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The NFU is encouraging roostshooting in a bid to lessen the damage that pigeon cause to crops
By Selena Masson
Wednesday, 03 February 2010
Shooting groups have welcomed the NFU's move to promote roostshooting to help farmers control rising pigeon numbers
The East Anglian branch of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is urging its 6,000 members to organise roost shoots across the region in a bid to control burgeoning woodpigeon numbers.
“The initiative was prompted by telephone calls to the regional office from members concerned about an increase in the pigeon population and the damage they were causing to crops, particularly oilseed rape, which is now widely grown in East Anglia,” said the NFU’s regional public relations officer Brian Finnerty. He added: “We also received a growing number of complaints from the public about the use of audible bird scarers (gas guns) to deter pigeon. Some of those who complained asked why we had not promoted pigeon shooting days to try to control their numbers.”
Mr Finnerty added that the NFU office then consulted the regional Combinable Crops Board and received backing for the idea of roostshooting days. “They suggested that the days should take place on consecutive Saturdays at the end of the shooting season. We have chosen 6 and 13 February.”
Shooting groups have welcomed the move to control the pest species, especially as the most recent Breeding Birds Survey conducted in 2000 by the British Trust for Ornithology estimated that there are between five and six million breeding adult woodpigeon in the UK. A spokesman for the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation commented that traditionally organised roostshooting takes place in late winter. “When neighbouring farms agree to shoot on the same day it increases the effectiveness of the shoot. Having shooters in most woods in an area always helps, because when one person fires a shot the birds tend to be moved on to someone else.”
The rest of this article appears in 3rd February issue of Shooting Times.
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