From the game farm – overwintering

Although it seems like the shooting season has only just got into full swing — especially if you are not fortunate enough to go grouse shooting in August or partridge shooting in September — for game farms, the approach of Christmas brings the next rearing season into sharp focus. Those who keep their own breeding stock will either have retained some of the previous season’s reared birds for breeding — known as overwintering — or they will rely on birds being caught-up before the end of the season, either on their own shoot, if they have one, or on someone else’s. 

Both catching-up and overwintering have pros and cons. Probably the biggest difference is cost. Overwintered birds will cost the game farmer upwards of £12 each by the start of the breeding season, having foregone the sale value of the bird as a poult and kept and fed it all through the autumn and winter. The price of caught-up birds varies from year to year according to supply and demand, but they would rarely cost more than £3 to £6 and are sometimes advertised for a lot less. 

Obviously, overwintered birds are of known bloodstock. They do not pose the same risk of importing disease or parasites on site and their feeding regime can be carefully managed to ensure they are in optimum condition as the breeding season approaches. There is certainty of supply — within reason as nothing can be guaranteed with livestock. When sold as ex-layers, overwintered birds are often reported to wander far less than their caught-up cousins. 

Outbreaks

Avian influenza (AI) has had an impact on this equation in recent years too. Prior to 2020, we had only seen sporadic outbreaks of AI with a break measured in years between them. This is now our fifth consecutive winter of AI. Catching-up when AI is present poses an obvious risk and several historic cases of AI in gamebirds have been triggered by infected birds being caught-up and then becoming captive rather than wild birds, creating a confirmed case and an infected premises.

In the winter of 2022-23, Defra brought in a 21-day standstill (or quarantine) that had to be observed before caught-up birds could leave their site of origin. This was part of the national Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) requirements. Although not legally enforceable without the presence of an AIPZ, there has been a push to get this widely adopted as best practice by the sector via the shooting organisations and schemes such as Aim to Sustain Game Assuranceand Trusted Game. 

Indeed, any game farm bringing birds on site without such precautions is courting disaster, and there has been at least one notable case in recent years where caught-up stock brought AI on to a laying field with disastrous consequences. 

Mycoplasma is also a concern. Some gamebird vets believe that catching-up and moving birds around the country has contributed to the escalation of problems caused by this disease, which can be very difficult to detect and manage. Catching-up also places constraints on the shoot as it is illegal to catch-up after 1 February in England and Wales, or 28 February in Scotland, so there is a potential for conflict between shooting and catching-up. This is the origin of the traditional end-of-season “cock day(s)”. 

The GFA has long held the position that overwintering is preferable, primarily from a disease control standpoint, but the issue is complex. The cost implication of overwintering is unavoidable, and this will inevitably translate into a higher cost of poults and consequently shooting. If overwintering puts the sector in a stronger position to defend its practices it’s worth it. 

Bloodlines and health status are highly valued in livestock breeding programmes. The response from these sectors to a programme that relies on catching-up whatever is available from the wild and breeding with it can only be imagined.