Badgers

Hillman86

Hello all
I need some advice on how to deal with badgers. Never used to have them in our area but the last 3/4 years they have been plaguing me.
They are destroying one field in particular on me diggin the scraws, lookin for beetles or slugs id imagine. This year youd swear i let 10 pigs into it!
Is there anything i can do to get rid of them or at least stop them diggin up my land? (and the shotgun isnt an option for me!)

Birdnuts

Badgers are protected and only the Dept are licenced to remove them if there is a TB problem. Electric fencing of problem areas would be one option. They also don't like slurry so maybe put out some in the problem field.

TITANIUM.

Hillman86 wrote: »

Hello all
I need some advice on how to deal with badgers. Never used to have them in our area but the last 3/4 years they have been plaguing me.
They are destroying one field in particular on me diggin the scraws, lookin for beetles or slugs id imagine. This year youd swear i let 10 pigs into it!
Is there anything i can do to get rid of them or at least stop them diggin up my land? (and the shotgun isnt an option for me!)

If you have no TB problems then leave them be. A bit of tearing is allot easier to stomach than a TB outbreak believe me.
Their territorial so if you get rid of the clear lads an infected boot might wander in to take over.

Water John

Agreed, had a set for a long time and no TB herd breakdown. An occupied set is better than an empty one, open to visitors.

Hillman86

Birdnuts wrote: »

Badgers are protected and only the Dept are licenced to remove them if there is a TB problem. Electric fencing of problem areas would be one option. They also don't like slurry so maybe put out some in the problem field.

Thanks. Didnt know that! Ya I wasnt lookin to kill them or anythin, just want to stop all the rooting theyre doin. Slurry might the way to go!

L1985

I agree on the points above-don't cull then. We have a 20acre wood right on our back door with plenty of badgers but thankfully not ones with TB and I won't let anyone touch them. Try the slurry idea but deff don't cull then as going down with tb is a hell of a lot worse then a few rooted fields.

grassroot1

Spreading slurry will increase earthworms which is what the badgers are looking for. The slurry if it is not your own may give your badgers TB

John_Rambo

L1985 wrote: »

I agree on the points above-don't cull then. We have a 20acre wood right on our back door with plenty of badgers but thankfully not ones with TB and I won't let anyone touch them. Try the slurry idea but deff don't cull then as going down with tb is a hell of a lot worse then a few rooted fields.

A scientist mate of mine worked in the UK on this. Turns out they don't travel far and they're territorial. From what I can gather his on-site studies proved that culling makes the survivors or strangers/rogues roam further than they normally would causing more problems than your average farmers residential set would cause.

Basically, better the devil you know.

Birdnuts

grassroot1 wrote: »

Spreading slurry will increase earthworms which is what the badgers are looking for. The slurry if it is not your own may give your badgers TB

Badgers are very clean animals with a strong sense of smell. They will actively avoid slurry or equivalent. Same goes for rabbits

lab man

grassroot1 wrote:

Spreading slurry will increase earthworms which is what the badgers are looking for. The slurry if it is not your own may give your badgers TB

Incorrect .. slurry takes the air out of soil wich makes the snails only come up Once or twice then the land has very few snails so snails could be gone from a field in 12 months

Water John

Sick badgers are not allowed into other setts. Thus they roam. Have been tagged and TB badgers have travelled 11 miles.

whisky_galore

http://www.thejournal.ie/badger-cull-3799696-Jan2018/

At last some lateral thinking on this.

Only took how many decades to come up with something other than culling?

Water John

AFAIK,the argument was, that the vaccinated badger would cause problems with the TB testing of cattle, since the test is for immunity and that could be triggered by the vaccinated badgers.
Not sure why that is suddenly, not the case.
If the new blood test which is being trialled comes in,that would be very compatible with vaccination.

grassroot1

whisky_galore wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/badger-cull-3799696-Jan2018/

At last some lateral thinking on this.

Only took how many decades to come up with something other than culling?

At a cost of 300 euro a head, madness. Test and cull or just cull in infected areas.
What good will vaccinating badgers do without dealing with the deer or other animal vectors. If we wanted to deal with the TB issue we would have to treat animal vectors the same way as we deal with our cattle. if short do what they did in NZ.
That wont happen because too many people have a vested interested in the TB industry

peterofthebr

so setting up a camera i was able to identify its a badger who dug a large hole the side of the hay shed. im in cavan and was going to ring the dept and see what can be done? but think they might only call out if there was a history of tb in the heard? (never had tb); i was thinking of throwing some diesel or something around the hole to deter it..what u think?

TooOldBoots

peterofthebr wrote: »

so setting up a camera i was able to identify its a badger who dug a large hole the side of the hay shed. im in cavan and was going to ring the dept and see what can be done? but think they might only call out if there was a history of tb in the heard? (never had tb); i was thinking of throwing some diesel or something around the hole to deter it..what u think?

You know there are people living in big cities, in high rise apartment blocks around the world who would give anything to have some bit of wildlife like that around the place.

We haven't a lot of wildlife left thanks to the way we are farming.

dmakc

I plan to rent + graze the field in green this year. It's been under various forms of tillage / wildlife cover measures over the past number of years but is well drained and would make a good field for cattle. My only concern is I've seen badgers crossing the road (small rural one) in the circled gorse area 2 fields over to the right. The entire road here is elevated above the fields which are all flat until a steep incline just before the road which I understand give preferable conditions for badger setts. I imagine the gorse cover + swampy area helps too and believe their sett is also in the circled Gorse area on the top right.

Also own a couple of fields nearby and there hasn't been a TB issue in this area for 20 years but then it's been mainly tillage and horses in close proximity. My concern is the gorse area on the hill at the head of the field I'm renting and my proximity to the swamp. I think they'd be around that area and maybe have gotten used to the field itself in recent years.

The protective solutions I see online involve either a buried chain-link fence or an electric fence so I'm thinking of combining both by putting in a chain-link fence 0.3m deep at an angle all along the gorse and border to the tillage field to my right. Then I'd add a few strands of electric fence from the top of the chain-link fence and every 10cm upwards thereafter - would that be enough?

How do cows actually get TB from badgers? I've seen studies to show they never make physical contact, and I plan to elevate the water troughs to avoid contamination there. If all else fails is there any potential to dedicate the field to silage or would TB stay in the grass til winter?

tayto lover

Was it not already proven that badgers do not carry TB?

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120256653#Comment_120256653

No...

alps

I imagine your risk here is very low. Elevate your water troughs, don't zerograze and don't graze so tight that you remove all selective choice for your cows.

The fact that there is no prevalance of TB locally and plenty easier hunting ground for the badger leads to very low risk.

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120256688#Comment_120256688

Thanks alps. On zero grazing, do you mean it in a way that the grass coming in could be affected or that the bare ground afterwards would attract badgers after cutting? Had ideas of using this field in 2nd cut

And in what way is it detrimental to remove the selective choice of grass, just not sure which angle it's coming at (cows likelier to graze badger ground?) thanks

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120257535#Comment_120257535

Sick badgers can be defecating, urinating or generally dropping body fluids on the grass.

Zero grazing removes this grass, generally causes a masceration with more grasses and presents the whole mix immediatly to be eaten by the herd. It's an ideal pathway for infection.

My guess is that the TB spores cannot live in a silage environment for the length of time it takes for the silage pit to be opened and fed. (Should confirm with expert).

When cows have selective capability, they will avoid soiled grass and the areas where the badger has dirtied. However, cows forced to graze to very low residuals have no such luxury.

dmakc

Very informative thanks

tabby aspreme

There well able to dig, this sett was given a makeover last week