Myths, Lies, and old Wifeys Tales

[nell]

I mind reading an old keepering book years ago and in the old days if the keeper got a fox he would half bury it in a ploughed field (dunno why has to be ploughed?) then surround it with gin traps, think he said his best catch was 4 or 5 in a nite.

There was an old saying shoot 1 fox and 2 come to the funeral

Nell has it right about the soil in silage and listerosis, lot of farmers will not feed silage to sheep as they seem to be very affected by it resulting in stillborns and miscarrages, heard of dairy cows going temperarly blind too. The soil does somethng as the silage ferments.
At this time of year soil can get into young lambs umbilical/belly button causing some other problems

Nell have u heard of farmers spraying there bales before wrapping for listerosis? 1 of the moors i go to over ur way sprays his bales think about £1.50ish a bale but it means he can feed silage to his sheep. Means not dependent on getting hay.
Never heard of this before on any other farm i go to

Never heard of that mate, we are mainly pit , seems to affect younger sheep, probably that are changing their teeth...

 

[VSS]

Never heard of that mate, we are mainly pit , seems to affect younger sheep, probably that are changing their teeth...

Yes, it is more likely to affect sheep that are changing their teeth - the listeria bacteria get an easy route into the body via the temporary holes in the gum.
More common where big bale silage is fed, as this is not so acidic as clamp / pit silage. The bacteria thrives better if the conditions in the silage are less acidic. Additives are some times put in at the time of baling to ensure better fermentation, which will also lower the pH.
It's not the soil itself that causes the problem, but contamination of the soil. Mole hills are just the kind of spot that attracts other animals to deposit faeces etc, and generally the soil gets contaminated and is then picked up and incorporated into the silage.
The bacteria multiplies very rapidly in the sheep, and the only hope of a cure is massive doses of antibiotics (up to 100ml per day for several days).

On top of all this, mole hills wreck machinery.

 

[Blackpowder]

Last year rooks raided my allotment and devastated what would have been a bumper row of peas. As the allotments lie within sight of a school no chance of shooting as a deterrentso went out to one of the farms and shot a couple then hung the wings between two poles on the allotment seemed to keep them at bay. The attraction to the site for rooks and crows being a hen run with no top netting with blacks flying in cintinously in search of pickings. This year the owner fitted top netting where last week I saw up to eight rooks trapped inside. Monday the owner must have been in action as dead rooks hung all around, not one black seen in the vicinity of the hen run two days running. In my book it works.

Blackpowder

 

[bogtrotter]

I mind reading an old keepering book years ago and in the old days if the keeper got a fox he would half bury it in a ploughed field.

Also worked as well if not better with a cat.

 

[perdix]

I mind reading an old keepering book years ago and in the old days if the keeper got a fox he would half bury it in a ploughed field.

Also worked as well if not better with a cat.