Spring Grouse Report 2024

15th April 2024

Spring is here again and our hen grouse are starting to sit to lay eggs for the coming months!

At the end of last season it was clear that a number of moors across the North of England had very high worm burdens and were forced to shoot more days and more grouse to try and get on top of the numbers to stop the worm burdens from increasing too much over the winter months.

Our keepers have been out on the moors conducting their spring pair counts over the past few weeks and we are pleased to say that the numbers seem fairly good, certainly across our managed estates. Some of the grouse Adrian and I have seen recently look in great shape with a lovely shine to their feathers which is always a sign that they are in good condition, but we are unsure as to the potential damage of these high worm burdens at this point in time and it will be interesting to see going forward just how many moors have been badly affected by the worm burden.

We would expect moors with big stocks and high worm burdens to be poor this season and from speaking to a lot of keepers and managers on the ground we won’t be getting our hopes up for a bumper year across the board in 2024.

The heather quality has continued to improve over the last couple of years and we hope to see this continue given the wet winter and spring we have had. The heather seems to have retained its quality and is set to be in good condition going into the late spring and summer months. We hope as always for no droughts during the summer, although the water table will be higher than it has been for some years now given the rainfall over the past 6 months. Cotton grass seemed to be abundant on the higher ground this spring, which will have helped the hen grouse with their commitments over the next months.

We will keep our fingers crossed that we have decent conditions throughout the nesting/breeding period so that this years offspring get a good chance of survival with plenty of insects, damp moors to help grouse and wader chicks that will thrive and encourage heather quality.

Grouse lettings have been very strong this year with prices staying the same as last year. We have had a couple of drop outs this year over the past couple of weeks so please see the website for updated availability for both single guns and full team grouse days for 2024. We also have a small number of Partridge & Pheasant days left to sell at S.M. Bolton Ghyll which are also up on the website too.

There have been a number of grouse moors and upland estates come onto the market for sale/lease over the past 12 months with a high demand and we would encourage anyone looking to sell, purchase or lease upland estates to touch base with us. Adrian and our team at Farmoor Services is perfectly placed to not only facilitate land sales/leasing but also to manage them once purchased or leased on behalf of the client.

Fingers crossed for the next four months and we hope for another good season again.