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View Full Version : Sask makes gophers goners

getasheep
03-13-2008, 12:55 PM
Interesting read on gopher control and different opinions. I love the agriculture ministers stance that if the BC animal rights activist wants to save the gophers she can take them to BC with her.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=f30bdc4a-f847-4d42-9708-8aa5621eb646&k=44769
TheClash
03-13-2008, 02:13 PM
On Wednesday, Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud announced $380,000 in new funding to research new methods to control gophers, also known as Richardson's ground squirrels.


380K could buy a whole heck of a lot of .22 shells.....hand them out free to shooters hahaha
Okotokian
03-13-2008, 02:18 PM
seems like a dubious answer.... if gophers cost southern Sask farmers "nearly a million dollars" as claimed, then the cost per farmer doesn't seem like it would equal out to the $2000 cost of the system plus the time spend to eradicate the pests from each hole on a few sections. sure they are a bother, but I can't imagine they are costing each farmer a huge amount of money each year.
TheClash
03-13-2008, 02:22 PM
i think that 1 million is a type-o....if not..then you are right. the cost to investigate and then eliminate them will be more than the losses felt by the farmers.

i had a biology professor that did her phd on gophers (she would kill me for calling them that)...her research suggested that the average prairie dog town consists of 100 gophers..the average gopher weighs between 1 and 2 lbs...and can eat its weight in grain every other day. so never mind the trouble the bring to livestock and the fields physically....they can be devistating on grain supplies if left unchecked.


again this i not my research...just passing on what i have been told...
Copidosoma
03-13-2008, 02:42 PM
On Wednesday, Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud announced $380,000 in new funding to research new methods to control gophers, also known as Richardson's ground squirrels.



Actually they are Spermophilus richardsonii also known as Richardson's ground squirrels, gophers, prairie gophers, yellow gophers, picketpins, flickertails, and tawny American marmots.

:wave:
TheClash
03-13-2008, 02:45 PM
Actually they are Spermophilus richardsonii also known as Richardson's ground squirrels, gophers, prairie gophers, yellow gophers, picketpins, flickertails, and tawny American marmots.

:wave:

your point being???:huh:
Copidosoma
03-13-2008, 03:12 PM
your point being???:huh:

Just like how the article points out that they are gophers (as if that is what they are "really" called) not Richardson's ground squirrels as some people seem to call them.

No point really.
Bushmaster
03-13-2008, 03:41 PM
Anybody here ever tried using phostoxin on them? One of the guys went to a training program and seems they are using it on gophers now as well as grain bugs.
Okotokian
03-13-2008, 03:43 PM
No point really.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think 99% of the population call them gophers LOL
gman1978
03-13-2008, 06:16 PM
Gophers damage is getting worse, some areas it is down right serious in Sask and Alberta. They can take out acres of crop in the spring and they really like new growth, patches up to 30 acres are common and it can even be worse. Can gophers do a million dollars damage in one province? you bet!! 30 acres of canola at 35bu an acre times $14.50 a bushel = $15,225 total. Thats big money and it doesn't take long to add up.
Bushmaster
03-13-2008, 06:38 PM
We lost about 70 acres last year....
TheClash
03-13-2008, 07:29 PM
Just like how the article points out that they are gophers (as if that is what they are "really" called) not Richardson's ground squirrels as some people seem to call them.

No point really.

actually they are richardson ground squirrels and not really gophers.....they have just been generalized and called gophers...true gophers are a member of the family Geomyidae. where as what we refer to as a "gopher" is of the family Spermophilus richardsonii. so again your point confuses me...but oh well.