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MOFB opens permits to handle black vultures

The Missouri Farm Bureau has opened applications to livestock producers for a sub-permit to ‘take’ black vultures on their land.

The Bureau obtained a statewide depredation permit for black vultures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowing action by livestock producers experiencing problems with the animal.

Kelly Smith with Missouri Farm Bureau tells Brownfield applicants will be scored on a range of criteria.

“Are they having current depredation problems, what is the extent of depredation over the last three or four years on their property, how many livestock do they have on their farm, how many black vulture roosts and numbers of black vultures in the vicinity,” Smith said.

He says county rank for livestock production will also be a factor. Smith says the black vulture has been a growing problem especially for cattle producers during calving season.

“They have spread geographically across our state, all the way across our southern border,” he said. “And we are getting reports of the vultures as far north as Hannibal and Palmyra along the Mississippi River.”

Missouri Farm Bureau can award one sub-permit per operation with permits ranging from one to three vultures. Livestock producers can apply for the sub-permit by reaching out to Missouri Farm Bureau.