Badgers.

[Jackall]

I farm in east Anglia and very lucky that I didn’t get the floods others do. but I do have enough badger sets to make a mess of my crops. When the areas that have flooods like now and previously in the Somerset levels did it reduce the problem with drowning?

 

[jackrussell101]

I believe it did. That's the ironic thing, the nature loving lot didn't want the rivers dredged because of the wildlife, yet more wildlife drowned across the entire floodplain when they all got flooded.

I believe one guy that got flooded and had been down with tb for a decade went clear of tb the following year after his farm was completely immersed in flood water.

 

[Spencer]

Every cloud...

 

[TripleSix]

Want to hire a water pump?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I saw 2 roadkills on a 40 mile journey today. Not usual to see 1 normally.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I saw 2 roadkills on a 40 mile journey today. Not usual to see 1 normally.

It's the time of year. Last year's boar cubs are chucked out the settes before the sows have their next litter.

 

[neilo]

I did see something on Faceache the other day, where a badger it’s had written an article saying how bad the floods in North Wales had been for the badger population.

A horrendous way for any animal to die of course, but no mention of sheep lost to rapidly rising flood water....

 

[exmoor dave]

I saw 2 roadkills on a 40 mile journey today. Not usual to see 1 normally.

You'd see 2 in 4 miles round here ?

 

[Kidds]

You'd see 2 in 4 miles round here ?

4 in 2 miles here wouldn't raise a comment

 

[OutdoorTim]

It's the time of year. Last year's boar cubs are chucked out the settes before the sows have their next litter.

Spot on mate .Good to see lads that actually know a bit about nature ,getting more and more uncommon these days .

 

[Hfd Cattle]

4 in 2 miles here wouldn't raise a comment

Round here it would raise a cheer !!

 

[OutdoorTim]

Bit of perspective here lads .Badger don’t die in settes just because of flooding .They can swim as well as anything else and I’m sure ,nay positive the first signs of a trickle would have them vacate .Ive seen badgers crossing a river at night in the thermal to get to a maize field .The cull here has all but consigned them to history ,a fact I’m not too proud of to be honest .
The numbers needed addressing but eradication ,definitely not .Here is a vid I took of a sow killing a chicken then taking it to her well grown cubs ,last year .

 

[unlacedgecko]

Spot on mate .Good to see lads that actually know a bit about nature ,getting more and more uncommon these days .

That’s reason why I do what I do. I like being outside and seeing wildlife.

 

[deleted user 837354]

That’s reason why I do what I do. I like being outside and seeing wildlife.

You neglected to add the part mentioning your .243....?

 

[Bury the Trash]

the cull is not meant to be an eradication . its meant to reduce the over population of an otherwise protected apex predator. which has a disease within it that also happens to be a zoonosis .

 

[OutdoorTim]

Yes mate I’m aware of that but intentions are one thing ,reality another .Im in no way an anti ,far from it but I am a wildlife studier and from what I’ve seen the badger has been pushed too far .They are as you say an apex predator here on this island but by removing it on the scale I’ve seen you run the risk of another predator filling that spot and that predator is the fox .We have seen a huge upsurge in fox numbers here ,not that I’m bothered as it means more field time for me but worth noting to anyone who cares to listen .Cull contractors have been urged to shoot foxes on sight but not happening by all accounts .
Whats being neglected is the vast deer population which also carries Tb but because it has a value is being ignored .
What appears to farmers to be an easy fix for bovine Tb couldn’t be further from the truth if a large population of deer also reside on the land .Deer are the only wild animal carrying Tb that drinks out of a cattle trough ,leaving saliva behind .
This year I’ve shot 3 confirmed cases of Tb in roe all of which were in Tb areas with very few badgers .
Please don’t think I’m condemning the cull as it was long overdue but by year 4 in most areas the population is well ,well below the asked for 70% reduction and I think we will pay for that in other ways in years to come .

 

[sidjon]

Whats being neglected is the vast deer population which also carries Tb but because it has a value is being ignored .
What appears to farmers to be an easy fix for bovine Tb couldn’t be further from the truth if a large population of deer also reside on the land .Deer are the only wild animal carrying Tb that drinks out of a cattle trough ,leaving saliva behind .
This year I’ve shot 3 confirmed cases of Tb in roe all of which were in Tb areas with very few badgers .
Please don’t think I’m condemning the cull as it was long overdue but by year 4 in most areas the population is well ,well below the asked for 70% reduction and I think we will pay for that in other ways in years to come .

Our red deer come out of Baronsdown and since the west Somerset cull we're hardly ever seeing tb in the deer now, where pre cull probably half would have lesions and would find it in the Roe too, cull of badgers has reduced the pressure of the disease in cattle and deer, but as you say they are part of the jigsaw.

 

[OutdoorTim]

Agreed mate .
There is no doubt about the link to Tb and cattle but is only part of the picture .Some farmers seem to think it’s the only link and all will be roses but I’m not too sure .

 

[som farmer]

thread about growing maize, I think maize caused a population explosion in both, to our detriment, with all the negative remarks re growing maize, what will both roe and badgers use, as an alternative source of food ? Will they interact more, with cattle, around feed stores, and troughs ? Certainly seen more foxes, not the usual 'townie' ones, humanely relocated, those wait to be shot, these ones are more 'educated'. Certainly after 2 yrs culling, badgers are becoming a lot less, but so is TB. Certainly a different look at the problem, and worth thinking about, thankyou.

 

[sidjon]

thread about growing maize, I think maize caused a population explosion in both, to our detriment, with all the negative remarks re growing maize, what will both roe and badgers use, as an alternative source of food ? Will they interact more, with cattle, around feed stores, and troughs ? Certainly seen more foxes, not the usual 'townie' ones, humanely relocated, those wait to be shot, these ones are more 'educated'. Certainly after 2 yrs culling, badgers are becoming a lot less, but so is TB. Certainly a different look at the problem, and worth thinking about, thankyou.

Also wild boar too, will go for maize in pit too