Shooting Times & Country 20-Apr-2022

Last week, I heard what I thought was a very sad tale. One of the guys I was having dinner with has the fishing on a Norfolk chalkstream and he mentioned that 20 or so years ago, there were always small boys who knocked on the door to ask if they could cast a fly for a few trout. “Just for my dinner, mister,” he remembered one of them saying, “and I’ll be sure to put the little ones back.” These days, he told me that the summer always passes without any such knocks at the door. His words reminded me of how frequently, as a child, I’d phone farmers to ask them if I could stalk rabbits in their fields with my air rifle. I suspect that there are now lots…

The financial squeeze on shoots shows no sign of letting up as fuel and feed prices continue to rise. Wheat, the key feed for gamebirds, has continued to rise in price as the war in Ukraine enters a new phase. Feed typically makes up just under a quarter of the cost of each bird and is the second most important cost per bird after the cost of buying the poult. The AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board), which tracks wheat prices across the country, has recorded prices around £300 per tonne for feed wheat in most parts of the UK for several weeks. This was already a rise of £100 per tonne in the past six months. However, the publication of a key report from the US Department of Agriculture was followed by…

Gamekeepers are to stage an online protest against the Cairngorms National Park Authority after it published a plan that they claim will harm their livelihoods as well as the environment. The Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan (News, 6 October 2021) includes proposals to cut down gamebird releasing and to significantly reduce deer numbers in the park, an agenda that keepers claim is driven not by residents but by figures within the park authority. The Grampian Moorland Group, which is organising the protest, pointed to Kinrara Estate, where all the gamekeeping jobs have disappeared and homes have been sold as part of a rewilding project. It claimed this was the type of move the plan will encourage. Coordinated under the hashtag #parktheplan, the protest takes place today (20 April). It has received the…

Prominent scientific voices have been raised in recognition of the value of trophy hunting as a conservation tool. The status of a proposed hunting trophy import ban remains somewhat unclear (News, 23 March). However, conservation scientists have been increasingly keen to influence the debate. In a letter to the Guardian, a group of Western scientists and African community leaders wrote: “Evidence shows that removing regulated trophy hunting — and the incentives it creates for conservation — without having viable funded alternatives ready can lead to greater losses of wildlife, due to subsequent increases in illegal, unsustainable and inhumane killings of animals using snares, dogs, local weapons and poison.” A peer-reviewed scientific study published in the journal Conservation Lettersfound that: “Legal hunting of African rhinos has been sustainable, with very small proportions of populations…

Rural workers in Wales have raised concerns for their future as the Welsh government appears increasingly hostile to fieldsports and deaf to concerns over conservation. A post widely circulated on social media claimed the Welsh government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) had decided to phase out all fieldsports in Wales. This is not true. However, policy in Wales towards fieldsports has become somewhat antagonistic in recent years, with much more restrictive general licences(News, 30 March), a probable change in the law around the use of hounds (News, 13 March) and the Welsh government openly stating that it does not support live quarry shooting as a leisure activity. This has led many to conclude that the Welsh government is moving towards a ban or a set of extreme restrictions. Concern over the future of…

The French avian influenza — bird flu — outbreak is still said to be slowing, even as new cases continue to be reported (News, 13 April). New cases in Vendée, the most important department for gamebird production, showed a marked slowdown between 5 and 12 April, with outbreaks recorded at 13 new premises. Seventeen new cases had been reported the previous week, with 43 the week before. This has raised hopes that the outbreak may be coming to an end. More good news came from the neighbouring department of Loire-Atlantique, which had five new confirmed cases in the same week. A feared new hotspot in Finistère has yet to materialise, with only one case confirmed so far. While this slowdown is good news, exports of chicks and eggs to the UK remain several…