Quite the contrary CCP, farming cattle in smaller acerages and in vast areas of the west are far different, but the majority of cattle depredation comes from out west in larger land tracts not smaller! The USDA stats will show you that.
In states like Iowa, Illinois and other areas where cattle are kept closer to the operation and smaller pastures coyotes kills while they do take place are very,very minimal.The more livestock the greater the chance for loss! USDA reports show many estern states just don't have near the depredation that the western states do!
They have more advantage in areas of larger size and where calves can get away from ma cow much easier and better places for the coyotes to attack. You have cow/calf pairs in smaller pastures much harder for coyotes to do the deed without them getting a nice beating from several cows. Not to mention more human interaction as well.
We have more head of cattle than we do people in our state and other western states are the same way, we have almost 50% of our human population in sheep. Range sheep are far more suseptable to depredation than many in eastern states that have 50-90 ewes per farm and kept closer to the farmsteads.
The reason you run large bands of sheep on pasture is far cheaper than small pasture supplamental feeding, our lambs go to feeder operations further east to be finished off for the most part.
Each area of the US is different but out west the majority spring calve and spring lamb due to our weather, keeping them over winter is much more labor intensive and you have higher feed cost than spring calving and lambing.
If the numbers where as common place in the East as some say, then USDA would show that in the reports. I don't deny there are some depredation issues in the eastern half of the US on livestock, I just don't buy it as common place and that 300 lb calves are getting whacked on a normal basis by coyotes is all.