Farmers losing 100's of lambs to eagles, crows and ravens

For years farmers and crofters on the west coast of Scotland have been trying to convince the authorities that sea eagles kill lambs. David Colthart has been particularly vocal as he says he's losing about 200 lambs a year to this apex predator. This is having a significant impact on his business, but also the future of his flock. Over the generations these sheep have learned how to find food and shelter in this tough terrain. If the sheep lose that "knowledge" there is no farm. We also see the impact ravens and crows have on lambs and ewes on a farm on the Isle of Wight.

[@gilbert7794]

If I lost 300 lambs with no competition that eagles would face a short future.

[@richardcanning7351]

What ever organisation released the sea eagles caused the problem so they should be paying the farmers for their losses and held responsible for controlling these birds. If they can’t control the birds then they need to remove them to somewhere that won’t effect someone’s livelihood

[@ddoherty5956]

If it was a reckless dog owner they would have to pay, these charities should be held to at least the same standards in law.

[@byroneckhardt4131]

We should have never wiped them out to start with .they were their before the sheep .

[@ddoherty5956]

@@byroneckhardt4131 Agreed, however a charity should not be allowed to put a families financial future at risk, to the benefit of bankers you have to understand that is the problem the amount of investment that is being written off, it's not down to farmers to absorb those losses, they should be compensated these men have had nothing to do with Raptor decline that happened a long time ago.

[@spencersanderson1894]

£400.000 has been allocated to the Sea Eagle Management Scheme just this year alone. With individual farmers receiving anywhere between £500 and £5000 pounds to help mitigate damage being done to their livestock, so they get money to put up with it. Also shepherds on the continent stay with their flocks with guard dogs etc, why can’t they do that here? Maybe they are too lazy or maybe they are happy to take the compensation and then complain it’s not enough. Poor farmers, at least they don’t have to deal with wolves and bears unlike the shepherds of France and Germany. And before anyone says “they’re bigger countries” well yeah they are but the shepherds still travel into their territories and come face to face with them, somehow they can deal with wolves, bears and eagles, maybe our farmers need to take a leaf out of their book? Just a thought, I mean people only need to use common sense.

[@ddoherty5956]

@@spencersanderson1894 considering that the weight of an adult ewe is up to 80kg and meat prices are £6.59/Kg a single sheep represents a loss of over £500 it doesn't matter whether that sheep is ten minutes old or an adult when it's killed it's a £500 business loss so what happens if 30 sheep/lambs are taken? That £5K max goes nowhere and the farmer still makes a £10k loss. On the continent wages are very different as are tax codes, and most of the grazing land is nowhere near where you would find sea eagles ranging, so you are talking nonsense. Also, if you think a sea eagle won't take out a dog, think again, look at what eagles do to foxes. Dogs on the continent are mostly for wolves, boars and bears. No farmer is happy when their animals are wilfully harmed. Perhaps the people running the management scheme should take a payout and make sure that they are fairly compensating the people whose livelihoods they're destroying.

[@MazHem]

The sea eagles aren't introduced, they're reintroduced. I think we need to be able to compensate people for their losses while also making sure we maintain our ecosystems - these birds existed for thousands of years alongside humans until they were all shot or captured by hunters, there's got to be ways to protect the sheep or livelihoods of people, and yet still maintain essential apex predators. Shelters? Increasing the amount of hares and other birds?

[@WolfMimirMori]

I'd say shelters. Keep the lambs inside until they are of a more appropriate size and then let them outside. It's what we do where I work in Sweden, but then again maybe we don't have the raw size that these sea eagles have and thus we can do so far earlier than others. So yea, shelters, must be more worthwhile rather than sitting around all day every day shooting at them.

[@grahamrankine8017]

Your as much a fool as these government bodies

[@RhizomeA2Go]

I thought it could never happen when I first heard that sea eagles were being reintroduced, but here we are. Also there was talk about reintroducing wolves and bears, what next? Dinosaurs 😂

[@spencersanderson1894]

Well £400,000 has been allocated to the Sea Eagle Managment Scheme this year alone. They do get compensated and there are other ways to mitigate damage done to livestock, like the person from Sweden said. Also they could use guard dogs. Or they could stay with their herds of sheep like shepherds on the continent do? But that means actually walking those hills and being active, which by the looks of most farmers is something never heard of before.

[@MazHem]

@@RhizomeA2Go We definitely need wolves back to control the deer - though I'm not sure the landscape can sustain bears any more. Technically all birds are dinosaurs :)

[@mzanziman9150]

No gaurd dogs? A donkey?? A goat???? Geez guys come on now

[@ddoherty5956]

If it was a reckless dog owner they would have to pay, these charities should be held to at least the same standards in law, they knew these raptors would predate sheep before they released them and agould have had a compensation fund set up, required by law, before they started releasing them.

[@paulreynolds9003]

What about the heart ache the farmer must feel from losing his stock ,it’s not just the financial burden. If this doesn’t cause mental health issues I don’t know what will.

[@Slievenamon]

Why don't British farmers use Great Pyrenees Guard dogs ?

[@spencersanderson1894]

Because that means they have to stay up there with the sheep or at least be more active.

[@Slievenamon]

@@spencersanderson1894 The dogs live with the sheep flock as part of the flock, bring their food. And I believe the shepperds need to be up there during the lambing to keep an eye on them. Especially during the lambing season.

[@spencersanderson1894]

@@Slievenamon Exactly my point. It requires farmers to be more active and in England I doubt they will do that.

[@alistairclement4239]

​@spencersanderson1894 You really hate farmers don't you.

[@spencersanderson1894]

@@alistairclement4239 No, I love farmers, I just don’t like farmers who complain about something they have the ability to control. I also hate farmers who complain about wild animals that bring more to their economy than the farmers do. I’m fed up of farmers complaining they can’t live with nature when there is thousands and thousands of people who do and at more peril to theses farmers. Denmark have a very similar population density to Scotland and is almost half the size, yet the farmers there still put up with wolves. It’s laughable that these farmers are bothered about an eagle.

[@bentuffin6357]

308

[@matthewhale2464]

I’m sick of farmers moaning about everything like we’re supposed to kill all the wildlife, surely you have to expect some losses and not just presume you can get it all your own way all the time.

[@richardcanning7351]

Farmers already have losses every year from foxes, ravens and crows killing lambs. They can shoot the foxes and crows and have to tolerate the ravens as they are protected. They have a right to complain as it’s not just the loss of a lamb but they have to replace it with a sheep from another farm. So you now have the cost of a lamb plus the sheep plus their time not to mention the mental health costs finding a lamb ripped apart. Now multiply that by even 100 I think you would be complaining if you had hundreds of pounds taken out of your account at the start of every year

[@spencersanderson1894]

£400.000 has been allocated to the Sea Eagle Management Scheme just this year alone. With individual farmers receiving anywhere between £500 and £5000 pounds to help mitigate damage being done to their livestock. Guard dogs are another option, having shelters for the lambs is another, being a more active farmer and staying with the flock is also another option. But the easiest option is to receive the compensation and then complain about them.

[@peregrinepete]

I have heard all this before how many sheep in the uk Millions get a life I know shepherds who will kill a lamb so they 1 good big Lamb

[@ferret5772]

I smell the greed , pay me for an unsustainable farming practice that destroys the environment , leave it out please how big is his flock and how large is the farm he's grazing not a tree or plant above short mown grass visible and then he's losing soil and sheep aren't native to this region , if people engage in practices that the environment cant sustain thats their own misfortune no need to blame everyone and and everything for their own stupidity, but still these people blame wildlife nature the weather and the like🙄 the mind boggles.

[@grahamrankine8017]

Sheep were on the hill long before you were thought of

[@spencersanderson1894]

All it takes is a little research to find out they are also being compensated for those losses. And it doesn’t take much to mitigate these losses. Guard dogs, shelters and being a more active farmer can go a long way in mitigating these losses. But all that means the farmer has to be get off their ass and be more active, something English farmers are allergic to by the looks of it.