Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/61136
6A Daily News – Saturday, April 7, 2012 Agricultureranch farm Tehama County was hit and miss. On Monday the 26th I recorded 0.2 tenths while the Gallatin Ranch west of Red Bluff had two inches and their creeks and ponds were bank full or filling. For the month, we mea- sured 3.55 inches of rain, and most of it came just before the scheduled Field Day. *** The March rainfall in Mountain lions raid ranches & Valley, Genesee and Tay- lorsville, Plumas Co. have had 7 mountain lions killed this year after they had lost pets and livestock. One after this one was killed. Alicia Knadler, Indian The ranchers in Indian Valley editor, wrote the fol- lowing story in the March 27 Lassen County Times. "Blood and gore and the blank stares of his baby and adult goats greeted Genesee youth Paul Astles when he went to do his chores in the barn before school Monday, March 12. "He discoved a full-scale slaughter of his kids and adults. (Heather Kingdon told me he lost nine head that night.) "It was a mess in there," said a fellow rancher who saw it. "Astles is the same young man who lost several goats to mountain lions in late January. "There were four lions togeth- er on that hunt, according to Heather Kingdon, the neighbor whose border col- lie puppy was snatched off the porch by a lion the day before. That lion was killed with the dog's body still in its mouth. "Kingdon saw three lions that were probably a mother and her young, and another adult, a rather skin- ny female. "She was afraid this new kill was another group hunt, unheard of in mountain housed. The bodies of the nine (9) dead are piled in one place, so the lion will come to a distinct area. A trick wire is placed on the top goat's carcass so when it is moved an alarm that the Tracker has, will go off. The waiting begins. At 10 p.m. the alarm is sounded. Our hound man gets his dogs and as he approaches the barn he see the lion emerge from the barn and leap over the 6'6" fence without touching, loping across the arena and head- ing toward the mountain. The hounds give chase and soon the lion is treed. It is huge. The biggest lion our tracker has ever seen in his many years. The lion is shot and falls, the wind is howling and the rain is here, coming down in sheets." Courtesy photo by Heather Kingdon Brian Kingdon and Van Probst hang onto a mon- ster tomcat killed Tuesday, March 13, one day after a full-scale slaughter of goats was discov- ered when the young boy who owned them went out to do his morning chores. lions, but a professional tracker doesn't think so. "I saw one track, a big one", she said, before preparing for yet another night hunt Tuesday, March 13. Jean Barton modus operandi is to partially bury its kill and return to feed at a later time, proba- bly the next night. And that is exactly when the hunter met the biggest tom- cat he'd ever seen in his life. "It was a monster cat," he said. "A lion's were that it weighed close to 200 pounds. Lions do not hunt in groups, that is one thing he and the experts at the Dept. of Fish and Game agree on. "Estimates refused to validate the possi- bility of a group hunt by other than a mother and her young. ence or evidence to support that," he said. "Mountain lions are solitary animals." "This makes the sixth mountain lion killed in Indi- an Valley since late January. "The fifth one was killed "There is no history, sci- in the Williams Valley area of Greenville in late Febru- ary. To learn more and find safety tips, visit the DFG mountain lion information page at dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion . "Heather Kingdon authored a guest post about this experience Thursday, March 15, on thebeefjar.com . "Scroll down the page to see her story and pictures titled "Guest Post: Active Environmentalist." officer Andrew Hughan was emphatic about that and DFG public information live goats that are left are locked in the barn where the mare and foals are Heather wrote: "The few "Document the damage. Document the results. Doc- ument the loss. All are doc- umented, all is legal. The depredation was a success; yet there is no celebration at the Walking G Ranch. The dead are counted and the living are being cared for by the young man, Paul, of 13 years of age who they belong to. The nannies that are alive have lost their young, the young that sur- vived have lost their moth- ers. Each kid must be fed three times a day and the nannies milked, for they won't accept another's young at this point. Chores are a welcome distraction. The filling of water buckets, cleaning the stalls. Chick- ens to be let out. Horses fed." The Alice Knadler arti- cle continues: "Family friends set up a bank account for those interested in helping young Astles re- start his goat business. "Donations may be sent to Fundraiser for Paul Astles, % Plumas Bank, Greenville Branch, P.O. Box 612, Greenville, CA 95947. Community Clip? "Those who see a moun- tain lion near their homes or barns may call 911, or (888)334-2258." e-mail: clerk@redbluffdailynews.com or Fax: 527-9251 Soil moisture loss reports assist water management The Northern Region of the California Department of Water Resources and the University of California Cooperative Extension in Red Bluff have teamed up to provide "Weekly Soil Moisture Loss Reports" to agricultural water users. This is the first Weekly Soil Moisture Loss Report for the 20l2 irrigation season. It includes water use infor- mation for a variety of crops. Background infor- mation about the reports and ways to use them in on-farm water manage- ment are outlined in this article. Weekly Soil Moisture Loss Report" "Information in each Estimates labeled "West of the Sacramento River" are based on weather mea- surements taken near Ger- ber. Estimates labeled "East of the Sacramento River" are based on measurements taken near Durham. They are for healthy crops, where soil moisture is not limiting crop growth. Estimates are for bearing orchards (typi- cally fifth leaf or older). Estimates suggest a maxi- mum amount of irrigation water needed. Rainfall received during the grow- ing season and stored soil moisture from the dormant season also contributes to meeting these estimates and will reduce the irrigation water needed. decisions based on this information should be con- firmed with field monitor- ing. Irrigation systems that apply water with a high uni- formity require less water to supply the crop needs. This season, we have added the NOAA forecasted week of water use as additional information. Irrigation "Use in the Spring Sea- son to Help Decide When to Begin the Irrigation Season" Referring to the first table, select the crop in question and compare the "Accumulated Seasonal Water Use" since leaf-out* to the "Accumulated Rain- fall" since March1, 2012. As the seasonal water use exceeds accumulated rain- fall, compare this difference to the water holding capaci- ty of the soil in the crop root zone. For more information: Allan Fulton, UC Farm Advisor, 527-3101 or aeful- ton@ucdavis.edu Mark Rivera, California Department of Water Resources, Northern Region, 529-7301 or mrivera@water.ca.gov Kevin Greer, Tehama County Resource Conser- vation District Mobile Irri- gation Lab, 527-3013 x 102 or kevin@tehamacountyr- cd.org. COMPLETE AUTO REPAIR recommened 30K, 60K, 90K SERVICES AT LOWER PRICES All makes and models. We perform dealer Smog Check starting at$ Pass or FREE retest 527-9841 • 195 S. 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