Press Releases - February 2020

In consideration of wildlife, the environment and to ensure a market for the healthiest game products, at home and abroad, we wish to see an end to both lead and single-use plastics in ammunition used by those taking all live quarry with shotguns within five years.

Farming schemes could be doing more to help pollinators such as bees and hoverflies, according to a new international study. Researchers led by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has found.

A new report, which studied the activities of nearly 1,000 gamekeepers, has identified the frequently unrecognised high level of conservation that this group of skilled and knowledgeable land and wildlife managers undertake nationally.

The efforts of Bisterne Estate in recovering their breeding lapwing (or pee-wit) was given national acclaim this month, with a “highly commended” ranking at the annual Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation, hosted by His Grace the Duke of Wellington at Apsley House in London.

More birdlife than ever, is how Hedd Pugh describes bird numbers on his beef and sheep farm in the Cwm Cywarch valley of south Snowdonia in Dinas Mawddwy, near Machynlleth last Friday at the Big Farmland Bird Count launch.

“Land managers will clearly be extremely disappointed by components of these changes, which follow consultation last year – and those who are most affected are likely to feel that their circumstances have not been properly taken into account and that SNH is adopting an over-cautious approach.”

Organisations representing the gamebird rearing sector have called for a big push to further reduce the use of antibiotics in 2020, despite having already almost halved use overall since 2016.

As you pack away your guns after another season in the field, the Game & Wildlife Trust (GWCT) urges you not to consign your gamebook to another six months on the shelf. Instead, you should submit records to its National Gamebag Census (NGC) – a strictly confidential registry of species shot or culled in the UK.

“My cows and sheep are integral to boosting wildlife,” says Mr Bowen, who hosted a  Big Farmland Bird Count this week at Pencoedcae Farm, Princetown, near Tredegar.