Do they pay other people that provide a service? Fencing contactor? Silage contractor? Vet? Or do they expect to get all that for free as well?
Any farmer who has a genuine fox problem is happy to pay to have them shot. About £60 per fox seems to be "mates rates", but professional pest controllers charge more.
Well I only wish I could charge the same call out fee as a vet.
Same when I used to go with my father and the hounds on fox drives years ago, very rarely was the terrier man given any payment or the hunt master from the farmer.
I'd be inclined to say a vet, fencing contractor or sileage contactor aren't weekly occurrences? but I understand your point.
Foxing on the other hand, for me anyways, doesn't stop or start during the lambing season, it's a 12 month affair and I'll be on the bigger lambing farms twice a week on average, probably more when the birds arrive during the shooting season. When people do phone to ask if I can take care of a fox outside my usual haunts there's usually a bottle of something waiting for me.
In most cases though the foxes aren't really much of a problem at all, and the farmer is just humouring you by giving you somewhere to shoot.
I'd probably say otherwise and say I'm humouring the farmer by curtailing to his request and being there and having a presence, because if I don't go someone else will.
On average i would say around 1000 foxes are shot on Anglesey. I know of individuals shooting well over 100,for a small Island that's quite a lot, but another topic for another day.
Ultimately, I'm not sure how many people on here would be receiving a salary from a farmer to cull the deer. I imagine a gentlemanly agreement for the lucky few would be a hand shake, a nice bottle at Christmas or the odd butchered carcass.
I honestly can't see farmers paying someone to shoot the deer, and to be fair why would they. With a current membership on the Stalking Directory of just over 33k potential stalkers ready and waiting there is no shortage of people to do the job, whether that's an individual or a group.
Maybe a better system would be like the ones in Europe, where by the crop damage from the deer would be charged to the stalker, and vise versa if a job is done well the stalker reimbursed.
I currently work to this system on one of my permissions.
50 fallow in a field of maize do a lot of damage...and yet the farmer wants to be paid for them to be shot....His ground and his wishes ..but the financial losses he suffers are far more then he would get for the stalking rights.
that's how it should be. As I said earlier its difficult to achieve a balance and when money comes into it...that can lead to a host of issues as well.
