Cowboydoc (and others)....I have noticed on several posts that you have mentioned calves dying, either during birth or on the holsteins, bottle raising having a high mortality rate. Question: how do you dispose of the carcass after death? Do you bury them (time consuming), is there a place you can take them (loading up and hauling off) or what is the general method you use and what would be appropiate for some of us with smaller acreage? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Well to be honest alot of them I take down by the pond and leave them down in the trees. The reason I do this is because the coyotes come and I can kill coyotes as they come to feed on the carcasses. If they get to smelling bad then I just take the backhoe and bury them. But I don't have any neighbors either. If you're living on a small acreage then I would probably just dig a hole and bury them. You also have to watch it because some counties have ordinances against burial and you have to get the rendering plant to come and pick them up or a disposal company.
Sounds like Cowboydoc does much the same as my nearest neighbor on the farm (except he didn't bother shooting the coyotes). There was one corner of his property that was his animal graveyard. All dead animals were hauled or drug to that spot and left. The turkey vultures, coyotes, etc. took care of the disposal and there were lots of dried, white bones there.
Not to worry about the coyote population Bird. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Last year we took in 212 skins. There still isn't a night you can't go out there and kill four or five.
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Not to worry about the coyote population Bird
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Nope, Richard, I don't think anyone worries about the coyote population. We have an abundant supply [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] It's just that my neighbor didn't bother with sitting down there trying to shoot them even though he'd have been glad to have someone kill all of them. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
We have a ravine we use as a disposal area.it has a dozer pile at the end so nothing can wash out onto someonelses land.It is just something to use a useless piece of land for.
We had a cow that died of something the vet said was contagious I pushed up a big dozer pile and burned the carcass. But if it just dies we let it melt down in the holler.