Silage making and roe kid mortality

Cyres

Well-Known Member
Well silage making started down here on Tues and after a lull for 3 days they were cutting grass yesterday. Spoke to my friendly tractor driver who said he flushed a doe and so slowed down and subsequently found a newly born kid afterbirth still present. He had to move it to the headland. He told me where so early last night we had a look not a roe to be seen and no kid. Later on at dark the same field contained 3 fox cubs and 3 adults. I shot 2 vixens but I don't think the kid had any chance. Later that eve we were on anther patch, lovely doe very reluctant to move from a partially mown field, so highly likely to have a kid, she was there on Tues eve.

On the next circuit the roe was still in the field together with a fox hunting, so another vixen was dispatched. I s'pose time will tell what the overall mortality is.

On Friday I saw at distance from the train a roe with a what looked like a tiny kid so it appears this week appears to be peak birth time in South Glos.

This week since Tues we have shot 10 foxes the place is alive. We have seen cubs ranging from nearly adult size to small cats. Everything we have shot has been an adult, can't fathom out where they are all coming from.
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We've had a lot of sileage cut. Foxes everywhere and any that are safe and within range get shot. Sadly there's plenty of Hinds and Doe's coming back looking for their chopped up youngsters.
 
It is somewhat ironic that there are guidelines and best practice advice covering hedgerow cutting between 1st March and 31st July to protect nesting birds, yet there is nothing with regard to grass cutting to protect deer fawns...
 
We lose a good few fallow fawns to the mower each year! The drivers do their best to keep an eye out but an almost impossible task.

ATB

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Farming is a buissness , nobody cuts hedges between march and july, so guidelines are irrelevant. Most farmers will move deer but with a 20ft mower doing 12mph , I,m afraid it's good night.
 
I have a DVD that claims 50% of Roe newborns are taken by foxes during the period of abandonment by the mother and they also claim a litter of cubs will devour a tonne of food until they become independant..
 
Another sweeping statement... can you prove my DVD wrong?

If the statement in your DVD refers to the Swedish predation studies then the number has been cherry picked from a number of stats produced from said studies. Not having the article at hand IIRC in one instance of very high Roe numbers and high fox numbers the foxes took to hunting kids as the effort was worthwhile and there was a high mortality rate. But again IIRC the same study also stated that in 'normal conditions' of normal Roe and fox densities fox predation on Roe kids was far lower, as the kids were not specifically hunted for, as at normal densities they were much harder to find.
 
All my foxes devour whatever I offer them, & I get about a bit too, so the numbers will eventually balance out.:lol:, & As I'm in a deer desert, I can't comment on Roe young predation, But the machine drivers round here look out for ground nesting birds.
 
My concern this year is not so much silage cutting as it seem likely to be later this year around our way as the grass has only just got going but there are far fewer rabbits about everywhere so there will be more pressure on everything else including roe kids by the foxes.
 
Well 12mph is walking more like 20-25 mph cannot believe how quick on big straightish fields, no wonder so much gets mowed. Out again last night. On same field saw two roe does, doe muntie and 2 cubs and an adult. Vixen was dispatched as was one cub which was about the size of a big rabbit. As we walked back to the truck there was a travelling vixen calling but not on my ground.

Thats 8 fox's of two adjacent fields since Tues and we have been lamping it all winter getting at least 1 every 10 days.

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