Black buzzards struck again.

[Ky hills]

Wife took some BnB guests around the farm this morning and came back and reported to me that there were 2 new calves, and also a lot of buzzards around. So we went back to try and scare them off. In the process saw a bunch of buzzards in trees and coming out of a thicket on the ground. We found another cow just calved in side that thicket. She is one of my most protective cows and she seemed extra worn out and eating her after birth. Normally she would come after a person after calving but she just stuck her tongue out and did a raspy bawling sound instead of charging at the same time. We drove around the other side of the thicket and evidently she had twinned and they got the calf while she was having the second one.

 

[Dsth]

That really sucks.

 

[EasTex]

Sorry to hear that for you. I worry about my girls as well. We have a lot of those black buzzards hanging around all the time. They seem to be propagating as quickly as the hogs.

 

[Ky hills]

Sorry to hear that for you. I worry about my girls as well. We have a lot of those black buzzards hanging around all the time. They seem to be propagating as quickly as the hogs.

Yes they are plentiful here too, at least we don't have hogs in this part of the state yet…

 

[Walker's Ridge]

That's a tough pill to swallow. We've had trouble with them from time to time. We've lost lambs to them and many many chickens, but no calves yet. A few years back we lost some lambs as they were being born. The black buzzards would peck out the eyeballs of the lamb as it was being born. I would chase them off within minutes but the lambs were already dead.

They would come in and attack the broiler chickens in the dark. They would have dozens killed and mostly eaten by sunrise with many more with lacerations. I was told that they injure more than they can eat so that they die from infection in a few days to provide an easy meal.

I talked to our Game Commission officer in our area. He's a "By the Book" kinda guy. Said I couldn't shoot them because of international treaty, but to do what I need to do as long as he didn't get a call about it.

Now I think you can get permits through the state to help control them. Maybe KY has something similar.

 

[wbvs58]

Geez that is tough KY. I'd be looking up the tree for a possum to shoot, pity my aim is not too good and a few feathers fall down. Or are they as smart as crows when a gun is pointed towards them?

Ken

 

[kenny thomas]

Yes they are plentiful here too, at least we don't have hogs in this part of the state yet…

It seems like I heard that they are bad for getting their foot caught in a twine string and the string then gets caught up in a fence or tree limb. Pretty sure that scares the others away. Guess they are afraid of the string.

 

[BFE]

I've been told of people accidentally catching birds of prey in leg traps that are set and left on top of posts around chicken coops. It's very unfortunate when that happens.

 

[farmerjan]

Yes there are permits that can be gotten. If your guy is so "by the book"... ask him about the permit system .... or look it up on your state game commission website or something like that. Almost every state now is granting permits where they have become a big nuisance...
And yep, they seem to get caught in baling twine and hang themselves on fences when it gets caught near the post they were roosting on....
And I am not that great of a shot and when I shoot at a possum or coon that is harassing my chickens I know there aren't any people up in the trees but can't see everything else that is up there.....

 

[gcreekrch]

It seems like I heard that they are bad for getting their foot caught in a twine string and the string then gets caught up in a fence or tree limb. Pretty sure that scares the others away. Guess they are afraid of the string.

Would that work for bears too?

 

[Ky hills]

After watching one of the other new calves, it appears to have an injury to its back or hips the hind legs went down kind of like they buckled under as it walked trying to keep up with the cow. That was after I got it up. It had laid around most of the day. We brought it to the barn this evening to give it some colostrum, though we did see it nurse a little. Also with being slow and laying around like it was we didn't want to chance coyotes overnight or buzzards again early in the morning.
My thinking is that buzzards were bothering that pair too and possible that the cow stepped on the calf in the process.
Hoping it will be stronger by morning and can go back to the cow.

 

[cowgirl8]

My cows seem to be evolving into night calvers. Not sure if this is a cowinkydink or, they are doing it because of the vultures. They are also starting to ignore them too instead of trying to fight them. I did though, have a cow having trouble calving and had 2 feet out, i noticed the pads were eaten off the feet.. We pulled probably the biggest calf we've ever pulled, and we raised 1980s sims.. This 10 yr old cow could only get the front feet barely out. Guess a vulture walked up behind her and grabbed a snack. It was only a matter of time they would have started on her, its good i get out early or they would have started on her. How we got that pulled in the field and she walked away is amazing. Calf was dead.

 

[Ky hills]

Injured calf seems a little better, took her back to her mother, went right to nursing.
the other new calves were ok.
@cowgirl8 I'd venture to say most of our cows do calve overnight, and early morning hours before daylight. We find very few calving in the daytime. I think that's just kind of nature. I have heard of people purposely feeding them after 3 pm or so they say to get a higher percentage to calve during the daytime hours though.

 

[Travlr]

Injured calf seems a little better, took her back to her mother, went right to nursing.
the other new calves were ok.
@cowgirl8 I'd venture to say most of our cows do calve overnight, and early morning hours before daylight. We find very few calving in the daytime. I think that's just kind of nature. I have heard of people purposely feeding them after 3 pm or so they say to get a higher percentage to calve during the daytime hours though.

I used to feed in the late afternoon to get the cows to deliver the next day during daylight.

 

[Ky hills]

I used to feed in the late afternoon to get the cows to deliver the next day during daylight.

I've known some that did, I think there was something from UK college of agriculture that promoted it years ago.
I may have tried it once a long time ago for sone heifers, but I don't remember how it worked out.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I'd shoot them and deal with it later.

 

[Travlr]

The powers that be seem to be blind to anything except their desire to stop people from killing vultures... which seems to be a very common urban motivation, wanting everything to live out their lives. But I'm sure the vultures are preying on wildlife too, aren't they?

I've never dealt with vultures, so I need an education. But it sure seems to me that some kind of community action has become necessary. Maybe hiring vulture killers as a group, making everyone equally culpable, would get the point across to the politicians while spreading out the liability? If the local sheriff had twenty livestock producers show up at the same time to turn themselves in for killing vultures to protect their livestock, with the media informed of what was happening, would anyone get thrown in jail or fined? How many calves equal the value in the risk of being fined?

I wish I lived where you guys are having problems. I'm old and retired and can afford a few nights in jail. You could all hire me at a dollar apiece and I'd set up traps on each place and train the vultures that killing calves have consequences. Surely the birds roost and nest in close proximity to each other. I'd be visiting their homes too.

 

[Ky hills]

The powers that be seem to be blind to anything except their desire to stop people from killing vultures... which seems to be a very common urban motivation, wanting everything to live out their lives. But I'm sure the vultures are preying on wildlife too, aren't they?

I've never dealt with vultures, so I need an education. But it sure seems to me that some kind of community action has become necessary. Maybe hiring vulture killers as a group, making everyone equally culpable, would get the point across to the politicians while spreading out the liability? If the local sheriff had twenty livestock producers show up at the same time to turn themselves in for killing vultures to protect their livestock, with the media informed of what was happening, would anyone get thrown in jail or fined? How many calves equal the value in the risk of being fined?

I wish I lived where you guys are having problems. I'm old and retired and can afford a few nights in jail. You could all hire me at a dollar apiece and I'd set up traps on each place and train the vultures that killing calves have consequences. Surely the birds roost and nest in close proximity to each other. I'd be visiting their homes too.

Unfortunately, I don't think anybody listens to farmers and ranchers anymore.
There are several large roosts around but none that you could do anything about.
Huge roost in the city cemetery, you'd think that would be embarrassing and they would run them out but no. Another big roost from what I'm told on a utility substation property. I've seen large numbers of them flying around just before dark around the national forest land so I'm pretty confident there's major roosting area somewhere around there.
As many of them as there are, I'm sure they target wildlife too if they get an opportunity.

 

[50/50Farms]

The powers that be seem to be blind to anything except their desire to stop people from killing vultures... which seems to be a very common urban motivation, wanting everything to live out their lives. But I'm sure the vultures are preying on wildlife too, aren't they?

I've never dealt with vultures, so I need an education. But it sure seems to me that some kind of community action has become necessary. Maybe hiring vulture killers as a group, making everyone equally culpable, would get the point across to the politicians while spreading out the liability? If the local sheriff had twenty livestock producers show up at the same time to turn themselves in for killing vultures to protect their livestock, with the media informed of what was happening, would anyone get thrown in jail or fined? How many calves equal the value in the risk of being fined?

I wish I lived where you guys are having problems. I'm old and retired and can afford a few nights in jail. You could all hire me at a dollar apiece and I'd set up traps on each place and train the vultures that killing calves have consequences. Surely the birds roost and nest in close proximity to each other. I'd be visiting their homes too.

Black vulture - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Travlr]

Unfortunately, I don't think anybody listens to farmers and ranchers anymore.

Well no ones pays any attention to people that stay silent, that's for sure.

Remember when Monsanto was suing people for having their patented genetics in their crop? The issue created by wind-blown pollen from fields planted with Round-up Ready GMO corn? And several farmers banded together to fund the legal defense of a single farmer that was being sued? I haven't hear of any law suits lately from Monsanto.

From everything here on these fora the vulture issues are only going to get worse. How many animals have to die to get livestock producers to make some noise? Is it only going to happen after the problems double or triple?