Some eight months ago now, we embarked upon our pheasant plan mark 1 & during the spring & summer built a game pen of such proportions, even Donald Trump would be proud of it. Feeders & drinks have also all been constructed & strategically placed all over the farm – to date we have gone through 750kg of game feed & a similar amount of wheat. Before the season has finished on 1 Feb, that number will have risen to nearly 3 tonnes. Recent reconnaissance shows that birds are nicely spread all over our land in the copses & game cover that has been planted for them – so we have no excuses or complaints on that score.

Of the 246 pheasants that were put down, we know for a fact that we have lost 6 to predator kills – however those figures are deceiving. Any shoot that manages to kill 50% of what it puts down is doing well. Our syndicate is not even a year old & if we shoot say 40% of our birds we will be doing well especially as half of our team of guns are novices to pheasant shooting. So the target for the season is in the region of 100 birds. Now never being one not to take a public position, my prediction for tomorrow is that we will get 25 birds for 100 cartridges. Any less than that & I will sulk, any more & we be dancing a collective drunken happy dance in the pub at the end of the day.

The weather looks fair set for the morrow – cold & sunny with an East North Easterly breeze that will favour our ground, so no excuses on that count. All that remains to be done now is for both cartridge bag & hip flasks to be charged. Judgement Day awaits us.