GWCT Advisory 2011 courses and training days
In 2011 our advisory team are offering a range of topical and highly relevant courses for the game and shoot manager with a strong emphasis on predator and habitat management.
In each of these areas changes in regulation, the New Animal Welfare Act and changes in agri-environment schemes, together with the development of new management prescriptions, make attendance a sound investment. In the uplands, we are targeting a new range of certified predator management courses.
Run by our ‘Grouse Technical Services’ team these are highly focused practical events and provide the upland gamekeeper with current best practice and legal requirements in all forms of predator control.
In the lowlands, our flagship grey partridge groups and a range of other game and wildlife management events will keep you up-to-date with new techniques. Keep an eye on our website, www.gwct.org.uk/courses for updates on all of our events, together with booking details. Do remember that you can also take advantage of our online booking facility or contact Lynda Fergus.
Whether on the grouse moor or lowland farm, our team look forward to seeing you at one of these instructive and enjoyable events.
Consultancy Services and On Site Advisory Visits
Practical face-to-face visits tailored to your particular requirements, covering management packages aimed at lowland, upland, wetland, fisheries and woodland habitats. To book a visit to your farm/estate/shoot please contact Lynda Ferguson 01425 651013.
Advisory visit costs: Half day – £433 + VAT.
Full day – £593 + VAT.
Shared visit (price per farm/estate) £296 each + VAT.
Bound report (up to five pages) £98 + VAT.
Thereafter each page £10 + VAT.
Above fees include all advisors costs, written notes and travel.
Overseas visits are available but travel expenses are charged as extra.
Grouse Technical Services (GTS)
Tailored grouse moor management options and advice suited to the individual requirements of your moor. Available as individual services or as a customised package, they will ensure the long-term productivity of your moor.
Full and half day rates as above.
Grouse counts – £350 per count + VAT.
Worm counts (lab work) – £300 for 10 old and 10 young or £20 per bird for smaller samples + VAT.
Caecal pat counts (lab work) – £300/£20 + VAT.
Blood sampling (lab work) – £10 per sample if blood collected by GTS; £15 per sample if blood supplied by estate (£16 if hare sample) + VAT.
Best Practice Days - Course Fees £50 per person inc. VAT
(Game crops, feeding, snaring/predation control, arable flowers, crops, woodlands).
GTS/Predator control courses
Tuesday 29 March – Fox control, Cumbria.
Thursday 31 March – Corvid control, Northumberland.
Tuesday 5 April – Corvid control, Cheshire.
Predation control
Wednesday 13 April, Cothelstone, Somerset, by kind permission
of Ian Haddon
How game are your woods?
Thursday 12 May, Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire.
A day designed to help you get the best out of your woodland in terms of both game and wildlife. Management tactics and grant funding will be covered to create warm woods that hold pheasants and sustain wider fauna and flora.
Pheasant release day
Wednesday 18 May, by kind permission of Holme Park Game Hatcheries,
Wokingham and Englefield Estate. Starting at 10am at Holme Park.
An in-depth day on sustainable pheasant release practices, maintaining good health through the release process and a tour of the game farm. This will be followed by a visit to the Englefield Estate to discuss a release site.
ADVISORY SERVICE
Wild ambitions – Improving your ground for wild game and wildfowl Wednesday 8 June, Fridlington Farms, North Yorkshire, by kind permission of Stuart Stark.
A one day best practice course focusing on management for wildfowl, wild pheasants and grey partridges.
Preparing the perfect pheasant
Friday 10 June, Pitlour, Strathmiglo, Fife, by kind permission of Hamish Grossart. Kindly sponsored by Game & Country Limited and Spratt’s Game Foods. Please contact Irene Johnston 01738 551511.
This day will detail a clear blueprint for growing healthy, fit pheasants and how to manage the farm environment for challenging sport. Delegates will also see how focused gamekeepering can include redlegged partridges and mallard in the season’s programme.
Covering up for game and wildlife
Wednesday 28 September, Allerton Project, Leicestershire. Kindly sponsored by Limagrain UK Ltd
Tall, thick, flourishing cover crops provide long-term cover for your pheasants and food for your finches. A day to help you get the most out of your cover crops; covering choice of crops, agronomy, kit, ELS/HLS, location and site suitability.
The following days are to be confirmed. Please do ring to register your interest and we will provide further details
Date TBC – Game and conservation crops, joint day with Pearce Seeds, Cranborne Estates, Dorset. April/May – How game are your woods? Woodland management for game, County Durham.
Electro-fishing courses
Salmon & Trout Research Centre, nr Wareham, Dorset. These days cost £150 inc.VAT per person minimum course number is 10). Please contact Lynda Ferguson on 01425 651013 to register.
These courses are aimed at people who use electro-fishing to catch fish and will cover all the requirements of the Lantra National Occupational Standard including FiM10 ‘Prepare and catch fish using electro-fishing techniques’ and FiM12 ‘Supervise electro-fishing operations’. The Elementary course provides the basics of electrofishing, and the Advanced course is for those with some experience.
Residential Courses - Course Fees £362 per person + VAT, +accommodation.
Part-Time Keepers Course
23-25 September (inclusive), GWCT HQ, Fordingbridge, Hampshire
Full of practical advice and tips on game management, filling the needs of part-time gamekeepers, both amateur and professional.
Grouse Keepers Training Course
4-6 November (inclusive), Glen Esk, Angus.
With up-to-date management techniques for red (and black) grouse, this highly acclaimed, practical training will take place on working estates in Glen Esk, Angus, where well-respected grouse keepers, and GWCT advisory staff, will impart their knowledge based on a wealth of experience. Delegates will also take the Scottish game industry’s newly launched ‘Best Practice Course on Snaring’.
Grey Partridge Groups - Course fee £14 per person inc.VAT
Late May (date and venue tbc) – Northumberland and Durham & Northern Dales Groups. Kindly sponsored by Gray’s Chartered Surveyors. 4pm start including buffet supper.
Focusing on hill fringe grey partridges, it will include updates on our upland research project including preliminary results of our radiotracking and winter feeding work.
Wednesday 8 June - North-West Grey Partridge Group. Chester Estates, Stoak and Stanney, Ellesmere Port, by kind permission of Frank Jones.
Wednesday 8 June - Norfolk Grey Partridge Group. Gayton Estate, King’s Lynn, by kind permission of the Earl of Romney.
Tuesday 21 June, Grey partridge open day event By kind invitation of the Duke of Norfolk, 10.00am until 1pm, including a buffet lunch, Peppering High Barn, Burpham, Arundel.
An amazing chance to look at this top wild grey partridge shoot which is the current holder of the cherished national Purdey award.
Thursday 7 July - Lincolnshire Grey Partridge Group. Manor Farm, Lowfield, Coleby, Lincoln, by kind permission of Gerald Needham of P Needham & Son. Kindly sponsored by Jas. Martin & Co.
Wednesday 14 September - East Anglian Grey Partridge Group. Stevenage, Hertfordshire. By kind permission of Benington Lordship.
For more details on the following groups please check our website www.gwct.org.uk/greypartridgemeetings Central England, South-East, South-West, Wessex, Cotswold, Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Brown Hare Days
Run by Peter Thompson, GWCT Biodiversity Advisor. Bookings through Sussex Wildlife Trust. For further details and to book a place please contact www.sussexwt.org.uk or 01273 492630
- Life and times of the brown hare
Thursday 17 March, Sompting Barn, Sompting
- Farming and wildlife day
Tuesday 29 March, Sompting Barn, Sompting
- Life and times of the brown hare
Thursday 15 September, Millbank Farm, Hooe, Pevensey
Book now
1 June 2011 by , 0 comments
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