Ranching in Wolf Country:
Effective Stockmanship for Ranching with Wolves
Presented by Redwing Ranch in partnership with Working Circle and Cattle Up Stockmanship
Apply Bud Williams-style stockmanship to reduce wolf-livestock conflict risk and improve animal performance, crew communication, and ranch profitability.
Workshop Overview
June 23-27, 2027 | Redwing Ranch, Gardner, CO
Brought to you in partnership with Working Circle, Dawn Hnatow and the Redwing Ranch 2027 Workshop Series.
Improve your stockhandling skills and discover how effective stockmanship improves animal health and performance, grazing, and ranch profitability. Learn how the application of these principles reduce vulnerability in cattle to predation by changing herd behavior in the presence of wolves.
About the Event
Join us at Redwing Ranch for a co-ed stockmanship clinic designed to improve your ability to handle and manage cattle with clarity and precision. Understand how stockmanship can be one of the most powerful and effective tools for protecting cattle from predation by directly reducing the primary causes of wolf-livestock conflict.
This clinic follows Bud Williams style of stockmanship, teaching participants how to apply timing, positioning, and pressure to move livestock efficiently and confidently in any situation. In addition, the clinic will highlight how effective stockmanship can significantly improve productivity benefiting the economic bottom line.
While much of the instruction and practice will take place on horseback, participants will also spend time on foot.
Participants will:
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Build a stronger understanding of herd behavior and movement
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Learn how stock handling can reduce wolf-livestock conflict
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Understand the role of stockmanship in effective range riding
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Learn to use pressure and angles effectively when handling cattle
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Practice moving and sorting animals in both pasture and corral
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Improve timing, positioning, and teamwork with other handlers
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See firsthand how effective stockmanship supports animal performance, safety, and ranch profitability
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Understand what drives wolf-livestock conflict including wolf hunting behavior and vulnerability factors in cattle
Horse & Facility Details
Participants must bring their own shod horse, along with feed and a water bucket.
Redwing Ranch will provide:
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Individual pens (in corrals)
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Access to shared wheelbarrows, shovels, and cleaning tools
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Space for trailer parking and tack storage
Who is this for?
Those ranching in wolf country.
A co-ed event for intermediate to advanced riders, ranch managers, and livestock owners who want to refine their effective handling skills and improve herd efficiency.
Skill Level / Physical Requirements:
Participants should be comfortable spending 6+ hours in the saddle and moving on foot over uneven ranch terrain. Horses must be ranch-fit and comfortable working around cattle.
Details
June 23-27, 2027
Redwing Ranch, Gardner, CO
Tuition: Covered by Working Circle!
Check-in: 2:00 PM Wednesday | Wrap-up: 3:00 PM Sunday
All-inclusive with chef-prepared meals, comfortable lodging or camping, and course materials.
Space is limited to ensure a focused, hands-on learning environment.
More About Working Circle:
Working Circle was formed in 2016 in partnership with Northern California and Southern Oregon ranchers. The goal was to collaboratively discover, test, and implement strategies to reduce cattle vulnerability to large carnivores, minimizing unnecessary losses of both cattle and wolves. Initial efforts merged ranchers' knowledge of the land and cattle with insights from large carnivore biologists. The effort has since evolved into a more comprehensive approach that connects stockmanship, cattle management practices, and wolf hunting behavior. This approach has been demonstrated to decrease livestock vulnerability to predation while increasing ranch sustainability and economic viability. Working Circle focuses on addressing the root cause of wolf-livestock conflict through sustainable and long term practices that put control back in ranchers' hands.
More About Dawn Hnatow of Cattle Up Stockmanship:
Dawn Hnatow, Stockmanship educator and expert animal handler, was born into a ranching family in Canada. She has worked with livestock her entire life in and spent numerous years under the direct mentorship of Bud Williams. Along with managing her own herd, she shares her wealth of knowledge (along with hilarious stories) she gained during those countless experiences with Bud. Dawn’s heart is pure gold and she is as sharp as it gets. She will greatly expand and calm your mind, help you feel grounded, and guide your business in a more profitable direction.
“The state of mind of the animal is directly related to how they graze and how they convert forage. If they’re not handled correctly, they’re not going to do either job properly.”- Dawn.
More About Why Redwing is Using Effective Stockmanship:
You will never see a “Sorry for what I said while working cattle” coffee mug at Redwing, because working cattle with effective stockmanship is a process of discovery for the team and a critical training process for the cattle. A smooth cattle drive is not only a joy to be a part of but also an essential element of a profitable business. Cattle that are handled well and understand what you are asking of them have less health issues, have less shrink, and settle into grazing and gaining as soon as they are moved to new grass. Through the use of effective stockmanship Redwing builds resilience into the business, the livestock and the team.
Meet the Team
Meet the team behind Ranching in Wolf Country.
Dawn Hnatow of Cattle Up Stockmanship
Meet Your Lead Instructor
Dawn Hnatow is a seasoned stockwoman and the founder of Cattle Up Stockmanship, where she teaches practical, respectful, and highly effective ways to work with livestock. Raised on a ranch in Canada and shaped by a lifetime of hands-on experience, Dawn’s approach is deeply rooted in her years of mentorship under the legendary Bud Williams. Her time working alongside Bud not only sharpened her skills, it changed the course of her life. Today, Dawn travels the country sharing what she learned, helping others build better stockmanship habits that improve safety, efficiency, animal health, and overall ease of handling. At our Ranching in Wolf Country Stockmanship Clinic at Redwing Ranch, Dawn will guide participants through low-stress livestock handling principles that are simple, powerful, and immediately applicablle, whether you're on a ranch, in the corrals, or just getting started with cattle.
Redwing Ranch
Christy Wyckoff
Prior to moving to full time ranching at Redwing, Christy worked as a wildlife ecologist studying wildlife-livestock-human interface and educating communities about how to navigate those conflicts. Weather it is predators impacting livestock or pets, disease transmission from wild to domestic animals, or just the simple challenges of living with bats, skunks and birds in the wildland urban interface, Christy looks looks at the landscape scale of the conflict and strives to find solutions that keep our wildlife wild and our livelihoods and property safe. She brings this background and mindset to the daily work at Redwing Ranch, and to the ranch workshops teaching land management strategies. Christy firmly believes that solutions exist and with a little creativity and tolerance we can work with nature in ways that lead to win-win outcomes and long lasting ranching businesses.
Maddie Munro, Working Circle’s Program Director, manages an array of field programs including workshops, outreach, and on-the-ground activities.
Serving as Working Circle’s primary point of contact, Maddie is a key liaison between wildlife agencies, producers, and NGO partners. Skilled in community engagement, logistics coordination, on-the-ground strategy management, and nonprofit operations, Maddie plays an essential role in Working Circle’s daily function. In addition to a BS in Biology from the University of Cincinnati,
she has experience deploying game cameras, implementing nonlethal wolf-livestock conflict deterrent tools, and tracking wildlife.
Redwing Ranch
Erin Sheridan
As Programs Manager, Erin leads the development of educational workshops, events, and fire and fuels management initiatives at Redwing Ranch. With a career spanning cattle ranches, vegetable farms, and fuel reduction crews across the West, she is dedicated to the long-term viability of working lands and the agricultural businesses that sustain them. Erin is passionate about holistic land management and creating opportunities for women and beginning stewards to gain high-level technical skills. For this clinic, she is focused on the intersection of stockmanship and ecological resilience—viewing effective livestock handling as a primary tool for managing grazing impact, improving ranch profitability, and building a more fire-resilient landscape.
