Anybody ever run over a Fawn bush hogging..Uggg !

brin · Sep 18, 2009

I did ..sickening..I was bush hogging a field with grass and seed heads up to the top of the hood of the tractor and I felt a slight thump and thought I had hit a big fire ant mound...that's what it felt like and when I turned to make another pass I saw a big Doe just standing way back where I had felt the thump and she was looking at me ..I thought it was strange and kept going toward her and as I drew nearer she hopped a fence and was gone and then as I was looking down I noticed a neck and head and then a small hind quarter and you get what I am saying ..just made me sick..she had been laying their in the high grass with the fawn and must have walked away and left the fawn and then I came along and ran over the fawn..had she been there she would have jumped up when she heard me and I would have stopped, of course but also she would have trotted off with her fawn..I sure hope this doesn't happen to any of you..that is the first time in many years it ever happened to me..I mean I have put up quail before and rabbits etc. but never run over any that I knew of..and I used to hunt deer and everything so I am no PITA member ..but I don't like killing something like that..anyway that's what happened.

Treemonkey1000 · Sep 18, 2009

Now that would spoil my day. Sorry that you ended up having that happen. Not that it matters now but the little thing didn't suffer long.

Mowbizz · Sep 18, 2009

Yeah...sorry for the trauma...just not supposed to happen that way. Poor little thing was just instinctively staying still...Mama will have twins next year to make up for it...don't take it too hard...it's nature and sometimes it's ugly...

CrownHawg · Sep 18, 2009

That would definitely bother me too. Sorry for your (and the fawn's) luck.

brin · Sep 18, 2009

Thanks for the replies, bad experience for sure and I can't think of way it could have been avoided that was about the 8th pass I made in that field so if the Doe had been there she would have known I was getting closer and closer , unless she just had the fawn I can't understand why the fawn did not jump up and walk away..they were long runs between passes and why she would just walk off for that long is beyond me. Just one of those unfortunate things.

OrangeJbird · Sep 18, 2009

Growing up on the dairy farm, I put numerous critters though the haybine, discbine. forage harvester. Kind of a sickening feeling knowing their in the tall forage and either die immediately of suffer a lost limb. We had a cats that walked on three legs or lost an eye to machinery, milktrucks and getting laid on by Bessie. I remember the sound of bullsnake slices hitting the back of the forage wagon after getting picked up by the header of the chopper.
Balance of nature by proxy?

Bird · Sep 18, 2009

I don't even know for sure whether I got any rabbits, mice, and rats while cutting and baling hay, but I assume I got a few. I know I saw some that hawks caught behind me and one day had 5 coyotes working the hay field I had just cut. But one day, while using that big Stihl string trimmer around the barn, I know I literally tore a small rabbit to shreds before I saw it. No way I'd have done that had I known it was there. So, yes, I'd really hate to run over a fawn.

sunnyside360 · Sep 18, 2009

Have done it several times over the years, but have been able to avoid many more. Always felt really bad when it happened. Most fawns in our area are born late May and early June so I've been waiting until mid to late July to start mowing. By then the fawns are agile enough to get out of the way when the tractor approaches.

Redbug · Sep 18, 2009

I don't like to kill things inadvertantly, either. Not just babies but even the snakes have their place in this world, too. I think about this a lot and it pains me as well. I try not to bush hog during the spring with the baby turkeys and bird nests in the weeds. For you, maybe the grass needs to be kept lower by an earlier summer cutting before cutting late in the summer as now.

I don't have a good answer and that's why I also responded. Maybe someone has an idea when best times on the calendar would be to bush hog...where it gives the least risk to our fellow critters, especially the babies? Late July makes sense like what Sunnyside said.