Bush Hog Sausage Grinder...

Trailblazer · Jun 10, 2005

...almost. Came very close to grinding up Bambi recently. Was clearing 4' high brush below one of our dams, backing up to cut as close to the creek as possible without sinking the tractor in mud. Finished with most of the job, I was making my last approach and noticed two ears sticking up next to the support wheel on my cutter. The deck was low enough and I was going slow enough that I was pushing a fawn along the ground. Another foot and he would have rolled under.

Disengaged the PTO, turned off the engine and got out to see if he was hurt. He wasn't, so I left some cover for him. Maybe we will meet again, a few years from now, in the Fall. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Laminarman · Jun 11, 2005

Thats why I never mow until July or preferable August. Glad you found him!!

tarious · Jun 11, 2005

Nice save, hunting is one thing, but slaughtering a fawn wouldn't be anyfun. My hats off to you for paying attention!

Trailblazer · Jun 11, 2005

I'm glad I found him too. I've got a lot of acreage to clear, so I have to cut some of it whenever the ground gets dry enough. I'm leaving the areas I cut last summer alone until July, so "Lucky" and his friends can live over there for awhile.

I knew fawns hold tight when predators come around, but I had no idea they'd let a bushhog roar right up to them like that. With little or no smell to him, no coyote or dog would ever have found him in that brush. Amazingly well-adapted creatures....

dooleysm · Jun 14, 2005

The cemetery I worked at in high school had quite a few deer and we would chop up a fawn or two every year. Usually it was one of us on a tractor mowing the big, open fields, but occassionally one of the walk behind mowers would get one. Never pretty. It's amazing how those little fawns can just disappear in the weeds.

Michigan_Mike · Jun 14, 2005

Trailblazer,
I was planning to mow my field last weekend, but we got some rain, and it didn't get done, and now, after reading this I think I'll wait.
My question is, until when?
If I do it in the summer, or fall, the grassses wouldn't grow back in time to privide cover for the wildlife during the winter. In early spring, would mean no cover for the fawns.
Am I overthinking this? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Trailblazer · Jun 19, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I think I'll wait. My question is, until when?

Am I overthinking this? )</font>

You're not over-thinking, just thinking. Here in Oregon west of the cascades, the best time (from wildlife's perspective) to mow is July. That gives ground nesting birds, deer, etc., a chance to raise their young up to a viable age. You're not even supposed to run a birddog from April through mid-July, to avoid harrassing game birds off their nests. The season may be different in Michigan, due to the weather... I don't know.

I have to get some of my clearing done as early as possible, because the long rainy season here produces tons of growth before I can get my tractor out on the hills. So I try to leave untouched some areas that look like they can wait till July. I hope that the game, songbirds, etc. that shelter in those areas can keep the population going.

It helps to know what you want from your land over the long term, so you can decide what you might need to sacrifice in the short term. On our small acreage, we can't have everything - we need grass for horses, douglas fir for investment, etc. I'd also like to increase the size of our resident covey of quail, and our deer and pheasant populations. But these uses conflict with each other.

Over time, I plan to end up with a stable mix of pasture, woods, brush and food plots that creates a lot of edge habitat and predictable food and cover. At that time, the best cover will be in the same place every year, because I won't touch it. Until then, anything that nests where I'm about to mow may become fertilizer.

Michigan_Mike · Jun 20, 2005

Thanks Trailblazer.
We only have 10 acres, and our plan is to make it as inviting to the local wild life as we can. (Deer, rabbits, pheasants, and songbirds). Our property is mostly open, and has a variety of tall grasses that have just gone to seed, so cutting them next month would work. The thistle and multi-flora rose, will come back no matter what I do, short of a nuclear attack. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Thanks again for your thoughts.