In 2015, the US Department of Agriculture division APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) published a research report entitled, “Death Loss in US Cattle and Calves due to Predator and Nonpredator Causes, 2015). The following data was compiled from that report.
In 2015, there were 2,710,000 heads of cattle in Minnesota. 45,000 heads of cattle died, 99% of which were from nonpredator causes. Of the 1% that were predator caused, only 0.18% (84) were from wolves—or 0.003% of MN’s total cattle population.
Mortalities Across all MN Operations
As the data shows, predator related deaths rank nowhere near leading causes of death in MN livestock:
In MN during 2015, only 4.5 % of cattle operations dealt with predator related losses.
Only 12.6% of MN operations had any form of nonlethal method strategies and tools implemented.
2017 Update
In 2017, USDA-Wildlife Service killed 199 wolves (6.97% of estimated wolves) across 23 MN counties in response to 89 verified complaints at 76 sites with 76 cattle (cow and calf) losses. (0.002804% of MN’s cattle population)
2018 Update
In 2018, USDA-Wildlife Service killed 189 wolves (7.12% of estimated wolves) across 23 MN counties in response to 113 verified complaints at 96 sites with 91 cattle (cow and calf) losses. (0.0033579% of MN’s cattle population)