Wildlife on the farm.

Not the first time this has happened. A bit of Earth fell on his wing while eating worms. I released him.

There was a nest of worms under him. Not bad for land that’s in tillage with many many decades.

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I've been informed by the department that there are badgers on my land. Guy called to the house just as I was doing a school run so I hadn't time to ask him anything. They said that they will be around the land just in case I saw people on the farm. What are they going to do AND how did they know? He said there was a tb outbreak locally, and is it just badgers they will be looking for???
 
I've been informed by the department that there are badgers on my land. Guy called to the house just as I was doing a school run so I hadn't time to ask him anything. They said that they will be around the land just in case I saw people on the farm. What are they going to do AND how did they know? He said there was a tb outbreak locally, and is it just badgers they will be looking for???
They should tell you if they are putting down snares.
 
They should tell you if they are putting down snares.
I guess that's what they were saying. Im guessing if there is an outbreak they come out and search nearby lands.. i don't know its a first for us anyway..
 
I guess that's what they were saying. Im guessing if there is an outbreak they come out and search nearby lands.. i don't know its a first for us anyway..
It has being going on here for years . They usually snare for ten days and check the snares every morning . They shoot the badger in the snare and do an autopsy to see if they have TB . They have never told me how many badgers they kill or if they had TB . I have three Dairy herds on our bounds so I do not mind facilitating the Department . The Farm Relief service do the snaring .
 
It has being going on here for years . They usually snare for ten days and check the snares every morning . They shoot the badger in the snare and do an autopsy to see if they have TB . They have never told me how many badgers they kill or if they had TB . I have three Dairy herds on our bounds so I do not mind facilitating the Department . The Farm Relief service do the snaring .
Don't think they shoot any more, they've just a vaccination and microchip program now, they were in with us last winter, set traps and catch, inspect trap each morning, if they have one they ring back to office for dept vet to come out to administer vaccine. Such a rigmarole , because of unions the farm relief lad can't administer vaccine even though he was a retired dept vet!
It's a job for the boys when they retire type outfit.
In fairness to him he showed me a tracker app on his phone, he was walking between 16 and 23km per day checking traps! The handiest day he done was 11k.
He told me they only autopsy road killed badgers nowadays
 
We had one killed on the road here a few years ago and got word to a local guy involved in tracking them, he came out and took it but said that it wasn’t one of the ones they had been tracking as they “tattoo” them underneath when they catch them so they can tell if it’s one of the ones they’ve previously caught straight away.
 
Don't think they shoot any more, they've just a vaccination and microchip program now, they were in with us last winter, set traps and catch, inspect trap each morning, if they have one they ring back to office for dept vet to come out to administer vaccine. Such a rigmarole , because of unions the farm relief lad can't administer vaccine even though he was a retired dept vet!
It's a job for the boys when they retire type outfit.
In fairness to him he showed me a tracker app on his phone, he was walking between 16 and 23km per day checking traps! The handiest day he done was 11k.
He told me they only autopsy road killed badgers nowadays
Vaccination does sweet FA if the badger is already infected and the stress of trapping actually makes them worse.
 
Vaccination does sweet FA if the badger is already infected and the stress of trapping actually makes them worse.
The lad that was here agreed, he said that it was a waste of time vaccinating infected badgers but that they can't cull any more because of the optics of it with the environmental crowd.
 
Don't think they shoot any more, they've just a vaccination and microchip program now, they were in with us last winter, set traps and catch, inspect trap each morning, if they have one they ring back to office for dept vet to come out to administer vaccine. Such a rigmarole , because of unions the farm relief lad can't administer vaccine even though he was a retired dept vet!
It's a job for the boys when they retire type outfit.
In fairness to him he showed me a tracker app on his phone, he was walking between 16 and 23km per day checking traps! The handiest day he done was 11k.
He told me they only autopsy road killed badgers nowadays
The dep are still taking out badgers around here, they doing a set here at the moment.
 
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BD015ECC-D294-4D1F-82CF-A56E2BB80D12.jpegBD015ECC-D294-4D1F-82CF-A56E2BB80D12.jpeg I found this lad hopping along the ground on Christmas Day. I think he broke a wing. I put him in a dark box but unfortunately he died later. He is now in the deepfreeze as I was thinking of getting him stuffed. I tried to contact Andrew Fox as seen on ear to the ground but no reply yet.
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