JB,
Those "striped" gophers, are they chipmunks??? A number of years ago we had chipmunks all over the place, that year we had whole corn stored in a grain bin, guess what??? Chipmunks cached whole corn in the blower fan in the pickup, in the holes where the gates close, everywhere they could stash, they did. We didn't have a problem with them at all, thought they were very cute, until a kid decided to catch one. The lil bugger escaped and was running free in the house, just purchased a brand new sofa, I WAS MAD because the lil chipmunks are burrowers and guess what the escaped chipmunk did...burrowed in my brand new SOFA!
Anyway, we have Richardson's gophers, they make big mounds, like to sit on top of them and make their noise, you can find their hole. The "pocket gophers" are the lil buggers who have mounds on top of the ground, but you can't find a hole. I've learned how to trap them but they are just as you pointed out, JB, you quit haying because of them. Prairie Dogs and Richardson's gophers are about the same in my point of view. Pocket gophers (or moles) are a pain because you either have to blow 'em up or drown them out. Those "striped gophers" you talk about, I think, are chipmunks, and I have no problem with them. That one year we had a million of them, they were so cute running along the top of the pipe fences (there was pipe for them to run on).
Anyone else have something to say about striped gophers? I'm really curious.