Author: Western Horse Watchers

Reveille Roundup Over

The Day 3 report indicated 134 horses captured, 76 shipped, 30 released and one dead.

With 27 mares held for treatment with GonaCon Equine, there were no unaccounted-for animals.

Youngsters represented 11.2% of the horses captured.

Of the adults, 52.9% were male and 47.1% were female.

The report said the GonaCon mares will receive a second dose of the pesticide in 30 days, a violation of federal law.

Gonacon 90-Day Requirement 07-01-23

The 2017 labeling amendment that dropped the RUP designation increased the time interval between doses from 30 days to 90 days.

The BLM probably won’t mobilize law enforcement resources against itself.

RELATED: Reveille Gather Ops Conclude.

Fish Springs Advocates Double Down on Pest Control Program

In an attempt to prove they can be as ruthless as the helicopter pilots and wranglers, mares in the Pine Nut HA have been reprimed “to be sure they don’t get in foal,” according to the real estate agent and PZP darter in the Minden/Gardnerville area.

Go to the column titled “Wild Horse Tales” in the June edition of Horse Tales.

Protect Wild Horses from Advocates 08-29-21

Instead of pushing back against ranching overreach and the continual loss of resources, the advocates solve the problem by pounding the mares with ovary-killing pesticides.

As explained last year by Tracy Wilson, defeatist for the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, “As you start reducing the amount of available space and forage, then you need to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses.”

RELATED: Protecting Them from Removal by Getting Rid of Them with PZP.

Pine Nut HMA with Allotments 07-03-23

Reveille Gather Ops Conclude

Helicopters were grounded this afternoon, with 133 horses captured, 39 shipped and one dead.

The colt lost yesterday died from a spinal cord injury caused by blunt trauma to the lower neck, according to today’s report.

One more update will be posted tomorrow.

Mares treated with Gonacon Equine could be returned to the HMA this week, but they won’t go home until October if two doses are given.

Gonacon 90-Day Requirement 07-01-23

Stallions identified for return could be released before the contractor demobilizes.

RELATED: Where Are the Reveille Foals?

Chaos at Wheatland Corrals?

Last year the facility was closed due to a strangle outbreak.  Nineteen horses were lost.

In March, on-site adoptions resumed.

In June, in-person adoptions were suspended in favor of the online system.

On Friday, a BLM news release said wild horse and burro adoptions will resume as scheduled throughout the summer.

The Wheatland population consisted of 2,511 wild horses and 23 wild burros, according to the May 21 Facility Report.

PSA 12-12-19

Where Are the Reveille Foals?

Yesterday’s action netted 37 stallions, 40 mares and 6 foals.

Almost certainly the helicopter pilots are targeting family bands, as the advocates do, but why the low percentage of foals?

The sample size was not large but at the rate the incident is going, the chase may end tonight.

A 7.2% birth rate implies a herd growth rate of two percent per year.

Can the results be attributed to population suppression efforts?  Harsh winter?

Mares captured in the 2020 roundup were treated with fertility control of unspecified type according the gather page.

RELATED: Reveille Roundup in Progress

Bold Prediction for Fertility Control Pesticides

Of the two leading products, Zonastat-H and GonaCon Equine, Gonacon will outpace Zonastat in use, for the following reasons:

  • May sterilize treated mares
  • Applicators need not be certified
  • Can be misused with no consequences
  • Few if any limitations on where it can be used

In the first part of the June 14 roundup schedule, for nonmotorized removals, the two products are more-or-less evenly split.

Given that GonaCon Equine can be used to control or eradicate pests (wild horses and burros) that interfere or could interfere with animal agriculture (permitted grazing), which is not true for Zonastat-H, it will become the pesticide of record until something better comes along.

RELATED: An Incomplete History of GonaCon Equine.

WHBAB Meeting Ends with Strange Remarks about Fertility Control and Forage

In yesterday’s public comments, Ginger Fedak, certified applicator for In Defense of Animals, said PZP was not a pesticide as some claim, refusing to look at the EPA fact sheet, apparently, and the restricted-use product report, which puts it on the same list as toxic chemicals.

She pointed to Spring Creek Basin as a shining example of wild horse management but ignored the disaster on the Maryland side of Assateague Island, with similar evidence now leaking out from the Currituck herd.

To her credit, she identified misuse of GonaCon Equine by the BLM, where mares receive a second dose of the pesticide thirty days after the first, not ninety days as specified in the directions.

Gonacon 90-Day Requirement 07-01-23

This is not a problem to be resolved by a new project in ePlanning.  It is a matter for law enforcement.

As stated on the label, “It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.  A copy of this label must be in the possession of the user
at the time that the product is applied.”

The agency intends to use the product on the Reveille mares after a roundup that’s scheduled to begin today.

Hayden Ballard, a rancher and attorney specializing in natural resources, spoke about the economics of livestock grazing, noting that ranchers pay $300 to $650 per AUM, a price heretofore not seen or heard.

If that’s true, it’s easy to see what they want the horses off the range, where livestock operators pay $1.35 per AUM.

He did not say where those prices prevail.

Last year, the McGregor auction yielded an average of $31.36 per AUM.

Your host currently pays around $180 per AUM for hay, compared to $95 per AUM two years ago, a fine example of Bidenomics, where the one-horse pony and his illicit administration are hollowing out the middle class, not protecting it.

RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Grinds On.

An Incomplete History of GonaCon Equine

The following timeline is based on documents found during keyword searches at epa.gov.

2009 – The EPA publishes a Fact Sheet classifying the product as a restricted-use pesticide, for use on female deer.  The label indicated there is a chance that some animals will become permanently sterile.

2013 – The EPA registers GonaCon Equine as a restricted-use pesticide, naming USDA APHIS as the registrant, complete with PPE requirements and directions for use.  Same product, but rebranded.

2015 – The EPA amends the registration, correcting the label and confidential statement of formulation (CSF).  Still classified as RUP.

GonaCon RUP Statement 11-19-15

2017 – The EPA drops the restricted-use designation.  Still assigned to USDA APHIS.

GonaCon Declassification as RUP 11-16-17

2019 – The EPA registers the product to Spay First as GONACON Immunocontraceptive Vaccine – EQ for commercial sale and use.

GonaCon Spay First Registration 09-05-19

The product interrupts ovulation and infertility can be achieved for up to four years in mares treated with a primer and booster, according to a 2018 report by CSU.

Spay First is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Oklahoma.

GonaCon EQ is not available for private use but you don’t need a diploma from the Billings School of PZP Darting and Public Deception to apply it.

RELATED: NPS Getting Rid of TRNP Wild Horses with GonaCon?

Foal-Free Friday, Managing for Genetic Diversity Edition

The Onaqui Mountain HMA has an AML of 210, which exceeds the minimum acceptable herd size of 150 to 200 animals in Section 4.4.6.3 of the WHB Handbook, but does that ensure genetic diversity?

Not really.  The low end of AML is 121, so the BLM could take the herd down to that level, compromising genetic variation.

How about Sand Wash Basin?  The AML is 163 to 363.

Nope, the low end is too low.

Hey Western Horse Watchers, what about Clan Alpine in Nevada, where the AML ranges from 612 to 979?

Not so fast, Chester!

There’s one more variable that must be considered: Are the advocates pounding the mares with pesticide-laced darts?

Let Us Fix Your Wild Horse Problem 02-18-23

If so, the breeding population may dip below 50 even though the current population is well above the minimum recommended level.

This is what the advocates are doing at the Salt River and Virginia Range.

Eventually the herds will collapse because too many mares have been sterilized by the safe, proven and reversible “vaccines.”

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Snuffing Out New Life Edition.

How Many Wild Horses Can the Reveille HA Support?

The answer can be found by the same method used for the HMA but with more acreage.

The HMA is a subset of the HA, which is a subset of the Reveille Allotment.

The allotment offers 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The HA covers 387,676 public acres.

Therefore, the forage assigned to livestock inside the HA is 39.1 × 387,676 ÷ 1,000 = 15,158 AUMs per year, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel, enough to support 15,158 ÷ 12 = 1,263 wild horses.

The True AML would be 138 + 1,263 = 1,401, because the HA contains the HMA.

The BLM receives 15,158 × 1.35 = $20,463 per year from ranching activity inside the HA while it spends $5 per head per day, at least, for a total of $2,304,975 per year, to care for the 1,263 wild horses displaced from the HA by permitted grazing.

This is a fine example of how the government caters to special interests, wastes our money and mismanages our public lands.

RELATED: How Many Wild Horses Can the Reveille HMA Support?

How Many Wild Horses Can the Reveille HMA Support?

There are three layers of forage demand in most HMAs: Horses, livestock and wildlife.

To estimate the carrying capacity, convert the forage assigned to livestock to wild horses and add the result to the AML.

The HMA is a subset of the Reveille Allotment, as shown in the National Data Viewer.

Reveille HMA in Reveille Allotment 06-28-23

The HMA offers 138 × 12 = 1,656 AUMs per year on 104,500 public acres, or 15.8 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The allotment offers 25,730 AUMs on 657,520 public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report, which works out to 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

Land that can only produce 15.8 AUMs per year per thousand public acres for wild horses can produce 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres for livestock.

If the resource is evenly distributed across the allotment, the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA should be 39.1 × 104,500 ÷ 1,000 = 4,086 AUMs per year, enough to support 4,086 ÷ 12 = 340 wild horses.

Therefore, the True AML, the number of wild horses the HMA could support if it was managed principally for them (as specified in the original statute) is 138 + 340 = 478, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.

The current population, thought to be 164 plus this year’s foal crop, is well within this range.

The Authorization Use Report indicates a twelve-month grazing season.

The HMA is managed primarily for animal agriculture, with cattle receiving 2.5 times more forage than the horses.

The roundup will bring forage consumption in line with the resource specifications of the land-use plan(s) and the fertility control pesticides should keep it that way for many years to come.

RELATED: Reveille Roundup Announced.

Reveille Roundup Announced

The incident, which kicks off the second half of the FY23 roundup season, will begin on or about July 1, according to today’s news release.

Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and operations will be open to public observation.

The HMA covers 105,499 total acres, including 104,500 public acres, according to the March HA/HMA Report.

The HA, most of which is unfit for wild horses but not for livestock, covers 389,050 total acres, including 387,676 public acres, east of Tonopah, NV.

The AML is 138.

The current population is thought to be 164 plus this year’s foal crop.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, slightly higher than the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.

The goal  is to capture 129 wild horses, remove 76 and return 26 stallions to their lawful home along with 27 mares treated with GonaCon Equine, an ovary-killing pesticide not a fertility control vaccine.

Reveille HMA with Allotments 06-27-23

The HA and HMA lie within the Reveille Allotment and are subject to permitted grazing, as shown by the National Data Viewer.

Animals not returned to the HMA will be taken to the Ridgecrest off-range corrals.

Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.

RELATED: FY23 Roundup Schedule Grows.

What’s the Minimum Herd Size for Genetic Viability?

An article by INFORUM about the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park says the herd should not be smaller than 150 and may require up to 278 horses to reach 100 breeding animals.

Section 4.4.6.3 of the WHB Handbook puts the minimum herd size at 150 to 200 to achieve 50 breeding animals.

This does not mean that larger herds have lower risks of inbreeding.

The breeding population on the Maryland side of Assateague Island appears to be less than twenty.

On the Virginia Range, where the herd numbers into the thousands, the breeding population may only be a few dozen, because most of the mares have been poisoned by Zonastat-H.

Same for the Salt River, where the breeding population is probably in the single digits, or anywhere else the advocates are pounding the mares with pesticide-laced darts.

Deniz Bolbol TCF Darter 03-11-23

Under normal circumstances, breeding populations should correlate with herd sizes, and the risk of inbreeding should go down as the number of horses goes up, but if the advocates are involved, that model falls to the ground.

Do Wild Horses Eat More Than Domestic Horses?

Your host buys twenty bales of alfalfa-grass mix every four weeks, allocated as follows:

  • Seven bales for two domestic horses
  • Thirteen bales for three adopted horses

The domestic horses consume 3.5 bales each over the four-week period.

The adopted horses consume 4.3 bales each during the same period.

This has been the pattern for several years.

Experience indicates that wild horses need about 25% more hay than domestic horses, which means they poop more than domestic horses.

These guys also receive grain in the evening, hay is not the only component in their diet.

They are not ridden or expected to do any work.

Call them pets if you’d like.

RELATED: No Relief in Cost of Feed.