others have formed the Growers' Wool Cooperative, a consortium that sells what is promoted as "predator-friendly" wool, which comes from operations where nonlethal means of predator control are used. In addition to llamas, ranchers use guard dogs and burros.
The effort is part of a growing trend toward "green" marketing, similar to "dolphin-safe" tuna, where fishermen are given an eco-friendly imprimatur if they use nets that trap tuna but allow dolphins to swim free.
"A lot of people believe predators have a role in the environment and need to have a way to coexist," Weed said.
The llama is not a perfect solution, Weed said. "We had a bear in our flock and lost four sheep," she said. "It was too much for the llama."
Sheep ranchers throughout the West are struggling to keep their industry alive. In the past 25 years, the number of breeding sheep in Montana went from 1 million to 300,000. With fierce competition from cheaper imports from Australia and New Zealand, where grass grows year round and the industry is subsidized, sheep ranching has always been difficult.
The Growers' Wool Cooperative hopes to fetch a premium for its "predator-friendly" wool, about $2 a pound, much more than the 50 cents to $1 that sheep ranchers get from traditional outlets. The move is also part of a trend in the West to add value to bulk commodities that have traditionally been shipped out of the region to urban areas for manufacture.
The Growers' Wool Cooperative has contracted with home-based knitters in Montana to manufacture its line of wool sweaters, hats, blankets and sheepskin coats.
Demand for the goods has grown substantially in the past year. The Nature Conservancy recently agreed to feature them in its catalog, and many small stores carry the items.
"I wouldn't go into a store and pay $130 for a sweater that didn't mean something," said Judy Rundell, owner of Brown's Emporium in Chatham, N.Y., which carries the predator-friend-ly line. "But people do when I tell them the kind of ranch it came from. People like it because there's a story behind the sweater."
Six Montana and Idaho ranchers are certified in the program, and 30 others have expressed interest. They cannot be admitted until the market for the goods grows and creates a demand for more wool.
Killing coyotes is a part of sheep ranching in the West. Hoping to head off the estimated $35 million a year in losses, sheep ranchers, with the help of federal agents, poison, electrocute and shoot hundreds of thousands of coyotes each year. Last year, federal trappers alone killed more than 82,000 coyotes, and they have killed more than 600,000 since 1990.