Spring Grouse Report 2025

13th June 2025

As the season came to an end last year Dalesport were proud to have hosted over 50 driven grouse days across the North of England which was roughly one third of what we had booked. We are sorry for the other 100+ days that we had to cancel and we hope that those lucky enough to be shooting enjoyed their time spent on the Moor!

We can safely say that most of our managed estates, were fairly cautious with their approach to shooting last year and they mostly left good stocks on the ground to go into this season. As we progressed through the winter months the worm counts definitely started to reduce which we think was helped by the cold snap we had in January/February for a sustained period of time. We thought it had been as good a winter as one could have hoped for, but then we did not expect to move from one extreme to the other with the hottest and driest Spring on record!

The good news is that going into the laying period the hen grouse were in good condition and as mentioned above the worm counts had significantly improved since the autumn leaving a good healthy stock on the ground. There were lots of reports of heather beetle through the Spring especially in April where keepers and managers were seeing them across large areas of Moorland. We will not know the full extent of their damage until later this summer when their larvae hatch off and start to eat the heather. Aside the doom and gloom of the heather beetle, we have started to see some healthy broods of grouse hatching off since the end of April. These broods seem to be doing ok given the insect life on the moor continues to be fantastic and with temperatures dropping at night there still seems to be enough dew on the ground for the birds to have a drink.

The next few weeks into June will be a crucial period for the grouse and all the other waders and ground nesting birds in the uplands as the main bulk of chicks will hatch off. Although we are desperate for rain, we could do without very heavy rain or hail which we tend to see after long sustained periods of dry and hot weather.

Bookings have been very strong for this season, but most of the cancelled days have just been rolled over to this year which meant there wasn’t actually a huge amount to sell. I would say that the estates have let less days than usual given they were not sure how quickly they would bounce back from such a bad year in 2024. There is a big difference in pricing between estates now with a difference of £60 +VAT/brace from our highest charging estates to the lowest charging estates. We remain unchanged and charge a set fee per brace as an Agency for all clients so everyone pays the same rate of commission the only differing factor is what the estates decide to charge us.

We do have a couple more days of grouse shooting to sell (due to drop outs) so please contact us or check the website for availability.

We look forward to updating you with our Summer Report in a few months time!

Edd & Adrian