Alan Beynon BVMS MRCVS, St David’s Game Bird Services
As part of our ongoing research and development programme at St David’s Game Bird Services, my colleague Kenny and I decided it was time to go and see how the Spanish rear and release over two million red leg partridges.
Luckily, we chose a time of the year which is relatively quiet for us, very wet and dismal in the UK and lovely in Spain. We headed to Madrid and drove to the facility to see what it was all about.
The first striking point was that the hatchery, the rearing site and the release were all about a four hour drive from each other, had single access roads and we were given protective clothing on arrival to prevent disease transmission. The biosecurity was obvious and with that number being reared we could see why!
The rearing site was vast with twelve long sheds divided into smaller units so that each hatch had a separate facility with two people looking after each house. The set up was similar to ours however with traditional brooding, night shelters and long runs.
However, the stocking density was much reduced as the birds are kept to 18 weeks before being delivered to their customers. Stocking density as well as climate must play a significant role in their success.
The other interesting factor for me was that this business has its own feed mill and uses locally sourced raw ingredients of the highest quality. The vets are working closely with the nutritionist and produce a diet very different from that which we feed to our birds in the UK. They have significantly lower protein levels in all their diets as well as introducing maize and wheat to the birds at a young age.
All the breeding birds are housed in relatively barren raised systems and are in these for four years before new stock is added from their grandparent sources. This allows them full control over disease such as mycoplasma (swollen heads). The traditional partridge systems in France and the UK keep the birds in units for two years so it is interesting to see that these birds were seemingly very happy in their environment.
My interest in the visit was primarily to understand their system better as I was very sceptical that partridges reared in the south of Spain would survive our climate when released into the UK. It is now our fifth year of experiencing these birds and they have performed very well and in some cases, have transformed shoots in climatically hostile areas of the UK.
There has clearly been a significant investment into their facilities, biosecurity and incredible attention to detail to achieve this result and I have to say it was a very encouraging experience.
The major point of difference revolved around their multiple release system to maximise returns and our Code of Good Shooting Practice that prohibits such activity. The Spanish were bewildered as to why we do not keep topping up and after much excellent wine, I decided it was best to agree they were correct!
The visit highlighted many areas for us to focus on in the next year. St David’s Game Bird Services are working with our clients to investigate the effect of nutrition and stocking density as well as good biosecurity to maximise health in our stock.
