Covering all the bases

The right game crop will allow shoots to deliver more than just good sport

- DR MIKE SWAN

What cover crops do you grow on the shoot? Are you one of those who sticks to the same reliable things year after year, or do you have a spirit of adventure? If you have had a few failures over the years, it is easy to hold to a tried and trusted recipe. I understand this, but with the increasing area that we as a community grow, a little bit of experimentation is surely good.

The latest National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) survey of gamekeeping and its contribution to conservation says that the average shoot grows 11 hectares of cover, or about 27 to 28 acres. All that ground has enormous potential to deliver more than just good shooting, and the more adventurous we are, the more we are likely to do that.

That said, we also need to ensure that we grow a good, vigorous crop that stands well and provides cover right through the shooting season and beyond. From a shoot point of view, something that looks great in September but fizzles out by Christmas is only half of what we want. As an example, maize looks pretty much like maize, but there are big differences between varieties.

Most of what we grow in the UK is forage maize. The whole plant is turned into silage to feed cattle, so quick growth, bulk, palatability and calorific value are the key attributes that plant breeders select for. This means that while the plant must stand until harvest, it will be likely to fall over in a winter gale or after a dump of snow. By comparison, grain-producing maize, whose product is destined for your cornflake packet, is slower to mature, using those long days of sunshine to maximise the seed output.

Harvest