How much does each shot pigeon save the farmer

[sitsinhedges]

Just wondering how much money is saved in lessened crop damage by the average farmer each time we shoot a pigeon.

 

Any ideas :(

[Robbo123]

Just wondering how much money is saved in lessened crop damage by the average farmer each time we shoot a pigeon.

 

Any ideas :(

Put it this way in a single feed of a pigeon they can fit about 200 gains of wheat in their crops so times that by 100 it all adds up!!

[vampire]

Is it 10 pigeons eat same as one sheep :( ,not sure to the answer to your question,but its in the thousands of pounds in crop damage/loss every year

[Blunderbuss]

There's an interesting bit on a Chris Green video where he counts the barley grains in the crop of a pigeon shot over a new drilled filled (about 4-500), then times that by how many heads of barley at 20 or so grains would be produced from each grain that germinated, by the number of pigeons he shot. I can't remember the exact figures but I think he worked out that the 60 odd birds he shot that day potentailly saved the farmer a couple of tonnes yield come harvest time.

 

No idea if this survives scientific scrutiny but interesting nonetheless. I 'spose Defra or the old ministry of agriculture must have done some studies at some stage??

[malkiserow]

I was once told that it is about a £1 per week per bird but this might be an old figure or total rubbish :(

[Cosd]

A pigeon can eat up to half it's body weight in a single day, and an adult pigeon weighs around 450g.

So a very rough calculation is 5 pigeons can eat 1kg of grain in a single day, now think about the damage a winter flock will do to a field when 500 of them are sitting munching all day undisturbed!!

Edited June 18, 2010 by Cosd

[Guest beechris]

If we are saving them all this money. should we start asking them to cover the price of our carts??

[sitsinhedges]

If we are saving them all this money. should we start asking them to cover the price of our carts??

 

And buy US a nice bottle of something at xmas

[anser2]

I think this is an impossible question to answer. Yes a pigeon can eat 200 grains of barley\wheat a day , but does it ? Maybe some days , but there will be many more when it takes a variety of foods feeding on acorns\ beech mast\ chickweed \ stubbles \ tree buds and so on when it is doing no harm to the crops and indeed when feeding on weeds and their seeds may be improving the yeald of the main crop.

 

The amouint of dammage they do will depend on the crop they are feeding on and perhaps more important the time of year they are feeding on it. Within reason I suspect they make little difference to the yeild of a rape crop for most of the winter , but once the spring top dressing goes on and the rape starts its spring growth , then pigeons can have a real impact to the crop.

 

There are other pests that do a lot more localized dammage as anyone who has seen a herd of red deer comming out of the woods night after night for several months to feed and trample a field of wheat will know. There are corn fields on one of the farms where i shoot where a collar 20-40 yards wide around the field margin have been grazed down to the ground and its not unusual to see 2-400 rabbits running off the field in broad daylight ( I should add the rabbit control is in the hands of the keeper not me ).

 

For corn crops most farmers using modern drillers leave very little surpless grain on the surface and anyway any that is is unlikly to add much to the crop yield. For a good wheat plant the seeds needs to be burried. Today layed corn crops are a very rare sight in my part of the country and pigeons flighting into ripening corn crops mainly feed along the tramlines which is corn lost to the farmer anyway.

 

The real value in shooting pigeons for the farmer is not so much killing the birds but more scaring the flocks off the crop. So in answer to the question " how much does each shot pigeon save the farmer " probably over a year very little , but at vulnrable times for the crop the presence of a shooter scaring and killing pigeons will provide a major boost to the yield.

Edited June 18, 2010 by anser2

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

I think this is an impossible question to answer. Yes a pigeon can eat 200 grains of barley\wheat a day , but does it ? Maybe some days , but there will be many more when it takes a variety of foods feeding on acorns\ beech mast\ chickweed \ stubbles \ tree buds and so on when it is doing no harm to the crops and indeed when feeding on weeds and their seeds may be improving the yeald of the main crop.

 

The amouint of dammage they do will depend on the crop they are feeding on and perhaps more important the time of year they are feeding on it. Within reason I suspect they make little difference to the yeild of a rape crop for most of the winter , but once the spring top dressing goes on and the rape starts its spring growth , then pigeons can have a real impact to the crop.

 

There are other pests that do a lot more localized dammage as anyone who has seen a herd of red deer comming out of the woods night after night for several months to feed and trample a field of wheat will know. There are corn fields on one of the farms where i shoot where a collar 20-40 yards wide around the field margin have been grazed down to the ground and its not unusual to see 2-400 rabbits running off the field in broad daylight ( I should add the rabbit control is in the hands of the keeper not me ).

 

For corn crops most farmers using modern drillers leave very little surpless grain on the surface and anyway any that is is unlikly to add much to the crop yield. For a good wheat plant the seeds needs to be burried. Today layed corn crops are a very rare sight in my part of the country and pigeons flighting into ripening corn crops mainly feed along the tramlines which is corn lost to the farmer anyway.

 

The real value in shooting pigeons for the farmer is not so much killing the birds but more scaring the flocks off the crop. So in answer to the question " how much does each shot pigeon save the farmer " probably over a year very little , but at vulnrable times for the crop the presence of a shooter scaring and killing pigeons will provide a major boost to the yield.

 

 

Top reply with alot of sense spoken you seem to have a real grasp that pigeons do very little damage to one farm .

 

Like you said rabbits do alot more local damage than pigeons will ever do the only field I have shot was ten years back it was peas and the birds caused major damage on a regular basis.

 

Some shooter try to over justify there need to farmer like trying too say that pigeons eating corn on the drilling is damaging etc when all ther doing is gleaning loose grain that would not seed anyway.

 

IMO there is only a couple of crops and time of year that pigeons cause direct damage that can be measuered .

Laid corn for one and peas the rest of the time a certain amount of grazing can actively promote growth .

 

Kind regards OTH

[anser2]

OTH the main complaint from my farmers about pigeons hitting rape is that it produces an uneven crop that can cause some losses at harvest time ( part of the crop ripe while the grazed areas are not ). A pigeon shooter shooting a ripe field of rape is likely to cause more dammage to the crop than the pigeons as he or his dog knocks seed to the ground while retrieving the birds.

Edited June 18, 2010 by anser2

[smig4373]

There's an interesting bit on a Chris Green video where he counts the barley grains in the crop of a pigeon shot over a new drilled filled (about 4-500), then times that by how many heads of barley at 20 or so grains would be produced from each grain that germinated, by the number of pigeons he shot. I can't remember the exact figures but I think he worked out that the 60 odd birds he shot that day potentailly saved the farmer a couple of tonnes yield come harvest time.

 

No idea if this survives scientific scrutiny but interesting nonetheless. I 'spose Defra or the old ministry of agriculture must have done some studies at some stage??

 

The figures were...704 grains in 1 crop x by the number of pigeons he shot that day + the number of pigeons he missed that day x 3 days that the birds were feeding in that field....The end result was a saving of 5 ton's...

[UKPoacher]

This is a bit of an issue for me.

 

Our shoot covers two farms and both farmers have farm shops, one of them specialises in deer and as such has contacts with game dealers. The other is linked to a chicken farm. Both have large commercial freezers. Now, when the pigeons are hiting their crops the farmers are constantly badgering the shoot manager to get someone down to shoot the pigeons. They expect us to come on demand and spend all day on the fields. This causes some issues; Some days we are lucky to get double figures in 6 hours and given that most of us work 40 hours a week and have other commitments spending 6 hours of my day off out in the cold for 6 pigeons doesn't appeal. When the pigeons do come in numbers we blat away at our expense and then cannot properly dispose of the carcases given that the nearest game dealer is at least a gallon of fuel away. Neither farmer will buy the pigeons off us even at less than game dealer rates.

 

Given that a some say that pigeon will eat around 600 grains of cereals every day throughout the summer and can decimate rape plants in early spring I don't think it is unreasonable to ask farmers to subsidise our shooting especially when they phone us up to come at short notice. In the past I've had farmers drop me a few cases of cartridges or supply strings of bangers. That has changed. Now they seem to think that we are free labour on demand, and they are doing us a favour allowing us to shoot. In actual fact we have a right to shoot vermin under the game shooting tenancy that they benefit from financially.

 

It would be nice to be able to demonstrate how much a pigeon eats and cost it out.

[sixhills 69]

I used to shoot for a farmer he would ring me up and say" the pigons are killing my crop and could i come over" i lived about 0ne hours drive.

Turned up early in the morning set up, stayed until midday as no sign of any birds and the crops looked ok to me, went to speak to him and as he sat on the fence and said " Your to early you daft ****** they don't feed till late " i asked him why he had never mentioned that and he replied " never crossed my mined" i have nevrr shot for him again, so i agree some of them take the p---. But others are very fare.