out ploughing again

[TrevorJ]

I was just thinking cane feed venison might be worth something, maybe enough to pay for more fertilizer over the eaten ratoons.

I can think of a few things, as a bait, that would drop them, but ultimately it's a waste, and none that come to mind are a painless death. It's hard to find out about anything that, used in a bait, will render wandering stock and feral pests placid enough to put in a pen for removal.

I know I've done the same, I've dropped a truck load of wallabies through the early 90s, but there was and still is no real market for them, even though cooked right (ahem and not the way some TV chefs like to think they need to be cooked - unless one likes their meat bitter or with a bit of tang) they can provide a very tasty meal indeed, so much so that after six months eating little else, prime beef steak was a little difficult getting used to eating again.

If the deer are breeding up, is it on state land or on other private land, which the owners have no idea the deer are living there?

[Mrsmackpaul]

Trev the deer are well known about through the local shire and state government and the only way they can get onto the farm is up a shire road and the law is quite clear the shire has to control them and the private land owners that harbor them are well known as you can see the deer from the road at any time of day wandering about

https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/61586/IPA-Chital-Deer-Factsheet.pdf

http://www.burdekin.qld.gov.au/environment-waste-and-water/land-protection/declared-pest-animals-for-burdekin-shire/

the shire and state government knowing they have a problem and doing something about the problem are two different things even though they are breaking there own laws it's a funny world

Paul

[hair bear]

Had to go and google 'ratoons'. I'd been thinking something like a possum perhaps... Obviously not!
Live and learn.

[TrevorJ]

OK I had a look and I can see by the maps there is no state reserve near there, so they are just moving around private land. I guess it only takes a few opportunistic people, (with the mentality to have the deer about so they can kill a couple each year while the deer get fat on other's people's cane land,) to spoil any real attempt to finish the deer off once and for all.

Do the deer have a liking for molasses? [Note for those who are unfamiliar in the UK, molasses is similar to treacle.]

We had that problem with feral pigs here, up until 1994 around our way there wasn't a problem (like there were none) but soon enough as the cane expanded in the hills here, feral pigs arrived. We first though it was simply feral pigs moving in from other areas, (there were problems near a national reserve 20 km away) but funny enough we had a few "piggers" (blokes who typically used dogs to catch pigs) turning up asking to have a look though the neigbouring properties before we'd even spotted pigs around our way. Long story short, it turned out a few of the piggers working west of the range were bringing the malnourished ones and those too small back to cane land to "farm" them up to ready them for the "box." [box - a place that took in feral pig catches and paid money for them] Once someone clued us up, I turned the tables, any coming by to pig I told them don't bother coming onto our property (some dogs were chasing everything including cattle) and don't worry about those pigs they might still see running everywhere else nearby as they are probably full of lead where the bullet hadn't killed them out right or poisoned thus contaminated. (That was just the story I told them.) Piggers and pigs dried up very quick after that, though to this day there's still a small group of pigs about as they weren't fully wiped out.

The state having a problem and ... yup, that about sums it up. Try and lease some of that state forest land for grazing, and wow, you'll find weed control is all or else amongst other things, yet they can wonder in and spray some declared weed near the boundary as a token gesture and that's good enough.

Sorry about that hair bear, ratoon (ra - toon) is one word that pretty much defines a lot of tropical crop (condition) in our region, cane being one, bananas being the other main crop that ratoons.