Marsh Man

[muncher]

MM just though I’d post this so you can see why I’m still shooting rape fields. This is a picture from my hide on Saturday. I shot 52 and my brother on another field shot 26. The mowed section is around 300 meters long and 80 yards wide. 
 

Edited April 18, 2022 by muncher

[oldypigeonpopper]

There's a few places like that on the farm rape fields but to near a main road, well done muncher 👍

[ditchman]

there used to be figures as to the monertary damage pigeons did over the year........cant remember what it was but it was staggering....

i remember in the 60's i was allowed to watch from a ditch..contractors firing mortar nets off a car battery to net pigeons hundreds at a time ..maybe 1000's.....and the farmer used to pay them.......

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, muncher said:

MM just though I’d post this so you can see why I’m still shooting rape fields. This is a picture from my hide on Saturday. I shot 52 and my brother on another field shot 26. The mowed section is around 300 meters long and 80 yards wide. 
 

THANKS for posting Muncher ,  That look like some serious damage , we have got three fields that are not quite as bad as that which have now all got gas guns on but what a contrast from the top bit that is well in flower to the bit you shot over that look like barren land .

I went on a thin strip of Rape Saturday afternoon that was quite close to the village church , I say thin but nowhere as thin as yours , Pigeons were very slow as I was beside the holding wood and once a shot was fired then there was very little movement , still I had my little radio on listening to the Norwich , Man Utd game to pass the time and I did end up picking up 13 , or should I say my dog ended up picking up 13 , a bakers dozen or unlucky for some .

Good photo .

[muncher]

This farm had pigeons in the thousands on the rape in the winter , just so many big fields , shoot a few and they just moved. 

[marsh man]

2 minutes ago, muncher said:

This farm had pigeons in the thousands on the rape in the winter , just so many big fields , shoot a few and they just moved. 

Now the sale of Pigeons have hit rock bottom , I wonder if the N F U could ever get a scheme going like the ole Rabbit Clearance Socity and issued out cartridges at a reduced rate or even free to the right people , with the cost of food going sky high and the amount of damage being caused by Pigeons it would surely save the land owners and growers some serious money 

[muncher]

I doubt that’ll happen again, what I can see happening is pigeons being dumped in large quantities to the detriment of us all. 

[clangerman]

while unfortunate such damage is what keeps pigeon shooting safe no disputing we are needed 

[marsh man]

8 hours ago, muncher said:

MM just though I’d post this so you can see why I’m still shooting rape fields. This is a picture from my hide on Saturday. I shot 52 and my brother on another field shot 26. The mowed section is around 300 meters long and 80 yards wide. 
 

Looking at some of our fields you can see how much money is lost up and down the country , the fields in the photos have now got gas guns on , mind you , I wouldn't say all the damage is down to Pigeons as Rabbits are getting a problem and some fields grow better o s r than others .

[the hitman]

Nice write up Muncher- sounds like a great shared day.

A field like the one photographed could keep you going with shooting for a few weeks to come- especially late afternoons as we get into the longer warmer days.

 

[7daysinaweek]

Hi Muncher and MM

As you have clearly shown those crops have had a real bashing from the vermin. I can only guess as to how much of that area will result in any type of 'feasible crop?'

I drove past a couple of fields of rape recently which had damage at the margins but nowhere near as extensive as that. As you say with costs of everything going up for all and sundry farmers must be getting particularly highly hit.

I have posted two youtube videos from a series I watch called "Harry's Farm", you may, or may not be familiar with his series which covers the the running of a farm  yearound, it gets down to the real nitty gritty, weather, crops, machinery ,costings, profits and loads of other things. I find it really interesting not coming from any type of agricultural background.

Anyway back to the thread.

In the first video he talks about what they refer to as "variable cost" which appears to be the cost of seed, fertilizer, sprays/herbicides and as of 2021 the cost per hecatre (2.4 acre) was around £500, forecast 2023 he says is now £1000 per hectare. Fertizer as of 2021 was around £200 per ton and has continually rose, forecast prices for 2023 being £1000 per ton and has significantly increased hundreds of percent with the pandemic and sadly in part to the geopolitical warfare situation. Not to detract from suffering that region is experiencing.

I was staggered re the red deisel costs, he was paying around 40p per litre 2021 and as of this month, he is now paying 1.40p per litre. We are all feeling it to an extent at the pumps but how can farming sustain this, food security is the most important thing, crop protection being one of them, not just supply chains. In one of his videos, I cannot be 100% sure it is one of those I have posted but he talks about green initiative from the goverment offering farmers around £5-600 per acre just to plant crop and leave it in and not harvest it. If I recall correctly this is what he says, I am sure it was per acre??

Talk about costs going up, inflation currently runs around 6% year on year, so in 9 years mine and your buying power will have been reduced by around half, frightening. The goods and services you can buy for a pound today you will only be able to buy around half of them in 9 years. £50k in the bank, worth 25K in the same period. At the current rate of increasing costs inflation will be at a yearly rate of a lot higher than that. With the cost of carts, fuel and all, some of us may be serously curtailed in our ability to shoot at present levels. 

Some aspects of socialism and capatalism gone mad!

Apologies for the rant, I can see how some end user businesses will have to make stark, stark choices!

 

 

 

[Wilts#Dave]

On 18/04/2022 at 11:04, muncher said:

I doubt that’ll happen again, what I can see happening is pigeons being dumped in large quantities to the detriment of us all. 

100% this. Who even takes the huge quantity of pigeons shot by some? 
I don’t shoot huge amounts, 1,500-3000 a year but could get rid of them easily to a number of game dealers….seems nigh on impossible to find such a regular outlet now! 
I have someone I offload quite a lot too but if/when the opportunity arises to shoot a big bag the first thing I think about is how am I going to get rid of all this lot, which kid of ruins things a bit. 
I’m not sure other less regular shooters will be so bothered and just blast off all day long then not know what to do with them so end up in the hedge?! 

[marsh man]

9 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said:

100% this. Who even takes the huge quantity of pigeons shot by some? 
I don’t shoot huge amounts, 1,500-3000 a year but could get rid of them easily to a number of game dealers….seems nigh on impossible to find such a regular outlet now! 
I have someone I offload quite a lot too but if/when the opportunity arises to shoot a big bag the first thing I think about is how am I going to get rid of all this lot, which kid of ruins things a bit. 
I’m not sure other less regular shooters will be so bothered and just blast off all day long then not know what to do with them so end up in the hedge?! 

I know one who will never dump Pigeons or anything else come to that , I now shoot very few Corvids for the sake of shooting them , if the farm manager want the odd one to stick out on a field then I will shoot what he want , failing that I will leave them alone and let the Crow trap earn it's keep .

We have seen the prices go up and down over the years but until Muncher reported last week that our local game dealer is no longer taking frozen pigeons , like you I used to shoot around the same numbers and the routine was letting the days bag cool off and then put them neatly in the freezer the following morning , I had a large Walls ice cream freezer that held 300 plus , when it was full we would empty it first thing in the morning and then have a day out after dropping them off at the dealers , for many years they were 30p for fresh and 25p for frozen so 300 plus were worth taking and in the early days you could get 500 shells for the proceeds and still have a few quid left over .

I have included a photo of a advert in 1976 when our dealer then wanted a million at 30p , this was when the Shooting Times that the advert was in was selling for 25p , now it is just about £3.00 and you can't give the Pigeons away.

This reminded me of the ole Mary Hopkins record which went , These Are The Days My Friend I thought Would Never End , sadly they have 

[the hitman]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

I know one who will never dump Pigeons or anything else come to that , I now shoot very few Corvids for the sake of shooting them , if the farm manager want the odd one to stick out on a field then I will shoot what he want , failing that I will leave them alone and let the Crow trap earn it's keep .

We have seen the prices go up and down over the years but until Muncher reported last week that our local game dealer is no longer taking frozen pigeons , like you I used to shoot around the same numbers and the routine was letting the days bag cool off and then put them neatly in the freezer the following morning , I had a large Walls ice cream freezer that held 300 plus , when it was full we would empty it first thing in the morning and then have a day out after dropping them off at the dealers , for many years they were 30p for fresh and 25p for frozen so 300 plus were worth taking and in the early days you could get 500 shells for the proceeds and still have a few quid left over .

I have included a photo of a advert in 1976 when our dealer then wanted a million at 30p , this was when the Shooting Times that the advert was in was selling for 25p , now it is just about £3.00 and you can't give the Pigeons away.

This reminded me of the ole Mary Hopkins record which went , These Are The Days My Friend I thought Would Never End , sadly they have 

Very interesting and memorable advertisement- I wasn’t shooting independently in 1976, however fast forward 10 years to 1986 and I had a local game dealer phoning my parents house to ask if I had any pigeons as he had a demand for them.

During the lockdown of March 2020 - I was asking to shoot pigeons by a farmer friend - I declined as I had no buyer.

I don’t want to provoke the argument of crop protection Vs shooting to sell - as I agree with both- it’s a personal choice.
 

 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, the hitman said:

Very interesting and memorable advertisement- I wasn’t shooting independently in 1976, however fast forward 10 years to 1986 and I had a local game dealer phoning my parents house to ask if I had any pigeons as he had a demand for them.

During the lockdown of March 2020 - I was asking to shoot pigeons by a farmer friend - I declined as I had no buyer.

I don’t want to provoke the argument of crop protection Vs shooting to sell - as I agree with both- it’s a personal choice.
 

 

The demand for Pigeons really took off when the U K could start to export them , the european's went mad for Pigeons and the dealers couldn't get enough , in our area we had at least six dealers within 20 miles and there could have been more than that , the one in the advert I knew well , his name was Ciesel Frost and he treated you well , at first it was rumored that he would even supply the freezer to the ones who shot big numbers , he also supplied the Pigeons on the W A G B I stand at the C L A game fair for the Pigeon plucking competition , then the early stages of the supply was out stripping the demand and the prices started to drop down a bit even though the dealers were taking very big numbers , now we are getting towards the end of the road , as generations moved on then so did the taste for Pigeons and now along with game the supply is far exceeding the demand , add on the currant bird flu restrictions , you can now see the good days are now well and truly in the past .