BENEFITS AND COSTS IN CONTROLLING SHEEP BONDED TO CATTLE WITHOUT WIREFENCING

Mixed grazing groups of 15 bonded ewes and five cows consistently ( 10 0%) remained together in one of two adjoining arid rangeland paddocks during each of three seasons beginning in September 1991. The paddocks were separated with only two strands of wire fence, the bottom wire b eing 0.7 m off the ground. In contrast, non-bonded ewes (controls) wer e found in the adjoining paddock without cattle 54% of the time. This created a mean separation distance between non-bonded ewes and cattle of 977 m. Locating ewes in the non-bonded treatment required additiona l time, thus reducing management efficiency and increasing costs by ap prox. $0.10/hd/d. In a separate study begun in January 1992 an endurin g bond between sheep and cattle was produced by confining 65 to 86 day -old lambs with cattle in pens for 55 d at a cost of approx. $0.51/hd/ d. Bonding may provide an economically viable alternative to conventio nal wire fencing on many properties as a means of controlling the spat ial distribution of sheep under mixed grazing.