tosca2701

Those of you who do catch up, what percentage of your release would you be hoping to catch? Over the years we've tended to end up with around 2%-3%. Would that be about right?

points taken and well made guys. Thank you. scotslad, I probably phrased that wrong when I said they charge a premium. We run quite a large semi-commercial shoot, and have placed some reasonably sized poult orders in recent times. It has been noticeable that the game farmers rearing birds having bought them in as day olds are charging a significantly higher price than the farmers starting from scratch. Now, this may just be isolated cases and we have happened to pick them out, but when you are quoted £3.25 a poult from one g-farmer, and then £3.80 a poult from 3 others buying in as day olds, it does make you wonder. Correct me if I'm wrong, but these guys wouldn't be doing it if they weren't making some profit out of it, albeit not millions. I, too, know of a few who have gone out of business in recent times. Having heard what you guys have had to say, I think we would be better off sticking to poults.

Thanks guys, that sort of confirmed what I originally thought. Unless you are rearing significant numbers the savings aren't really there. I think we could possibly manage it, with the infrastructure and staff we've got, but it is the risk element which is the unknown. What price can you put on "peace of mind" with your poults?!? It's just rather galling buying poults from someone who is buying them in as day olds and bringing them on, and then charging a premium for them. Anyone any idea on the cost of bringing day olds on? I'm sure there is a rough basic equation somewhere per bird, like the shoot benchmark survey?

We are mulling over the idea of going back to rearing day olds, rather than buying in poults. We still have our rearing sheds as well as the infrastructure in place. Can anyone tell me whether the savings are still there by doing this? Or do the increasing costs and risk attached with rearing your own outweigh the benefit.

I was lucky enough to be invited recently to a cracking shoot, where I heard that they feed chicken food instead of pheasant food. I didn't quite get the full story, but I am presuming they meant instead of poult pellets. Can anyone shed some light on this? Is it a viable option? I'm told there isn't much difference in nutritional value, but the difference in cost is quite significant. Has anyone tried it? What is the difference in cost? Many thanks in advance for any advice.

al4x, we have both artichokes and canary grass in some cover crops already, which work well. In this day and age where everything involved in country sports so expensive, I was just exploring the possibility of trying to claw back a penny or two from the crops, and get the best of both worlds. We have very little feed value in most of our crops anyway, and they are all hand fed on a daily basis. perhaps a half way house might be achievable? Slightly wider spacing, with slightly less of a crop taken off?

Thanks CharlieT. Sort of figured that would be the case, but just wanted to check. Seemed to be too easy. We have planted some of our cover with willow, but only in strips to break up the cover crop. Getting a feed crop established on an annual basis (other than some trit) is a non starter, so thought I would invstigate this option.

Hi Guys, Just wondered whether anyone had any experience using short rotation coppice for cover crops/game crops/drives? We are looking at putting in some blocks of willow or similar, and are trying to incorporate it into the shoot, to replace existing cover crops, some of which need to be sown on an annual/bi-annual basis (triticale, kale, etc). All the timings seem to fit, with regards to planting/harvesting etc. Seems too good to be true. Any help/advice/experience would be hugely appreciated.