Cumberland County farmers are concerned that a growing coyote population is killing calves and cutting into their income.

The Board of Supervisors responded Tuesday night by adopting a bounty of $50 on each coyote killed.

"How can we preserve the rural nature of Cumberland County when we don't protect our farmers?" Supervisor Elbert R. Womack asked.

Chad Fox, a biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the board that coyotes are now in every county in Virginia and that the bounty is unlikely to solve the problem.

Many hunters will take advantage of an opportunity to kill a coyote during hunting season anyway, Fox said.

Instead, Fox told the board, the county's farmers should use an integrated approach that includes fencing to keep the animals away, using guard animals such as dogs and llamas, and targeting to kill the coyotes that are attacking livestock. Fox said there is no financial assistance available to help the farmers pay for such efforts, but the county can be ready to document the need if funding becomes available by keeping track of where attacks are occurring.

The supervisors said the county will collect such data.

Two years ago, supervisors were dissuaded from establishing a bounty after being warned it wasn't a solution. But Cumberland saw the number of animal deaths attributed to coyotes increase to about 30 calves last year from three baby goats killed in 2005, said John Sullivan, the county's animal-control officer.

"We're worse off today than we were two years ago," Womack said.

Bounties have had mixed results. Halifax County is satisfied with the success of its program. But Nottoway County supervisors dropped their bounty after about a year because "they didn't feel like it was effective," Nottoway County Administrator Ronald Roark said.

Cumberland farmer Roger Hatcher told the supervisors that long-term programs might be best, "but a few dead coyotes will certainly make us feel better."
Contact Jamie C. Ruff at (434) 392-6605 or jruff@timesdispatch.com.