Bill to Update Predator Control Laws to Help Protect Goat Owners from Losses Moves Forward
HB 767 would allow counties to establish program to allow goat owners to contribute to predator control program
By Jordan Hansen for the Daily Montanan
Goats could get some protection from predators, especially from coyotes, under a new bill that unanimously passed a second reading in the House on Thursday morning.
House Bill 767 would allow counties, with the support of local goat producers, to establish a program that would allow local producers to contribute to a county predator control program paid for by self-assessments on the animals.
Predator control programs already exist for cattle and sheep producers.
“At the request of livestock producers, we are seeking additional sources for predator control funding, and this is adding goats into the current statute,” bill sponsor Representative Julie Darling, R-Helena, said during a hearing on March 4. “Currently we have it in place for various breeds of livestock, including sheep, and so we just want goats added to that.”
There were more than 16,000 goats in Montana in 2022, a rise from more than 14,000 in 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Coyotes are the main culprits for the deaths of many young farm animals.
Kelly Michaels, a representative of the Montana Wool Growers Association, said about 50% of all lamb deaths in the state can be attributed to coyotes. Many sheep producers also have goats, Michaels added.
The losses are heavy, with about 10,000 sheep and lambs killed each year in the state by predators. There’s also another issue, Michaels told the House Agriculture Committee during a hearing.
“In Montana, we primarily hear about livestock killed by wolves and grizzly bears, for which producers can receive compensation through the Livestock Loss Board,” Michaels said. “(But) producers do not receive compensation for the vast majority of livestock killed by predators in Montana.”
That’s because federally managed predatory species, like wolves and bears, are part of work being done by USDA Wildlife Services. Some counties have contracts with the USDA for predator control, but those don’t extend to coyotes.
The state Department of Livestock does collect fees on all livestock in Montana, which totaled about $4.7 million in 2024. Only about 12% of that money comes back to predator control, and that’s not the funding source for this predator control program.
“We’re talking about the county petition money that is self-assessed at the county level by sheep producers and cattle producers in counties in eastern Montana where producers do not contract with Wildlife Services,” Michaels said. “100% of their predator control funding comes from within their own county, and all that background, and it’s to say two things, predators are a big problem in Montana, with coyotes being the most destructive, and predator control is expensive and producer funded.”
In order for a county to approve a predator control program for goats, it needs petitioned support of resident owners who own at least 51% of the goats in the county.
“Producers need tools to raise money for predator control,” Michaels said. “And this bill is intended to help with that problem.”
If the bill passes a final procedural vote on Friday, it will move over the Senate.
Of course, illness (which will present increasing problems as new pathogens pop up, in part due to the consequences of man-caused climate change) and weather (increasingly severe and unpredictable weather, thanks to man-caused climate change) kill far more livestock than predators.