Forestry Focus

Cheap Wheat at Mary Poppins

The cheapest shoot I know is the one in Mary Poppins – apparently they can feed the birds for tuppence a bag! Mine costs about £4 per bag. Still they did fly well and Katie managed to kill four in a row, at back gun, on our high drive at the end of the season. Not bad for someone who almost gave up shooting in despair at the beginning of the season. She might have been getting nearer the pheasants but that was only because she was standing on her pile of empty cartridge cases!

Daisy the dog threw a shoe or, in her case, did her cruciate ligament while trying to pick up every shot pheasant on the place, which involved a very expensive trip to the vet. She was patched up but missed the rest of the season and is still limping now. Still she kept us amused by singing loudly while the guns were having their coffee before venturing out. I fed her peanuts in the hope that she might tone it down a bit.

With the help of my good friend Tony we grew two new areas of cover crop, which proved successful in holding the birds and allowing the beaters to show them to best advantage. We are now looking forward to fresh maize and grain fed organic roast pheasant, beautifully plucked and dressed by Gavin.

I have to tell you that there is not much that Gavin cannot do. He picks up for us with his four or five dogs – and he tells me that he has another twenty two at home! One evening a few years ago Gavin had a bit of an altercation with a chap in the pub – to cut a long story short the situation ended with Gavin reaching into his pocket, extracting his pocket knife and cutting the other fellow’s tie in half. Gavin is a huge man and not to be argued with. This whole incident reminds me of a passage from that wonderful film, The Commitments, about an Irish Soul Group. The Commitments hired a rough and ready minder to look after their interests. Someone remarked that this chap was a savage, to which a band member replied, “Yes, but he’s our savage”. You would always want Gavin to be ‘your savage’. Oh and if you happen to see him in the pub be sure to remove your tie!

So in order to keep the pheasant feeding costs down this coming season I shall be singing to Archer (who supplies our wheat) “Feed the birds, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.” I think he may say in reply “Feed the birds, 200, 200, £200 a tonne!”

Stephen Habershon is Forestry Consultant to Balfours and can be contacted through Balfours' Offices in Craven Arms on: 01588 673314