rape again

[kody]

Not seen any being grown around here oxford that is is it going out of fashing

In fact no drilling at all still stub in most places

[Cranfield]

Last year no rape was drilled on most of the farms I shoot, but this year its back to previous year levels.

[Adge Cutler]

Not so much around this way either more cereals last year.. Though I have noticed some of the fields have been direct drilled with rape after combining.

[kody]

Last year no rape was drilled on most of the farms I shoot, but this year its back to previous year levels.

Some farmers ripped it up before harvest didn't do any good might have put them off of growing it again

Some Beatle bug got into it and destroyed the crop and the pesticide that killed the Beatle bug thing has been banned maybe that's the reason as well

[Catamong]

A good number of the farmers in my area, (South Herts), are not growing Rape this year due to damage by the Flea Beetle.

 

In theory, that's good news for Pigeon shooters as there will be less Rape around and they will concentrate on the farms that are growing it.

 

However, I've noticed that it looks like being another good year for Acorns, the Pigeons food of choice throughout the Winter in this area.

 

In past years this has resulted in the birds not seriously hitting the Rape until well after Christmas, if at all..

 

Cat.

[Adge Cutler]

A good number of the farmers in my area, (South Herts), are not growing Rape this year due to damage by the Flea Beetle.

 

In theory, that's good news for Pigeon shooters as there will be less Rape around and they will concentrate on the farms that are growing it.

 

However, I've noticed that it looks like being another good year for Acorns, the Pigeons food of choice throughout the Winter in this area.

 

In past years this has resulted in the birds not seriously hitting the Rape until well after Christmas, if at all..

 

Cat.

Yes the trend is similar in this region I have noticed.... You would have thought that a scarcity in staple foodstuffs would have concentrated the birds into larger flocks particularly as numbers have increased 3 - 400 % in the last 25 years. Not a bit of it...seems to be the opposite....in fact I was speaking to one Landlord a week ago who has about 5,000 acres under cereal each year...they don't see the sedentary Pigeon as much of an avian pest these days as it used to be...strange or what.? Perhaps its because they can just get up and fly somewhere else. The last really big flock of birds I saw on this particular estate was the cold winter of 2007/8 when we had a lot of snow...even then the majority of these birds were an influx from Europe moving progressively South. Conversely the woods around here are stacked with huge flocks of Birds from mid October onwards. Rape is not the Pigeons favoured foodstuff and it has to eat a hell of a lot of it to get the same calorific value as a crop of beech nuts or acorns..so when the alternative smorgasbord of delights is available they go for that and leave the rape until there is nothing else left.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Adge Cutler

[mossy835]

i only have 4 fields drilled on one farm this year, not 8 like last year.

[bobby dazzler]

Slug is the main damage for the rape not growing well a lot off farmers have had to redrill the rape all ready

[mikee]

I shoot several farms here in south norfolk totaling a bit over 4000ac, all that which is going to be rape, around half, is already drilled and some is 1.5" tall, one farmer was drilling wheat yesterday evening, I guess to try and beat today's deluge, he phoned the other day to say that pigeons had already started on one field near a big wood, will be out saturday for a few hours, it will keep him happy even if I don't get too many

 

Mikee