Paul, the Texas coyotes would eat the sheep long before autumn.
We don't have coyote here.
However we have wolf, bear, bobcat and eagles that predate on sheep, and dogs beeing the worst predator.
Shepards is not common anymore, but creative farmers use lamas (import from peru) in the sheep herd, they deefend them selves and the rest off the herd.
No match for a predator that really wants to kill, but they totally cnfuse the predator by counter atac so the predator choose another prey.
Those are way to expencive to slaughter in the fall do, but if you have the space available and the time to spare/nurse it you have a good employe.
