This isn't about my garden sweet corn as you may have thought. It's about raccoons eating from our cow's silage at night. They pee & poo on the silage, leaving a disease called leptospirosis that infect our cows. Causes cows to abort calves. Several years ago we got hit by an "abortion storm" where 1/2 our herd lost their calves. Costs us in the thousands, but no real way to nail down the actual $ losses. Well, the coons are back in droves this year. I went out tonight with my 20 gauge shotgun. Got 4 juvies with 2 shots as they were grouped. Went out just a few minutes ago after waiting a 1/2hr from my first shots. 2 shots got 2 momma coons! 6 dead coons in one night is a pretty danged good rate if I say so myself! I'm off in the morning, so I left them so Dad & my Son would see. I'll collect them tomorrow & dispose of them. Gotta give all my cows another round of shots Monday to prevent as many losses as possible. With milk prices at a dreadful low & our expenses over the moon, there's no way we can make it through another heavy loss. I have declared WAR on raccoons! Sorry if you are offended by my thinning the raccoons, but they are thick as thieves & are capable of ruining our dairy & making a living.
Raccoons
- Thread starter olcowhand
- Start date
Kill as many as ya can. Is there a tannery close? Might be ya could sell the hides, but might hafta start using a .22 so there's not as many holes.You didn't offend me at all.
I'm not a hunter although I do like to shoot. On the whole I'm a live and let live kind of guy ... up to a point. That point comes when our cute, cuddly, furry friends start destroying my hard work and threatening our livelihood. I didn't sweat and toil planting a big garden for the sake of the local wildlife. I don't water, spray, fertilize and mow my yard to have it torn up by armadillos. We don't raise beef cattle at the farm in order to let the coyotes cull the new born calves. We don't fertilize, spray and tend the hay pasture in order to watch it being turned into a hog wallow.
No, when it comes to taking care of me and mine, just like you, I will handle the situation one way or another. I don't think any reasonable, sensible person would take offense at what your doing.
I don't think that would offend anyone who reads this sort of board. You gotta do what it takes for your farm to survive. Raccoons aren't scarce and endangered and there's no reason to let them get the upper hand.
PBinWA
Member
That's a pretty good nights work!
I keep trying to trap the ones around my place but all I get is the neighbors cats. I've been using marshmallows and granola bars as bait but then the birds go in to eat the bait and that's what the cats are going after.
I'll get em sooner or later but I think I may have better results with the shotgun at night too.
I keep trying to trap the ones around my place but all I get is the neighbors cats. I've been using marshmallows and granola bars as bait but then the birds go in to eat the bait and that's what the cats are going after.
I'll get em sooner or later but I think I may have better results with the shotgun at night too.
urednecku
Member
Wait until after dark to bait the trap, that should eliminate the birds. As for the cats..........well........I haven't seen em, have you?
Cats? What cats?
Just last Saturday night my mom found a big ole racoon on her deck. Her deck is a 2nd story one. No food up there. It was sitting on a plastic table just checking things out. My mom scared it off, but it scared her too. 
1st time she'd ever seen one up there.
1st time she'd ever seen one up there.
How about skunks?anyone else have a problem with then.3 so far this year.My record is 14 two years ago.I have a mulberry tree in the back yard and I think it draws them from 5 milesThought about cutting down the tree but I really hate to.
Yep, got them thick here too, but harder to catch them out. Only killed 3 this year. I need to set steel traps. Then leave them till next year!
Have a family of skunks in holes under our manure push off ramp to the manure pit. I can smell em almost every time I put the cows in the holding pen.
We have a lot of skunks here too. I see a new one at least once a week on the road dead. My dog has been hit by the skunks a lot when he goes out after dark. I usually take a deep whiff before I turn him out at night. Sometimes there is no warning though.
I haven't seen a skunk in 3 years, not since a pair of them chased me off the dam at the farm. I occasionally catch a whiff of one around the house but haven't seen any. So they're here and it's just a question of time before one shows up and we have another confrontation, only this time I'll be ready .... I hope.
zionview
Member
olcowhand, we had 'coons in our silage trench, too. Our dogs kept them at bay for awhile, but we had some damage to the plastic and some feed loss. Deer also carry lepto. We vaccinated the milking herd, but had abortions in the bred heifers one year. If it's not one thing, it's two more. It always made me mad- a racoon would poke a small hole in the plastic and we would lose an entire manure spreader full of silage.