Quote:
Originally Posted by pikeslayer22
Do any of the guys that want to eradicate the wild horses have any domestic animals or ever wintered a horse? In the winters with the heavy snowfalls when swath grazing cattle horses are a great tool as they will paw through a pie of snow to get to the feed then the cows find it. This winter I had some horses out in some pasture land that hadn't been pastured all year so put some horses out for the winter. There was a half section and with the horses pawing through heavy snow deer/elk/moose came for miles and all wintered well!
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Generally speaking, deer and moose don't utilize the same feed.....in the east slopes. I do realize that in the eastern part of the province, deer and moose feed on grain, haystacks and alfalfa, not so in the west country. There are no elk feeding in the areas pawed, pawed by the horses. Then the little area left uncovered becomes covered with more snow and trampled making it very difficult for an elk to forage. Little isolated meadows that elk relied on for winter feed have been totally grazed out very early in the winter.