Calling Coyotes Around Cattle

With all due respect, magazines and their writers, like newspapers and reporters, are in the business of selling news (or hunting tips). If there's no "news", there's nothing to sell. Do you really think that there are significant developments in the sport of coyote hunting every single month?

That being said, there really ISN'T any way to keep from calling cattle in, if there in a mind to check things out. If YOU lived in a pasture every day, you'd be dying for entertainment too. Cows are no exception.

The best thing you can do is find a fence and get on the other side of it from the cattle, if that's possible. I NEVER use calf in distress inside a fence with cattle. I've called them in from a mile away. If you want to use calf in distress, which is a good call, get a fence between you and the cows.

It's worth mentioning, all cattle are not equal in this regard. I have one landowner who has various breeds of cattle. Some are pretty sedate and generally ignore the calling, while some come running at any sound. I have one pasture where the cattle are so squirrely that I once literally feared for my life. If you find a place with sedate cattle, ask the rancher where similar cattle are located and concentrate on those spots. It also seems that the more densely packed in they are, the more squirrely they behave in regards to behavior around calls.
 
NewMexicoKid, maybe Tom will see this and jump in here soon? He's the author of the article you read by the way. I for one thought the article was a good read and it suggested some different tactics and such. It's hard in today's world for authors to write about something that has been covered to death already over and over and I thought Tom's article was actually something that a lot of people could learn a lot from. It was a little different than the standard, dull coyote calling piece.

For example, the mere topic of calling around cattle. A lot of new callers and maybe some old ones too, haven't ever put the connection together that in most places if you find cows, you'll find coyotes too. Coyotes love to hang around cattle pastures here in Iowa and I'm sure most places on earth.

I love to call around cow pastures. A lot of times, I'll just set on the other side of the fence. Sometimes right in the pasture with them or if the pasture is big enough, I'll get over a few hills from where the cows are herded up and grazing and call there. The herds I call around vary somewhat. Some cows will come running in. Other herds will slowly amble over and stare forever and still other herds pay me almost no mind. Depends on the demeaner of the herd and i suppose how jumpy they are. I think the way the farmers and ranchers handle them makes a lot of difference. If the owner is around them a lot and they get use to that and are pretty calm old cows, then usually they don't pay much attention to you.

I've had them at arms reach sniffing away at me and sat still and watched coyotes coming right to the herd before. Other times, I have had them stand in front of me and had coyotes come in, sit down and just watch the commotion for a while. Takes the attention completely off of you by the way. Other times, I've had the herd all around me and watched a coyote come in and skirt around the cows trying to check things out for a closer look but not wanting to get too close to the herd. You never know how the coyote will act when it comes, but a herd of cows around you is something I've never felt to be a bad thing. Just a complete annoyance and reduction in visibility most of the time.

I'm a farm boy so cows usually don't scare me too much. I'm probably too unconcerned with them at times and too trusting. Probably get stomped one of these days. Now bulls ..... that's a different story. LOL

I think Tom's tactics in the article could work very well. If you had crow decoys out like he mentioned than they'd be pretty tough and the cows surely wouldn't cause them too much damage or pay them any mind? I'd use mouth calls though if in the pasture with them to keep my e-caller safe.

I think some of the point of the article was to be able to help farmers and ranchers with calf killers too. If the opportunity arises in your hunting ground that one of your landowner says that coyotes are killing calves in the Spring, then these are some tactics that bring out the coyote or coyotes that were responsible for the killings. Sometimes when you get the one or two that were responsible for it, the calf killing will stop and you've got a real happy rancher! I think that was one of the major reasons for the article. I thought it was kind of a new fresh idea for an article with a good story or two in it and good, helpful tactics to get the job done. Tom kills a lot of them. If he says it works, I'd believe him!
 
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90% of my calling is in cattle country. I have good luck around cattle. Here in SE New Mexico, cattle = water source....thus coyotes.

I don't know anything about the article or who even wrote it, but I can tell you that I've been calling for 30 years and have NEVER called in a coyote(s) using calf distress. Rabbit, bird, coyote vocals....Yes. Calf distress....Nope.

Tony
 
Originally Posted By: TonyTebbeI can tell you that I've been calling for 30 years and have NEVER called in a coyote(s) using calf distress. Rabbit, bird, coyote vocals....Yes. Calf distress....Nope.

Tony

That's interesting. I wonder if it's a geographical thing, since our yotes are, in general, bigger than western yotes. All of the FoxPro calf in distress sounds seem to be fairly large calves. Most of the calves killed at my place are in the 100 pound range, at the time when they start really ranging far away from momma. All of the witnessed yote attacks have involved a minimum of a pair of yotes, and usually more.

I like them because they broadcast well. Problem is, they broadcast TOO well if you're inside a fence with cows. Who knows if I've ever actually called one in with calf in distress? They might have been coming from a long ways out to the rabbit they heard 5 minutes earlier.
 
I have never called one in with calf distress either of course I only tried it a time or two and realized its probably not a sound they usually make most coyotes think food. But I'm sure it works on some coyotes that prey on calves.

When I first started using a dog I wondered how it would work out on the cattle farms. My dog is broke from cattle unless I send him to one but if one gets within five feet of me on stand he quickly. Let's them know it won't be tolerated. And the [beeep] he raises with the cow adds even more realism to my stand. I didn't know my dog even liked me much but the first time a cow came in hot on me I realized he loved me.
 
The cattle densities are pretty high where I hunt, and so the guys shuffle the cows from pasture to pasture. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the yotes figure out where the cows have gone to within less than a day,and I think it's mainly due to hearing them.
 
I assume cattle kick up mice and rabbits, while they graze. That may be coyote's attraction to being near cattle. Or they may just enjoy munching on manure. My phone rings off the hook from ranchers, during calving season. I've had unbelievable success when cows start dropping calves. Coyotes come from miles around.

Tony
 


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