Too many moo cows: Now What?

[Lefty]

The trail cam had been very consistent, elk/calves 2-3 times a week in the daylight, 5-6 times a week in the dark. Season was looking good.
I scouted and hiked where I was planning on hunting on Saturday. My trail cam from 7/30 and 7/31 had pics of deer and elk. Cows were put on the pasture for the rest of this month. Twice a 2-point mulie walking by and 960 pics of moo cows in 21 days.
I covered a lot of ground Saturday glassing a lot of area. It appears the elk and deer moved out. Moo-cows everywhere. I was excited seeing the tall grass earlier this year, but I didnt expect the grazing association to put more cows on the pasture.
Im sure the elk just moved to an adjacent pasture with less cow traffic or no cows at all. The problem is I was planning on setting my spike camp up this coming Saturday when it looks like Ill need to spend my time looking at areas I haven't scouted at all.
I guess Ill be spending my week-nights on google earth and Friday evening and Saturday looking at new ground.

How have others recovered from too many cows

[Mike_Parson]

seems like here in NM i have the same issue. scouted a great area about 6 weeks ago. tons of fresh activer sign and the local water hole was covered in elk trackes all over it. sometime in the last month they turned cattle loose in the valley and they are using the water tank and all the sign in the area is almost non exhestant. we did se elk as we hiked the area but they were on the ridges west of this area and they were headed west to the bottom to get out of the oncoming storm. I have decided to totally change my hunting plans for this area and no i feel totally unready. my hunt starts in just 13 days. i was totally bummed out all day sunday after finding the cattle in my canyon....

[Waygoner]

This happened to me last year. I did some scouting and picked out my spot for opening day. Cows then moved in and destroyed the area. Had to move to another part of the unit.

[elkstalker]

I learned a few years ago that part of my scouting needs to be talking with the local BLM/FS range specialist about the grazing rotation in the areas I hunt. That way there shouldn't be too many surprises like this, and they can usually give me the number of the rancher or rider and they can have some great info. I was just talking to a guy at work who asked about a similar situation. In my experience the elk don't typically move too far, but definitely adjust their routine. Maybe they feed in an adjacent park instead of in the creek bottom meadow, maybe they move off to a high adjacent ridge or into a clearcut/timber harvest. In my experience they will move to the fringe of the cattle affected area, and return within a week of the cows leaving. They don't seem to mind mingling with a few cows, but large herds of cattle will displace the elk.