Saw this in the field the other day....

ShaleniFarm · Mar 22, 2004

I saw this come through the field the other day.

Guess I gotta get a gun......

Have a good one!

lablovers · Mar 22, 2004

Don't shoot him. That is Kioti Tractor Companies mascot. I understand that he is on a nation wide promotional tour. He moved to fast to get the orange paint on him. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Golfgar4 · Mar 23, 2004

I saw one of those trotting through a field in Nebraska the other day. The only problem was that I was going about 80 mph, so I didn't have time to get a picture. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Boondox · Mar 23, 2004

Had one sniffing at my sheep a few weeks ago. He is no longer of this world. Pete

Boone · Mar 23, 2004

Put just one donkey in with the sheep. The donkey will do the protection work against coyotes and wolves.

Boondox · Mar 23, 2004

I'm all for that. A donkey or llama would be round the clock protection. Trouble is, my wife claims no self-respecting Vermonter would ever own such an animal! I suspect that will change if we ever lose a ruminant to coyotes or loose dogs.

Pete

DAP · Mar 23, 2004

Big disconnect sumwhere there Pete. If she'd have sheep, she'd have to consider a donkey or a llama. Lottsa them in VT. They are both fearless. The donkey would kick the yote into the Maritimes or the llama would open up its belly with those splayed hooves.

The other alternative is some Tennessee Fainting goats. You know how they work, right?

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

jinman · Mar 23, 2004

Get a female donkey, Pete. Sometimes the male donkeys are really mean even after being gelded. My girlfriend has one that likes to bully and bite her goats when he gets bored. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Bird · Mar 23, 2004

( Get a female donkey, Pete. )

And you may even need to get more than one. I had a neighbor who had one male and four females in with his cattle, but after a few years, decided they weren't worth feeding, so he sold them. Then after loosing a few calves he bought one male and one female, and that jack chased and harrassed calves, even injuring them several times until he sold that pair. And I got one young gelding and put in with my goats, and he walked up and down the fence like a caged lion for a couple of days wanting to get out and join the neighbor's donkeys, then he grabbed one of my goats (full grown female goat) and slung her back and forth and broke her neck, grabbed a small kid by one hind leg and was carrying it while running from me. He finally dropped it without hurting it, and he went to the auction the next day. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

rockinmywaypa · Mar 23, 2004

I had a donkey with mine one year. The year before I lost 6 sheep to coyoties, with the donkey I lost 4 because of the donkey's nonsense, coyoties none. So the donkey reduced losses by 33%.lol He was gone soon after and I resorted to more thorough methods that lasted quite a few years.

Boondox · Mar 23, 2004

( Big disconnect sumwhere there Pete. If she'd have sheep, she'd have to consider a donkey or a llama. Lottsa them in VT. They are both fearless. The donkey would kick the yote into the Maritimes or the llama would open up its belly with those splayed hooves.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Depends on your definition of Vermonter. I'm a California import. I'll never be a Vermonter in her eyes. Tamara, whose family settled here in 1796, explains it this way. "If a cat had kittens in the oven...would you call them biscuits?"

It's a battle I'll never win.
/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Pete

Golfgar4 · Mar 23, 2004

( "If a cat had kittens in the oven...would you call them biscuits?"
)

It's REALLY hard to argue with that kind of logic, isn't it Pete? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I swear that all wives must attend some type of "wife logic class" when they get married that we don't know about. Otherwise, how can you explain that so many of the wives all over the country come up with the same kind of strange arguments? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

jinman · Mar 23, 2004

I've been told (I really have no experience) that two donkeys are worse than one. One rancher here said a single female donkey would "adopt" livestock as it's own family and become very, very possessive and territorial. He said if you have two donkeys, they are always competing and may not concentrate as much on the herd or develop as deep a family bond. He said jacks are only good for one thing, making more donkeys. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

One of my neighbors had a male and female and he had to keep them separated all the time. If he let the jack in with the female, she would kick him until he was bloody if she wasn't interested.

One day I went to visit him and when I came out, the jack had eaten my block heater power cord on my pickup. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I quit going to see him for awhile because the donkey was so destructive (I swear he didn't like Dodges). About three months later, my friend sold both of his donkeys. I don't miss them when I go to visit now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

RCannon · Mar 24, 2004

( I swear that all wives must attend some type of "wife logic class" when they get married that we don't know about. Otherwise, how can you explain that so many of the wives all over the country come up with the same kind of strange arguments? )

I've been telling my wife for 12 years to show me the "husband" manual, but she says it's top secret! No man will ever lay eyes on it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Boondox · Mar 24, 2004

Funny, Tamara has been asking for the husband manual since we've been married. I told her it was top secret! She also can't figure out how, in a crowded town meeting, all the Marines manage to find one another and sit together no matter their age or years of service.

I tell her The Force is all around us. Not sure if she believes me or not! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Pete

Boone · Mar 24, 2004

My half donkey (mule) hates any furry pasture invaders. I no longer have any coons or possums get into the barn. He has a big dream, I'm sure and that is to kill dogs. He hates them and keeps a very close eye out for anything canine to get within attack range. My dog even knows not to go on the mule's turf and he is a hard headed dog.

DAP · Mar 24, 2004

This is an easy one. Men are usually image driven creatures. Women are usually not. The going theory is the old hunter/gatherer concept.

Men as hunters, need the image driven skills to succeed in winning the kill.

Women, use the gatherer caretaker as the builders of family, home and humanity. (Trying really hard here) ...

Just help her cross the line a lil bit and let her peak at the image of what can happen to an unprotected flock of sheep. Bet she comes around, or close to it.

/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

bcarter · Mar 24, 2004

> Sometimes the male donkeys are really mean even after being gelded. 

If they were mean before, I'd think that they'd be MORE mean after! (I know I'd be furious if someone did that to me!) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

YanmarFever · Mar 24, 2004

Here in Oregon we call it the ( common brain theory).
that they ALL like to gab,gossip,google,and shop shop shop. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The womens cars in oregon already know the way to the mall
(its like auto pilot)

I could go on forever dudes !
Ernie

5030 · Mar 24, 2004

I bet you could run him down with that Unimog.

The picture of the yote elicits some feelings from me. Here in the part of the Wolverine I farm in, they have become quite a pest. There is an unspoken open season year around here.

I have a couple of rather secluded hay fields and last year during 1st., cut, I flushed a couple of cubs and a mother from the woods adjacent to a field. I am really glad my tractor has a cab as the mother was pretty mad. On an open tractor, I'd probably had to endure the rabies shots at least. Anyway, I don't usually carry a firearm with me in the tractor. I am not big into guns anyway. I did go back home at lunch and retrieve one of my match target pistols. I put it behind the seat and went back to mowing. Sure enough, around 5 pm., the mother and her mate came out of the woods and started across the field. I dropped them both at about 100 feet. I had a little remorse for the cubs, however, I had mixed feelings about the adults and me producing hay on the field last year. I did go back later with the backhoe and buried them. Never seen the cubs.