By Alex Keeble, Game & Wildlife Advisor
There have been varied reports from the 2025/26 season on the potential challenges that shoots have faced, but the most common factor that has been alluded to within the sector is the dry, hot summer and bumper harvest of natural food sources such as fruit, berries, seeds and nuts. Wandering pheasants have been a significant issue during the last season, with many accounts of birds failing to come in to the feed rides regularly or ignoring pheasant hoppers. If a shoot had a variety of habitats on the farm then straying hasn’t been too significant, but if the neighbouring ground consisted of a mixed mosaic of feed-rich habitats then birds were likely to stray and reside on the neighbours until later in the year.
We have had a great season at our demonstration shoot at the Allerton Project, managing to reach a 51% return on the 2,600 pheasants we release. Historically we typically return between 48-50%, suggesting that we have been fairly consistent even with the challenges faced during 2025/26. However, there was a noticeable drop in numbers earlier in the season on one of our drives that backs onto a large deciduous woodland block. The nature of the drive is to release the birds into the wood and feed them away into a game cover crop situated on an adjacent field; the drive is one of our main drives, which we shoot regularly each day, but this season numbers failed to reach what we had hoped until later in the season. After Christmas the drive began to provide a feasible number of birds, but prior to then the birds were difficult to consolidate. Thankfully the other drives held the birds exceptionally well, with an even spread across the farm. This enabled us to fulfil the shoot days as planned and comfortably complete the season.
Reflecting on the likely explanations why we have returned slightly above average on pheasants this season can conjure up a variety of speculated reasons such as reduced predation, lack of disturbance, improved shot-ratio, habitat provisions and luck. However, from our bank of research at the GWCT we know that one of the key aspects of game management is the provision of a mosaic of habitats implemented across a landscape. Farm-scale habitat creation is fundamental to hold game and provide opportunities for released birds to remain grounded on the area, while creating linking corridors via grass and flower-rich margins provide significant interest during summer and allows game to explore the surroundings.
On game shoots, 75% of shoots involved in a recent publication utilise Countryside Stewardship options, along with having up to twice as many hedgerows as non-game shoots. The results from a GWCT study suggests that woodlands managed for game contained 31% more ground vegetation and 22-32% more birds. The majority of game shoots often plant diverse, privately funded game cover crops, which provide food and shelter for a variety of farmland birds during the winter ‘hungry gap’, such as linnets and yellowhammers.
The Allerton Project, where our demonstration shoot is based, utilises Mid-Tier and SFI stewardship options to fund and create a variety of habitats across the holding, with around 12% of the farm taken out of production for options such as winter bird food, flower-rich margins, beetle banks, grass buffers, bumblebird mixes and nectar flower plots. These plots are positioned evenly across the landscape to benefit both game and wildlife, providing a key interest for wandering pheasants during the summer and autumn.
There are unsurprisingly other benefits of these stewardship options for the farming operations at the project, with many aiding to elevate soil and nutrient runoff, sequester carbon, boost natural enemies and IPM for crop pests, provide a guaranteed income, and increase overall biodiversity. Alongside the funded stewardship options, there are many habitats that are maintained by the project to enhance biodiversity including woodland, scrub and other areas of grass margins and field corners, which are implemented and maintained unfunded.
It is well known that game management activities benefit overall biodiversity, but there is always scope to improve. Creating, adjusting and maintaining a varied selection of habitats really can help boost your returns. If you are unsure how to improve your shoot further please do reach out to the GWCT Advisory Service.