Meth, Mazdas outfit the new cattle rustler

Yearlings swiped from dairy farm
The pickings are even easier on many dairies. Investigators are still looking for the thieves who stole three of Wiersma's yearling heifers, valued at around $700 each, several weeks ago. Twin Falls County Sheriff's Sgt. Daron Brown, who investigates rural crimes, said the calves — which were unbranded — are probably long gone.

"The way that it happens is you drive your little Mazda into the dairy, in the back where the cameras don't pick it up," Brown said. "And you take four small calves out of the calf hutches and you put two in the trunk and two in the back seat and you drive off."

Make two or three trips to dairies a night and a rustler can net thousands of dollars, Brown said. Wiersma's dairy was one of at least four in the region hit by rustlers at about the same time.

The problem has gotten bad enough that Bill Stouder, a veterinarian and dairy producer, now brands even his stillborn calves to keep rustlers from picking them up before the rendering truck arrives and later swapping them for another rancher's live calves.

Motion-activated cameras are becoming more common on dairies and feedlots, as are tall fences and locked gates.

Branding as defense
The best defense against rustlers? Branding all animals and quickly reporting any missing cattle, said Greg Lawley, chief for the Bureau of Livestock Identification in California. But many livestock owners still seem reluctant to take such measures.

"For whatever reason, people will not report whether they think it's a bad reflection on them or that a couple of head isn't enough to worry about," Lawley said. "If you wait for six months to make sure they're really missing that's a cold trail for us to follow."

Wiersma reported his missing calves right away and recently purchased a special, smaller branding iron that easily fits on a newborn calf's flank. He still has not actually used the smaller iron, however.

"We brand the older ones, when they're about 400 pounds. I just don't have it in my heart to brand day-olds," Wiersma said. "Probably if I get them stole again I'll probably get fed up and do it."

In the meantime, he'll put up a tall fence and hope that does the trick.

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