Dale check with Srd on the days that they did the survey if the weather was totally conducive to doing a survey i heard that the conditions were poor for some with wind chill and some ranges did not have some sheep in surveyed areas than normally hold sheep so if you have a die off /cougars/avalanches/ bad year weather.. they found 40 in Cadomin big rams dead.. so in your herds of 100 sheep /2 big rams can and will change numbers of legal rams greatly/there is your missing 2 %.. and three years from now everything is back to normal
with the cougars influx in Alberta /die off of trees(Pine Beetle) in BC did it change nature's balance and they moved here? if so it will take a few years to balance out
do cougars find Big Older Rams easier to kill and key on them? is there any studys .. ie cougars will kill 40% older sheep/ 40 % younger/ 20% any sheep
these are some questions? there are lots of variables that can come into the equation..
with SRD numbers looks like nothing has changed in 30 years and it will be the same 10 years from now. but there is a chicken little and friends with a differn,t agenda
Food for Thought
David