Due to the ever growing number of complaints by farmers and landowners in sask about the damages done to their crops each year, the 2004 season will be modified to thin out the cows in the herds. This fall the first week of the regular elk season will be bulls only as usual and the second week will now be if its brown its down. The season was set up like this about 5 years ago but they had changed it to bulls only for the past 4 years or so. Since then the number of elk have been growing at a rate of close to 1000/year. It is estimated in sask right now there is 15000 elk, 3 years ago there was 12000. Sure the province could support alot more elk but the elk are concentrated into certain areas and not distributed throughout the province. This growing number of elk is a real headache for farmers....Each year we lose at least 50 acres of crop and a dozen hay bales. The level of damage was never this extreme in the past so i am happy to see that the regulations will be changing back. They plan to cut back the number of draw tags on cows to prevent over harvesting the herds. This is good in a way because now the people who do not get drawn still have a pretty good shot at an elk. Its estimated that the sucess rate for elk hunters here is around 25% but i expect that number to jump a heck of a lot this season. Also due to the struggling moose population in the northeast the rifle season in november is now bulls only and the draw tags in the Greenwater lake provincial park will be cut back even further. Why don't they shut the season down completely and give this critters a chance to rebuild. The were hit so hard by ticks a few years ago that it was a disaster. Within a 3 mile radius of my farm i had found 4 dead moose in fencelines in the spring time. How many were dead that i never found? Usually when i am trapping in the spring i usually saw a moose every second day....I haven't seen a moose on my land in 2 years now. I have quit moose hunting and don't allow anyone to moose hunt on my land. i really wish the government wouldn't be so money hungry and close the season down completely in my area before its too late.