High jinks and high seats

Tony Bracci gets to grips with some unusual jobs on his new shoot, with plenty of surprises afoot

- Tony Bracci

Covercrops are an important part of the shoot and seem to be growing well, though sometimes it feels like a race between the crop and the weeds as to which will grow the quickest. Fertiliser prices are at an all-time high and we are trying not to use any, but since we are not spraying chemicals the weeds seem stronger than ever. Sitting in the high seats, we are seeing a lot of deer feeding on the covercrops, but I am hoping they are eating more weeds than crops.

We have a lot of hoppers out to feed the birds throughout the season, and they are all in various states of disrepair. On the last shoot work party, we started gathering them in so we could get them fixed up and filled up before they were put back out. Wooden legs rot over time and the hoppers get shorter and shorter, but thankfully the new legs are easily replaced or repaired to help lengthen their lifespan.

The tops need to be waterproof to keep the food dry, and any lids made of plastic are likely to get chewed by squirrels and will need to be repaired. Wooden tops all need checking, but the best ones seem to be metal, which are both water and squirrel-proof. Once repaired, I’ve tried to get at least five out to each covercrop to feed any wild stock of birds and tempt hungry eyes away from the crops. They are close to the high seats to help us control the vermin.

Increase 

The deer population seems to be growing; every time I go out for a stalk or sit in a high seat, I see more and more deer.

Bucks seem to be moving about a lot, and this is well before the roe rut starts in the summer. We have about 50 acres of maize stubble that hasn’t been turned over yet, and a good mixture of weeds is growing up in the stubble, which seems to draw the deer.