Notice of Hearing on the Application to Use Sodium Fluoroacetate ...

c3yo12s lere 25.8 perceni <strong>of</strong> tstal losses.
27. Or, Llarwin llielsen, Pr<strong>of</strong>2ssor <strong>of</strong> Economics at U t ~ h St2te Qnl ,srxj :y,
the Nielsen involved ic the lielsen-Curie study cfx2d in Cain, et a!.,
and a witness for .the AFBF, completed a i~udy <strong>of</strong> the charactsrissics 3f
sheep ranchers rsportiog high ?redaci~n ;ossss 2nd ihcse a2crrina
10:v ?radarion lasses in 1377. Baied on Gee, ec a1 . , Dr. .li.isen
concluded thar high 10si r3nchers experienced Iosi2s <strong>of</strong> docked idmbs
to predation <strong>of</strong> 3 percent or more, wni le low loss ranchers e,xoeriencsd
preda~ion lasses <strong>of</strong> 3 percent or 12s~. Dr. ?lie1 sen ' 3 study is refsrred
io in Gee, ex a1 . and included pr-d~cers frcm Colorado, idzho, klevlda,
Oregon, Utah and 'Ayorning. 3a:a gatered &as for the period 1571 -71
and showed chat high loss ranchers had lamb losi2s af 7.0 ?ercenr in
1971, 10.0 percent in 1972, 12.5 percsnt in 1373 and I4 percsnt in
1974. Low loss ranchers had lamb losses <strong>of</strong> 2.2 percent in 1971, 1.0
percent in 1972, 4.7 percent in 1373 and 3.8 perc2nt in 1974. Dr. biielsen
cancluded that this data indicated a substantial increase in predacion
losses since 1972. The personal interview survey was conducted in
1975 and ultimately required 37 high loss producers and 29 low loss
producers to estimate or recall predacion losses for the preceding four.
years. He acknowledged that he could have constructed a sample <strong>of</strong> low
loss ranchers experiencing no predation losses, that he did not know
whether the ranchers involved had records <strong>of</strong> losses for those ;IP~P-~