Montana farmers and ranchers spend millions of dollars every year to protect livestock from herd, wildlife conflicts. There are two major issues the fight; disease and predation.

What is brucellosis?
Deer, elk and bison cause harm financially in the form of extra food costs, damage to fences and occasionally disease such as brucellosis.

Brucellosis is a nonnative, bacterial disease that induces abortions in pregnant cattle, elk, and bison. The bacteria that causes the disease, Brucella abortus, can be transmitted between animals if they come into contact with infected birth tissues. Brucellosis poses a financial risk to ranchers because it can reduce the reproductive rate and marketability of their animals.

Billions of dollars have been spent to eradicate brucellosis from cattle in this country. In the United States, Brucella abortus only persists in the bison and elk populations of the Greater Yellowstone Area.

Predators
The removal of some wolves, coyotes, mountain lions and now feral hogs, is vital to protecting Montana's agricultural landscape. These predators not only spread disease like CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) that could decimate livestock herds but they also kill calves, lambs, elk, deer and bison in numbers that surpass the ability for repopulation.

We have a growing group of farmers and ranchers from across Montana that need your help in reducing the numbers of these predators and reducing the drastic impact they have on agriculture and native herds.