Elk Continued from Page 1
trough on the farm. Come spring, they’ll have calves, and the herd will grow, he said. “This is their home,” Kehoe said. “They’re not going to go back. If anything, they’ll migrate toward the other ranches.” Strauss said he knows of another Point Reyes ranch that has “140 elk that they’re dealing with every day,” including “50 bull elk that are pushing the cows out of the al- falfa and the feed.” He said the elk are also devouring pas- ture for livestock. That can impact organic dairies, which must provide rations from pasture for at least 120 days a year. “When the elk are eating that, it puts the farm at risk,” Strauss said. Taught to be conservation-minded by his father and grandfather, who started the farm in 1922, Kehoe said he has long been supportive of the tule elk. He said he just thinks the herd requires management. The Kehoe family’s original 30-year farm use and occupancy agreement with the government was extended under subse- quent five-year and two-year leases. In ongoing negotiations, ranchers are asking for extended 20-year leases to justify long- term investments in farm infrastructure. Kehoe said his daughter and his brother Michael’s son want to be the next genera- tion to work the Kehoe Dairy, but they will take that leap only with a long-term lease. For now, he said, they’re waiting until still-pending litigation and mediation can be resolved. “I think when the reality really hits,” he said, “then we’ll have to start thinking about it.” (John Beck is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Benicia. He may be contacted at john@beckmediaproductions.com.)
Kehoe said he fears “the nail in the cof- fin” was delivered this past summer when the National Park Service proposed taking down an 8-foot fence that separates the Kehoe dairy ranch and the 2,900-acre Tule Elk Reserve at Tomales Point. The fence removal could take effect as early as next August. Without a barrier keeping the elk inside the reserve at the northernmost tip of the park, Kehoe said elk would be allowed to roam freely like two smaller elk herds in the park near Drakes Beach and Limantour. He said he worries about his cows competing with elk for food and water. Up against the elk fence are 80 acres of silage fields that account for two-thirds of feed for his 400 cows. A pond and a reser- voir supply all the water. An elk herd that has already wandered there now drinks out of his cattle water troughs, Kehoe said. “If you start getting a few hundred elk over there, that will be impacted big time,” he said. “You take the fence down and how many elk will start going into the pastoral area? That’s the question we’ve asked the park: So, how are you going to manage that? And they have no answer to what they’re going to do.” Albert Strauss, CEO of Strauss Family Creamery in Petaluma, is partnering with dairy farmers who are fighting the plan. “It’s the last straw for the future of ranches in the Point Reyes National Seashore,” said Strauss, who buys from Drakes View Dairy on the Historic A Ranch and Mendoza Dairy on the Historic B Ranch, both in Point Reyes. The fence removal plan stems from nu- merous lawsuits filed, starting in 2016, by conservation and environment groups in- cluding, the Resource Renewal Institute,
Tule elk graze near fencing that separates them from dairy cattle at Point Reyes National Seashore. Dairy farmers are protesting a plan by the National Park Service to remove the fencing.
Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and Animal Legal Defense Fund. The litigation challenged the National Park Service’s renewal of leases with ranchers and the legality of an elk reserve fence separating cows from elk, citing vi- olations of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Wilderness Act. Point Reyes National Seashore wildlife ecologist Dave Press predicted that some elk will eagerly wander across the bound- ary once the fence is removed. But based on radio collar studies over the years, he predicts many more may stay on their his- toric home ranges within the reserve. “I don’t know if they would really start filtering throughout the whole park,” Press said. “That’s just the big unknown.” When 10 tule elk arrived in Point Reyes in 1978, it was part of a statewide effort to revive a decimated species. It succeeded in growing elk herds in the region. But
during drought years of 2013 to 2015, more than 200 elk died. In the 2020-22 drought, around half of elk died in Tomales Point, the northwest tip of Point Reyes. Park officials brought in supplemental water sources for the first time. Point Reyes National Seashore spokeswoman Melanie Gunn said a new management plan pro- posal was also developed to address cli- mate challenges. “It was something that was not accounted for in the last manage- ment plan in 1998,” Gunn said. The new management plan included the fence removal. But other National Seashore proposals would maintain the previous management plan or implement an alter- native plan that maintains fencing sepa- rating elk from farms, with allowances for thinning elk herds if overpopulation occurs. Kehoe supports the alternative to keep fencing. Meanwhile, he says elk are already coming through holes in fencing, leaping over cattle guards and lingering for two to three months at a time near a spring-fed
Award Continued from Page 3
Agricultural Market Review Quotations are the latest available for the week ending Nov. 24, 2023 Year Ago Week Ago Latest Week Livestock
event, now held yearly in Tulare, has grown to become the state’s biggest junior dairy cow show, attracting more than 300 head displayed by 200 juniors aged 5 to 21. “One would be hard-pressed to find a more popular person showing cattle with his engaging personality and willingness to help anymore in need at a show,” associa- tion members said of Airoso in a statement. Airoso said he plans to continue showing livestock, noting that it is one activity adults can do with their children and grandchildren. “I think there’s something to be said for that, where kids are watching you do some- thing, and then they want to do it,” he said. Even though a big part of the fun is walk- ing out into the show ring to exhibit the an- imal, Airoso said there are other benefits to the experience, such as meeting people, making new friends and traveling. “Don’t get me wrong, winning is fun, but you don’t win all the time,” Airoso said, “so you really need to make the oth- er part the fun part, and then when you win, it’s a bonus.” Airoso is not the only Californian who
Slaughter Steers – 5-Area Average Select & Choice, 1150–1460 lbs., $/cwt. Hogs – Average hog, 51-52% lean, Iowa-Minn. market, $/cwt. Slaughter Lambs – $ per cwt. 125–175 lbs. National weekly live sales Field crops – basis prompt shipment Cotton – ¢ per lb., Middling 1 3/32” Fresno spot market Corn – U.S. No. 2 yellow $/bu. trucked Alfalfa Hay – $ per ton, quality * , FOB Region 1, Northern Inter-mountain
159.00
177-178
175-177
82.44
76.87
70.84
127.63
171-250
176-213
76.44
78.56
77.63
Tulare County dairy farmer Joey Airoso earned the 2023 Klussendorf Award in October.
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has won the Klussendorf trophy. In recent years, the award has gone to Ken Melvold of Fresno in 2019, Gilbert Teixeira of Turlock in 2014 and Stuart Rowe of Davis in 1997. The Klussendorf Award is different from the Klussendorf-MacKenzie Award, which was created in memory of Duncan MacKenzie, the 1961 Klussendorf win- ner. This year, the 32nd Klussendorf- MacKenzie Award went to Nathan Thomas of North Lewisburg, Ohio. (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)
Region 2, Sacramento Valley
Region 3, Northern San Joaquin Valley Region 4, Central San Joaquin Valley
Region 5, Southern California Region 6, Southeast Interior
18 (P, per bale)
195 (P)
Rice – Milled #1 Head, FOB No. Calif. mills Medium grain, $ per cwt.
68-72
40-42
40-42
Provided by the California Farm Bureau as a service to Farm Bureau members. Information supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market News Branch. * ADF=Acid detergent fiber; (S) = Supreme/<27%ADF; (P) = Premium/27-29; (G) = Good/29-32; (F) = Fair/32-35.
November 29, 2023 Ag Alert 13
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