fawns and hay bales

[ucfireman]

How many fawns y'all think are killed every spring by hay balers or just bush hogging? Just curious about what y'all think.

 

[dtala]

a bunch. Buddy of mine made a steel bar that was attached to the front of his tractor and stuck out side to side, maybe four feet in front of tractor. It had steel chain pieces welded to the bar that hung down to the ground. When the rattling chain hit a fawn they would get up and run. It saved a LOT of fawns.

 

[blood on the ground]

I think a lot get killed. If I'm about to bush hog I try to walk the field first before cutting.

 

[Core Lokt]

Don't know anyone that has hit one with either. I know a lot of people that operate tractors.

 

[Throwback]

Some years we hit them some years we don’t

 

[Throwback]

Don't know anyone that has hit one with either. I know a lot of people that operate tractors.

I think it depends on when you cut relative to the fawns being born. All the ones we have hit have been at the “mama leaves me alone all day” stage.

 

[buckspotter]

You gotta look at the herd as a whole unit as opposed to individual deer. We have hit and killed a few fawns during our day as we were managing our land. But managing land typically makes it better for deer overall so sometimes a few are going to be sacrifice for the betterment of the unit. Sad but true.

 

[Jim Boyd]

You gotta look at the herd as a whole unit as opposed to individual deer. We have hit and killed a few fawns during our day as we were managing our land. But managing land typically makes it better for deer overall so sometimes a few are going to be sacrifice for the betterment of the unit. Sad but true.

Exceptionally well said.

Factual and to the point.

I have never run over one that I know of. Have bush hogged some at night.

 

[GeorgiaGlockMan]

I haven't chopped one up with a bushhog in 21 yrs.

Before that, sadly I got 4 in one day.

I time my cutting around them now and try to give them someplace to hide for the next couple of months...

 

[across the river]

Not enough to have any impact.

 

[sleepr71]

To my knowledge I’ve never hit one. I DID almost bush hog two at once,when I was backing up to cut along a pond bank. It was wet,so I was backing the bush hog down to the waterline. When I was about 5 ft from them.. they exploded up & out of there like Rabbits! Scared the Heck out of me!!?

 

[Bigbendgyrene]

Haven't hit one yet, but six years ago when I got my place I own now I spooked two up at different spots that missed getting hit by inches. Since then, like GeorgiaGlockMan I time my cuttings to try and leave them a bit of extra cover from yotes in late May, June, and July. I do usually try and cut either in late April or very beginning of May as cameras at my place have never captured evidence of fawns until very late May and more often early June.

Have unfortunately exposed one turkey nest and mowed over a rabbit nest. Hen ran from the exposed nest and after seeing she abandoned the eggs, I'll just say I saw to it they weren't wasted. That didn't tear me up as much as running over the rabbit nest with the mower... that was a bad day and still stings thinking about it now.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Came real close more times than I can count.

 

[jammeri5]

Central Ga with normal rain the first hay cuttings will be done before fawns drop and they have plenty enough time to get big enough to run before a second cut. To much rain or not enough or a broken down tractor can sometimes push 1 cuts out later. I’ve hit a 3 or 4 a year when that happens. That’s spread across multiple properties and 100 acres of hay field

 

[fireman32]

Almost ran this one over with my 4 wheeler last year.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

In 20 years of cutting hay I’ve never hit or seen a fawn hit with a hay mower. I know it happens but I haven’t seen it. I have hit two hen turkeys who wouldn’t abandon abandon their nest.