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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2015 7:29:09 GMT -6
a week ago started setting a few traps in between the raindrops- operative word is few since not all the gophers are digging yet, and managed to get a few over 100. Starting Monday (I hope, small chance of rain sunday) we will start in fulltime, getting out as many traps as we can each day. Race now to get everything done before hay gets too tall- this rain we got this week and warmer weather will start that ball rolling.
it looks like a good year for gophers- after 2 tuff winter kill years, not so much last few years, but this year seems like every ditch has fresh mounds, and that's good for me, cause that's my breeding stock. If a ditch is a farmers ditch, I of course hit that as well, but otherwise I leave ditch gophers be.
got a few new farms this year- and that's always like Christmas for me- if someone calls, he USUALLY has a good infestation of gophers, and that's money In my pocket
all and all, feels good to dig in the dirt again!
anyone else after gophers?
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Post by blackhammer on Apr 10, 2015 10:42:29 GMT -6
Had a neighbor stop the other day and one of these cheap Norweigans is actually going to pay me to trap. . When I get back from beaver trapping I'll trap a few. Actually enjoy spring trapping, mid summer not so much. Too many crop farmers these days down here. Got a few farms I'll just let them populate and if they will pay me decent I'll trap. Other wise dig baby dig. lol
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Post by exmatador on Apr 10, 2015 11:39:51 GMT -6
Been after them for a month in one field close to home.. Had 16 move in over the winter so far but I'm sure more to come from the ditches and the fence lines..
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Post by bblwi on Apr 10, 2015 12:10:18 GMT -6
Yes the same price and you don't have all the other issues, like too small, too, early, too, blue, too greasy, too late, too dark, too pale, too singed etc. etc.
Landowners don't evaluate on dozens of quality issues the only one they really like is GONE.
Bryce
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 12:28:16 GMT -6
What is there about your State that makes for the proliferation of gophers? I don't think I've ever seen more than 1-2 in my life here in MI. Apparently you're getting paid by the head? Do you have to show the farmers your catch everyday in order to collect or do you just keep a running-record of numbers throughout the summer? Is trapping gophers a $$-making endevor as can catching 10-15-20 gophers fill your gas tank?
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Post by jim on Apr 10, 2015 12:50:51 GMT -6
They are talking pocket gophers, I don't think we have any in Michigan.
Jim
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 13:55:31 GMT -6
They are talking pocket gophers, I don't think we have any in Michigan. Jim I figured Jim, the couple I had digging in my front yard years ago had a bunch of stripes and their tail sort of rope-like. They dug right out in the middle of my front yard, like a big mound over-night. .22 was the right medicine! LOL |
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2015 15:51:43 GMT -6
those are ground squirrels- thirteen striped ground squirrels- we have thme here we cal lthem "streakies" and a couple of townships still pay like .60 for the bounty- I charge farmers the same.
Never, I get between $5 and $6.50 a gopher, depending on township. I take the front feet in (claw like, actually remind me of a muskrats front feet) to townships for bounty, then charge farmers betwene $3.50 and $4- the bounty ranges from $1.50 to 2.50 per gopher. Some townships havem onthly meetings, others just pay gopher bounty in the fall- farmers I just keep a daily tally, and bill them direct when we move on- a typical farmer has me trap 4-5 times a year. my glory years was taking 3000 plus, with 3400+ best year- nowadays, with the reduced hay and the reduction of gophers, we take 15-1800
why the gophers are so prolific here don't know, but there is a erason Mn is the gopher state, and a guy once told me (a professor that had read an article i had once on gohpers) that SE minnesota has had something over 150 different patents for gopher traps.
I freeze a couple of hundred for use i ncoyote sets- during the summer, I get gophers dug up and eaten by coyotes o na very regular basis
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Post by exmatador on Apr 10, 2015 15:53:17 GMT -6
Never, around here it is very sandy soil conditions.. Sandhill type area and there are thousands of them.. In northeast Nebraska they have them in solid clay ground.. Bigger subspecies up the for sure.. They absolutely love alfalfa fields and tend to migrate there.. Big fields I dint charge a setup fee just a (per head price).. Yard get a setup fee and per head as it is usually 1...
Steve, what do you do with your gopher carcasses?? Just found a baitmaker that would like to buy I believe 5000..
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Post by exmatador on Apr 10, 2015 15:55:52 GMT -6
Just seen your post on what you do with them... Still using the cinches?
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2015 16:03:34 GMT -6
yes, just bought another doz- I have to say, this rain and cold and mud- getting snapped traps more than I like- not sure why- might have bene setting to ohair triggered.
trouble with peole wanting carcassess, take up lots of freezer room- then the shipping is high. I'd guess you could get, if really packing them in, 100 in a 5 gal bucket-
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Post by bblwi on Apr 10, 2015 16:08:01 GMT -6
I grew up in west-central WI and we had lots of pocket gophers in our area. They do well in areas with lots of forage acres, grass, alfalfa etc. that is not tilled but maybe every 3-5 years. They also like loamy soils as it digs easier and holds the tunnel shapes well and they don't have as many rocks to work around or move either.
Where I live now about 200 miles straight east of that area with clay and stones I have never seen a pocket gopher. There are usually a lot more badgers in the areas with the heavy pocket gopher populations also.
With haybines being very expensive and high upkeep machines the farmers don't want to be running the sickles or discs through those dirt mounds or the badger diggings either. In the 1950s the town bounty was .25 and I had a few farmers give me an extra nickel or some a dime. Probably my most profitable trap line was gophers when I was 11 years old.
Bryce
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 16:23:26 GMT -6
TWell guys I certainly enjoyed the education!! Thanks!!!
I'd think off-hand that every kid that wasn't helping fulltime milking and farming would be running a gopher trap line out there?? Back in the late-50's and into the 60's even though I wasn't raised on a farm, I worked farms baling, hoeing & blocking, and cut a lot of yards for school clothes and shotgun shells, if I'd had gophers to trap, I'd been doing that for sure!!!
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Post by exmatador on Apr 10, 2015 16:32:26 GMT -6
Yes they take up a lot of room, but we Go up to Luvurne, mn a couple times a year and he is near there... $1:00 apiece gutted but what the heck.. Gas money for the drive!!
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2015 17:59:21 GMT -6
you bet exmatador- I'd do the same
never- 40-50 years ago, all the farm kids trapped gophers- not so much today- if they aren't in every sport, then are too busy with other farm work, to trap gophers.
there are a few that trap, mainly farmerso n own land or grandkids- but at most townships, itso nly 1 or 2 that bounty feet- thats going to die out- but on most town boards, I got some of my farmers on, and they keep the bounty
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Post by trappnman on Apr 14, 2015 16:24:57 GMT -6
the season has begun in ernest now- past 3 days in 60s, lots and lots of fresh diggings today. got 104 i nthe ground- had to quit early Lori has a garden club meeting tonight. this most likely will be our best numbers week of the year forcast is sunny, warm and dry for a week or better
got a doz new cinchs- I don't remember the springs being that strong- I guy gets thumb hit by it he's going ot break a thumb. Eother my new ones last year were weaker to start- or holy moly did they weaken up after only a year of use.
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