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farmerrow

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Posts posted by farmerrow

  2. Average Season?

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    How did everyone find this season? Certainly not good as the last but then that was an exceptional year. We really lacked the cold weather to bring the birds to the food. Pleased with the results after such a wet year and we had a shaky start with backward birds but it all came right , thank god. We shot a good return on our partridge but a poor year on the pheasants, even if there is still plenty about just did not catch up with them. Just interested to see how others found it?

    • Like 1

  3. Poaching Deer!!!

    in Deer Stalking & Management

    Posted

    Makes me laugh when someone says poaching is not stealing!! It is nothing more than stealing. It angers me on my farms I manage the deer which completely gets messed up by people poaching who kill anything they come across causing as much damage as they can while stealing anything they can. I have to kill all the hares in fields alongside all the roads to stop these lunatics driving all over my crops. I watch them through night vision and thermal imagery call the police and receive no help. Got fed up with it so in the problem areas I gave up and removed all temptation. So at the moment they plague someone else. I live in Wiltshire the last two groups caught came from Wales and Southampton they have no respect and are just Nasty disrespectful people.

  7. Blacknecks

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    I would disagree with that different breeds have very different habits. I am quite shocked how different Kansas pheasants, bazanty and the Scandinavian first crosses all behave so differently on my shoots.Four years ago I would have never thought this. They all have different holding habits and flying habits. I have actually been caught out and found the Kansas and bazanties hold so well you have to work hard to get them out of the area of the release pens to make sure they don't suffer from disease. I believe that Kansas hold the best on my farms but I don't have much woodland compared to some. They fly very like a wild pheasants and are a bit unpredictable. I swapped back to the bazanties this season they hold not as well as the Kansas but pretty well certainly a lot better than anything we used to put down but fly very well standing on there tails given half the chance but fly in a lot more predictable manner making them easier to drive on my shoots. This is not just my opinion but a general consensus between my friends who run shoots as well. They also behave very differently when trying to blank them into drives etc you have to give them a lot of time as they don't like running and prefer to hide and then fly so to successfully move them you have to take things very slowly then they will go..

    • Like 2

  8. What's The Rules

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    No rudeness was meant but when putting down tens of thousands of birds of which I gave plenty of experience you spend a lot of time not doing what an old traditional keeper would do ie you spend a lot of time rearing and feeding rather than things like habitat improvement and vermin control.i am afraid it is the economics of today a few keepers doing what a lot of keepers would have been doing and being stretched to there limits and beyond. It can be a very hard life.

    • Like 1

  10. What's The Rules

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    Glad to hear that. I would love to be able to afford to just do just guest days but I have to sell to afford to keep the shoots going. But nice to hear there are people with the same ideals. You must find it more pleasurable from being a commercial( not being rude) chicken farmer to a being able to have enough time to keeper properly. It should always be about sport .

  11. What's The Rules

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    Lot of estates around here have to vaccinate against mycoplasma as there has been such a problem due to over stocking. Stocking rates I think you try and give them as much room as possible and try and not get to greedy. The key to running a good shoot is to consistently have good seasons so you need to avoid disease. I think your stocking rate is very high but if you get on a shoot a reasonable number early on you would soon reduce the pressure and you would be alright but certainly I would want less on the ground than that. One bird per 200m2 is pretty tight.

  12. What's The Rules

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    Every shoot is different but if you work out the density that keeper is talking about it is one bird every 3.5 metres so you would not see the ground it would just be a sea of birds. I think someone is not being very truthful . There would so much disease in that suituation that it would not last very long at that stocking rate. Bit like the broadchalke valley here in wiltshire so many partridge and pheasants are put down that if one person gets a touch of hexamita it sweeps through everyone's shoots. Most of these problems ( bulgy eye,hexamita, coccidiosis even gapeworm) are so contagious that you need space for these birds to not have problems. Putting a high stocking rate down you will get disease problems especially with hexamita because the birds always carry it but it is brought on by stress and trust me a stocking rate like that would cause enormous stress as well as having to eat and drink in such filthy conditions. Just look at what has happened to the grouse where they have got the numbers so high by good keepering of wild birds that bulgy eye has swept through large amounts of them.

  17. Game Strips?

    in Gamekeeping, Conservation & Shoot Management

    Posted

    Being a farmer who runs a shoot. It is wild bird cover which can run for two years if there is enough kale in it after the first year. It is grown under els or hls schemes but it is all about to change. You can grow maize or kale. Kale is very difficult to establish but in my opinion is the best holding cover. Maize is easiest to grow and attracts game very well and if warmed up with sorghum around the outside can give the best of both worlds. Warning if you are going to talk to the farmer about cover on his farm be aware he will probably want at least £400 per acre to do it to cover all his costs. The best way is get him involved in the shooting and come to compromise. If you want any advice ask I grow about 70 acres of game over a year and don't mind helping with advice.

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