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Bovine TB


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My mate who shepherds the farm I shoot on has been informed their small herd of beef cattle have TB. Having been in the yard at all hours of day and night I know badgers wander in and around the cattle. They have also taken lambs from the fields surrounding their setts.

When out night shooting they are every where and there are at least six setts on a farm that is 180 acres in size. A licence to cull has been applied for, in the meantime the cattle cant be moved for six months so will go from prime beef to worthless.

Not sure how the cull will be approved or if I will be asked to help but damn certain that there are too many brocks and another farmer so tied up in red tape he wants out :good:

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On a piece of land I set a live catch fox cage. Never caught a fox in it :good: but the amount of badgers I had to let out was something else. They'd have eaten the bait, dug around a bit then lay down for a kip for themselves waiting for me to let the out in the morning ;)

 

Be no harm if the numbers were reduced a bit over here too :lol: As it stands they're protected.

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My mate who shepherds the farm I shoot on has been informed their small herd of beef cattle have TB. Having been in the yard at all hours of day and night I know badgers wander in and around the cattle. They have also taken lambs from the fields surrounding their setts.

When out night shooting they are every where and there are at least six setts on a farm that is 180 acres in size. A licence to cull has been applied for, in the meantime the cattle cant be moved for six months so will go from prime beef to worthless.

Not sure how the cull will be approved or if I will be asked to help but damn certain that there are too many brocks and another farmer so tied up in red tape he wants out :good:

 

they are a bigger pest than the government will admit, because they have to please them that are daft. have a farm near me thats lifted with em.

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one of the farms i shoot on had bovine tb last year , they managed to struggle through it but it cost them around 40 young calves .

the small farm next door wasn't so lucky and they went to the wall. :good:

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if it's not one thing it's another, the floods up here have cost one farmer 200 lambs. there up against it more than ever and it's about time the red tape was lifted.

 

All these idiots who are to blind to see the real world arnt worth the effort, you dont see them stood in front of the taliban when our boys are getting shot to s-hit, so why they feel the need to protect these flee bitten desease (spelling) riddled s-hit bits i'll never know.

 

a farm where my dad works has already paid £800 for the same badger moving twice, it was blocking a drain which the farmer was also charged for :good:

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On a piece of land I set a live catch fox cage. Never caught a fox in it :good: but the amount of badgers I had to let out was something else. They'd have eaten the bait, dug around a bit then lay down for a kip for themselves waiting for me to let the out in the morning :lol:

 

Be no harm if the numbers were reduced a bit over here too :lol: As it stands they're protected.

 

 

I thought you now culled south of the border John ;)

 

 

 

 

LB

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Stupid amount of them at my place. We had a cow get tb earlier in the year. The last test gave 5 or 6 inconclusives and we have another test pretty soon. We had a vet survey the farm and he concluded it was from wildlife as we have a closed heard. I wish we could do something about it, but I can't see anything been done under this government.

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On a piece of land I set a live catch fox cage. Never caught a fox in it :good: but the amount of badgers I had to let out was something else. They'd have eaten the bait, dug around a bit then lay down for a kip for themselves waiting for me to let the out in the morning :lol:

 

Be no harm if the numbers were reduced a bit over here too :lol: As it stands they're protected.

 

 

I thought you now culled south of the border John ;)

 

 

 

 

LB

 

It'd be (good) news to me if we are, don't think that's the case though LB. Saw two running along infront of the car on my way to lamping earlier. Seen more while out.

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We seem to have a lot of them in this neck of the woods too. Only the other week myself and owenwill were out lamping and spent 10 mins watching one sniff around the rabbit warrens. Also seeing more than normal dead ones by the side of the road. and a farm I used to work on had a big problem with them because of the mess they made as the set was huge.

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I am not saying they should not be culled because if there are too many then tha is what should be done. However what I am saying is that farmers can have herds innoculated. Yes it does cost money but when your herd goes from prime beef to worthless is it not a sensible option?

Farmers are up against it but at the same time a lot of them seem to be so tight fisted. I speak from experience, I shoot over dairy farm and the corner cutting I have seen is unbelieveable. All this from the owner that has just earned (another) 3miilion pounds from selling a chunk of land for housing.

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odds are if they are culled it will be with live capture traps then they will be shot at close range. Badgers are another one of the species where once protected they have almost done too well, they have no natural enemies. I've seen experimental data on farms where they were controlled versus not controlled and one interesting thing is the number of ground nesting birds that flourish once they are controlled. All the game birds do far better as they aren't having their eggs eaten. I do like to see badgers but I know where we shoot there are far more than there used to be.

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On a piece of land I set a live catch fox cage. Never caught a fox in it :good: but the amount of badgers I had to let out was something else. They'd have eaten the bait, dug around a bit then lay down for a kip for themselves waiting for me to let the out in the morning ;)

 

Be no harm if the numbers were reduced a bit over here too :lol: As it stands they're protected.

 

True John they are protected but the Department of Agriculture has been culling badgers for over 3 years now.

Was talking to a local guy who does it only a few ago as he was looking a sets in a certain area. I often pass on his number to farmers who ask me to shoot badgers.

 

They was an outbreak of TB about 2 miles from my place and nearly all farmers within our Gun Club were contacted by the Department and asked about culling on there lands and possible sets.

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