Help - shoot burning pheasants and feeding them to my pigs!!

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
We used to give meds to pheasant chicks. This was back in the 70's and I think was a wormer to prevent gapeworm or similar. But that wouldn't affect the eating of adult birds which got nothing but wheat. I can't see how it would be practical to give anything to adult birds without feeding it to other birds / squirrels etc. as well.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Multivits / antibiotics etc, added to pellets / water, there are a stack of ones used and various trade names, not unlike the medication we may use. In all fairness, im not an expert on meds nor keepering to be fair, but I have read with interest the bad press it has given the shooting community and sadly fuelled anti hunting arguments. Shoots on average get about a 30% return on what we release. Hope that helps.

I don't know any shoots that are administering any drugs to birds once they are out of the release pens as it would be nigh on impossible!!

Prescription medications are used when the birds are constrained in housing or pens, WITH a prescription from a Vet. Wormers are sometimes used, usually in pens which are used repeatedly IME.

In my own case we buy in poults and I try to rotate the release pens and reduce the risk of gapes and other diseases, else it's a bit of wormer in the feed or water. We did have a bad batch of birds from a local breeder (through one of our Guns...!!) 3 years ago that brought a problem onto the farm, I lost 70-80% of the birds and as we agreed with the local AH Vets no point in trying to treat them, as the birds were already getting out. Happily, the ones that were out did seem to get better, but that may have been that they were the healthy ones! I cannot remember what it was now, but it kept the local carrion happy for a few days... :(

Once out, the birds get wheat, although I do feed a pellet and wheat blend close to the pens for a few weeks more.
 
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Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
Steady on there @Shooting Builder are you sure of your facts because what you are alleging could have serious implications.
Pheasants in season are fed on wheat, not pellets. I do not know of ANYONE medicating it with anti biotics. Likewise once out of the release pens birds source water from anywhere, medicating it at that point is pointless.
Sometimes a little knowledge is dangerous

My thoughts, too, though I am out of date and thought this might be something new.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
We used to give meds to pheasant chicks. This was back in the 70's and I think was a wormer to prevent gapeworm or similar. But that wouldn't affect the eating of adult birds which got nothing but wheat. I can't see how it would be practical to give anything to adult birds without feeding it to other birds / squirrels etc. as well.

Emtryl? Banned as being possibly carcinogenic.
 

principal skinner

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Multivits / antibiotics etc, added to pellets / water, there are a stack of ones used and various trade names, not unlike the medication we may use. In all fairness, im not an expert on meds nor keepering to be fair, but I have read with interest the bad press it has given the shooting community and sadly fuelled anti hunting arguments. Shoots on average get about a 30% return on what we release. Hope that helps.

If your keeper is only returning 30% you need a new keeper and he needs a kick up the arris
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
I've studied gamekeeping at college and worked/beaten/picked up/shot on lots of estates, not one has ever treated birds after release from the pens a couple of months before shooting began.
Returns of shot birds on estates with full time keepers ought to be approaching 50%. The studies by GWCT have shown most of the losses are down to predation or put another way feeding other animals.
I've seen lots of estates either plucking birds for guns or giving birds to game dealers for free, society in this country does not value game anywhere near as highly as the rest of Europe where most British game ends up. Dog food accounts for a great deal of game as it is cheap protein and no so dependant on being 'table presentable'.
Regarding the O.P...rented farm on not, I'd have gone f'n ballistic. It's a win win situation, they either apologise profusely or get a metric f'k tonne of interest from local papers, Food Standards Agency and anyone in a public office with a refuse disposal remit. You'd have to have some brass neck to try to defend that, and if they threatened to evict you you'd have no end of grounds for appeal at a hearing.
 
I'm not sure @Shooting Builder is as knowledgeable as he thinks he is on the subject of game shooting.

An Gof/ Principal Skinner - across all shoots in 16/17 season following a survey by Savills, they found a average return of 38 per cent. What did you think the returns were ? Interestingly, the average cost to produce each bird was 12 quid, and my guess at 35 quid a bird was right across the country as an average.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
Lots of small scale, part time keepered shoots have pretty low returns, for them predation and wandering are significant issues. Some predation is untreatable, raptors, pine martins, welsh polecats etc but others take time some shoots just don't have, corvid traps and trapping mustelids must be done daily or not at all to comply with the law. Foxing is often retained by landowners as a diversion with friends and not done with much conviction.
Out of curiosity as I've not read Savills report, was it £12 per bird harvested or released? Harvested is a decent return, not so great if released and harvested at 38%.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
Lots of small scale, part time keepered shoots have pretty low returns, for them predation and wandering are significant issues. Some predation is untreatable, raptors, pine martins, welsh polecats etc but others take time some shoots just don't have, corvid traps and trapping mustelids must be done daily or not at all to comply with the law. Foxing is often retained by landowners as a diversion with friends and not done with much conviction.
Out of curiosity as I've not read Savills report, was it £12 per bird harvested or released? Harvested is a decent return, not so great if released and harvested at 38%.

If you’re running a DIY shoot releasing poults and paying rent for the land you will really struggle to get anywhere near a cost of £12 per bird shot
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
Yeah, the economics of small shoots fascinates me, most rely on the kindness of one or two dedicated folk to provide low cost shooting for the syndicate. Without those folk giving up time and often dipping in to their own pockets for small sundries the costs would escalate or the shoots would fold. Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt and still had guys whinge about returns.
 
These big shoots are populating the wider countryside with game birds so numerous smaller farm shoots kill more than they release or often don’t release any but shoot wanderers from big shoot up the road. Farm shoots often living on back of big nearby releases which is all to the good.
Small shoot accross the toad from me let off 150 and the lad feeding them was counting over 300 at the feeders
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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