@article {49870,
	title = {Managing livestock using animal behavior: Mixed-species stocking and flerds},
	journal = {Animal},
	year = {2012},
	month = {02/2012},
	pages = {1-11},
	chapter = {1},
	abstract = {Mixed-species stocking can foster sound landscape management while offering economic and ecological advantages compared to mono-species stocking.\&nbsp; Producers contemplating a mixed-species enterprise should reflect on several considerations before implementing this animal management strategy.\&nbsp; Factors applicable to a particular producer\&rsquo;s landscape must be considered together with goals and economic constraints before implementing mixed-species stocking.\&nbsp; A major consideration when using mixed-species stocking is how to deal with predation losses, especially among small ruminants.\&nbsp; An approach being adopted in some commercial operations capitalizes on using innate animal behaviors to form cohesive groups of two or more livestock species that consistently remain together under free-ranging conditions.\&nbsp; These groups are referred to as flerds.\&nbsp; The mixing of a flock of sheep and/or goats with a herd of cattle into a flerd has been shown to protect sheep and goats from coyote predation as well as offering other husbandry advantages.\&nbsp; Some of the added advantages include more efficient conversion of forage into animal protein.\&nbsp; Creation of flerds, their maintenance and advantages are discussed.},
	keywords = {animal behavior, bonding, livestock, predation},
	doi = {10.1017/s175173111200016x},
	url = {/files/bibliography/12-006.pdf},
	author = {D.M. Anderson and E.L. Fredrickson and Richard E. Estell}
}
