I was out on a farm just yesterday hunting, of all things, turkeys! I couldn't help noting the number of crickets out there. There is still plenty of feed for the crickets but come the rainy season, with all the fresh grass shoots, the crickets are going to do some damage, surely? In the meantime, the turkeys are feasting on the crickets, so why are they considered a pest?

I don't mind shooting pests (by way of numbers control), but are turkeys really a pest?

They shit on gates,stock yards and pasture stock won't eat fouled grass.

Main reason they can spread salmorella

We here in Maine are starting to have a issue with them our selves. I just guess we were able to bring them back Now we need more hunters! Which Stalin...I mean Obma will not let happen...

quote:

They shit on gates, ...

That they do! That was given as the main reason one farmer wanted all the birds removed from his property. The other was the amount of fresh grass shoots they eat after the dry season - but the gates were the main issue. During the dry season he wanted them for cricket control.

quote:

... and pasture stock won't eat fouled grass.

That's interesting! I must say on this particular farm, there was no sign of the cattle being iffy about eating grass where the turkeys had been but then the turkeys had been everywhere so they had no choice I suppose. We must have removed over a hundred of them.

quote:

Originally posted by 303Guy:
That's interesting! I must say on this particular farm, there was no sign of the cattle being iffy about eating grass where the turkeys had been but then the turkeys had been everywhere so they had no choice I suppose. We must have removed over a hundred of them.

I bet some poor family's are eating good now!
Unless you just dug a big hole and dumped them in....eh ether way I would have liked to help

We get Turkeys and Peacocks, both are dirty bastards which make a bloody mess in the paddocks and shit on everthing
Two of my wifes friends have lost stock to birds spreading salmonella. My neibour's cows picked up avian TB from turkeys shitting on his grass. Paradise Duck are just as bad they sit on water troughs and crap in them.

quote:

Unless you just dug a big hole and dumped them in....

We started off havesting the whole birds, then just the breast meat then gave up! They went into the pit where they got burned, along with possum and other dead critters, including some sheep. We have also removed a few Peafowl from another farm - these were eating the cattle feed! Now they are not so stupid and are flipping difficult to shoot! But on yet another farm, we have been able to shoot quite few with much more ease.

good times! be better if you got payed to do it! I d love the job!

Too true! It does cost us some with traveling but it's actually a privaledge to be able to do it! Kiwi farmers are great guys!

The shooting of feral birds is not easily done.
Last Friday my neibour and three other guns had a go at the peafowl, they accounted for six.
After she got home last night my told me she saw twelve of the bastards in our paddock.
Unfortunately I'm not at my best just now and can not take a pop at them for another few days.

For you NZ fellas ... how are turkeys different to peacock, to Canadian geese? We can have similar issues with Wood ducks in Australia fouling pasture and stock troughs?

I reckon we'd better keep it from our American friends that they can get virtually unlimited shooting opportunities on Turkey, Canadian Geese etc...
Cheers...
Con

Canadian geese wreak a lot of pasture here. It's open season all year round apart from the month leading into duckshooting on them. You can use any way you want to kill them as well.

quote:

You can use any way you want to kill them as well.

Crikey wirehunt - hope the local Fish and Game guys dont read that - I suspect they may have a differing opinion on NZ's premiere gamebird.

No-one has mentioned those bastard paradise shelduck yet - they are just as bad at eating and fouling pasture.

Canada Geese can be a pest in parts of N.America too...

quote:

No-one has mentioned those bastard paradise shelduck yet

oldun mentioned them. They'll be sitting on about every water trough there is.

If you have seen what turkeys do to a hay yard, you would call them pests also.

ddj

Well, I will be hunting them more vigourously now! It's not actually hunting but still, it is a day on a farm with heaps of walking around and being mobbed by crazy cattle!

Easily solved SHOOT THE BASTARDS !!!!!!!!

AS a farmer, and hunter, I try and steer a middle line. Any speicies can become a problem if left unchecked, but usually it has a value to someone. In the case of the parridise duck that value is to me, the turkey less so, but plenty of hunters wish to shoot one. If someone wishe's to shoot one here, I just ask that they use it rather than waste it. In this way i keep numbers around 100 on the farm, and they don't do much harm.

quote:

In this way i keep numbers around 100 on the farm, and they don't do much harm.

That's interesting! I certainly do not want to eradicate the birds or any other critter - just keep them under control and have a bit of fun doing it! Now rabits and hares .... mmmm .... Hare hunting is actually my favourite. They can be quite hard to find and make me work for it but they are there and bagging one or two is very likely. Rabbits just plain need to be controlled! Hares I don't see as destructive.
I have a trip to Te Awamutu coming up for a bit of rabbit contol.

Good call on Hares,one of my favourite game animals too.

yep I can't think of many better ways of spending an evening than wandering round shooting rabbits and hares.

We went out for hares yesterday afternoon. We came across just one and nearly tripped over it before it ran off! Clearly we have done too good a job on that particular farm but the turkeys are coming back - although I suspect they are wishing they hadn't!

I obviously live in the wrong part of New zealand. I work on a 3000acre sheep and beef farm. we have no geese, no turkeys, basically no rabbits or hares, no goats, about 10 parries, and during the season have a few ducks.

all we have is red deer, and there is getting to be a few of them around, went out hunting the other night, saw 10stags and half a dozen hinds and i was hardly looking for them, pitty they were mainly young 8s, no big boys among them.

there are a few goats on the neighbours place, but the only ones who make it on our side of the fence dont last to long. not sure why the parries dont like our paddocks of new grass but they all sit in the neighbours??

speaking of which id better go see if i can find a decent stag. have fun inside guys