By Terry Meagher

Beyond quiet lanes of rural beauty lie fields of desperation where Great Pyrenees dogs, weighing up to 120 lbs., are fighting off packs of coyotes in sheep paddocks, sometimes to the death.

"I’ve never had a year as bad as this," says Ken Gilpin, livestock evaluator for the township of Stone Mills, west of Kingston. On the nearby Clouthier farm, coyotes were killing sheep within view of the house in broad daylight while owners, Mary and Paul Clouthier, were at their jobs.

They lost 12 sheep and lambs this year on their 100-ewe operation and moved the flock to a four-acre paddock next to the house, protected by page-wire fencing and hot wire. They have six Great Pyrenees but the coyotes are too numerous. They create diversions at one end of the field during the night and kill a sheep at the other end. During the day, as the dogs sleep, the coyotes kill.

"Just before lunch one day I saw a coyote jump on a sheep’s back, biting at its neck," Paul Clouthier said. "I hollered and it let go."

"Fifteen yeas ago, I thought we would have solved our predator problems," says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs sheep and goat specialist Anita O’Brien. "Now predators are an added cost into farming. Eventually every sheep farmer will have to deal with it."

In a recent survey for the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency, farmers listed predators among their five top concerns. Beef and dairy farmers are also affected. Athens beef farmer Kim Sytsma, in Leeds County, lost two calves to predators this year. Her neighbour lost 15 calves.

Figures compiled by townships across Ontario over three years to March 2009 showed that the number of killed and maimed animals increased by about 21 per cent to 5,964 while compensation has increased from $950,000 to $1.3 million. The increase in compensation partly comes from the number of cattle killed by coyotes, $1,000 per head compared to $200 per mature sheep.

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) research scientist Dr. Brent Patterson says the increase in livestock depredation probably comes from an increase in coyote numbers. A widespread mange outbreak has come to an end, he says, while the number of natural prey species for coyotes has increased. Moreover, the steady reversion of farmland to bush has created better habitat for the animals.

Though lamb prices are good, producers are only filling half the Toronto market, says Mark Ritchie, of Amherst Island. He blames predators for the lack of expansion. "Predators are the biggest restriction," he says. He has 1,000 ewes and 1,500 lambs that graze over 1,000 acres. Though they are guarded by 10 dogs, from four breeds, he has lost 25 lambs and five ewes this year. His dogs also killed two coyotes but he’s also lost a dog, killed by a coyote pack.

Dogs are not enough protection, so Ritchie has predator-proofed fencing over 200 acres, with the assistance of a soil and crop program. Page wire, steel posts, and two hot wires running over the top of the fence costs about $265 per acre. Through the Growing Forward program a farmer can get 50 per cent of fencing costs paid for up to $10,000.

Dave Willard runs a sheep farm next door and figures he has lost 1,000 sheep over 25 years. When Lake Ontario freezes over it turns into a coyote highway. He has shot 25 coyotes in the past three years.

George Armstrong and his wife Vaida have farmed at Newburg, west of Kingston, for 53 years, until recently as outstanding dairy producers with best production in Lennox and Addington. This year, they lost five lambs, two of them during the day. They lost their first sheep to coyotes last year. This summer when a pack of coyotes moved in on the flock, George moved the ewes into a paddock next to the house and the lambs into a Quonset shelter where the temperature can soar over 30 degrees Celsius. A Great Pryenees lives with the lambs. One of his dogs killed a coyote but he didn’t get off lightly, being bitten in the face. Armstrong has accounted for 10 coyote kills.