Ok, that's allright, anyway. Here's the disclaimer...I am not a biologist, just someone who has spent alot of time in one 50mile x 50 mile area over 32yrs.
1: CWD is a non factor.. There is a fair amount of hysteria around this w/o a lot of reason. I do butcher my animals accordingly but it has a negligible affect on the herds.
2: A healthy herd should be at least 1-10 bull/cow ratio. 2-10 is dandy.
3: My fave area has been producing around 1000-1300 animal harvest for about 8-10 years. It and one other area are the top producers in the state by a fair margin. This herd has about 8-9K animals in it.
4: The herd is continuing to grow even w/ the harvest we are getting.
It leads me to some very unscientific conclusions.
We must be having at least a 30-40% survival rate on our calves.
Predators(coyotes, eagles) take some.
Late spring storms take the rest. If you factor in the number of older dry cows, it still leaves the herd growing quickly.
I have seen the state issue as few as 5tags on a start up herd. Makes me believe that you can start hunting a group fairly quickly after stocking them..Probably 5 yrs to start. Once they get going,,look out, they are very hardy animals, much like the whitetail back east.
All that being said, I wouldn't have a clue as to your predator base, ours is strong but just about anyone out here will have a rifle, and not hesitate to shoot a coyote(very doable since there is so much public land). We do have a strong government trapping effort going on out here as well. Poaching also goes into the equation but w/ the fines and such now days, people have to be pretty hungry to get very carried away. Drunk teenagers are another story.
Not sure if this helps but I would think that if they get going on it, you should be able to hunt some before you croak. If not, it's 300clams for a cow tag out here.
Good luck
elkman06
elkman.
