Gamekeepers gather across the country

The BASC southern gamekeeping conference, held in Devon was the final gamekeepers’ event in a series of three held over the past month.

The meeting followed on from the northern gamekeeping conference on 14 March and its sister event at Blair Castle in Perthshire on 24 March.

For the final conference, held on the Great Fulford Estate near Exeter, 70 attendees joined a range of expert speakers for a morning session of talks and speeches on issues pertinent to shooting and conservation.

The keynote speech was delivered by Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Minehead, Rachel Gilmour. Ms Gilmour spoke of her support for shooting and its importance to the local area, saying: “I have several shoots in my constituency, some of them commercial. I know that shooting is a really important part of people’s lives. In terms of the local economy, if anything happened to shooting it would be disastrous in terms of employment and skills lost.”

The morning session also featured talks from Dr Joah Madden from the University of Exeter on pheasant rearing, Will Pratt from Kings Crops on agri-environment funding schemes, and a number of British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) staff.

Reflecting on the event, BASC’s director of shooting operations, Gareth Dockerty, said: “The conference saw a superb mix of BASC specialists speaking on current issues such as gamebird release, the transition away from lead ammunition and firearms licensing. These were interspersed with external experts providing the latest advice on advances in gamebird rearing, plus how shooting can benefit from the government’s agri-environment schemes.”

BASC’s Scotland conference on the Blair Atholl Estate the week before, saw more than 100 gamekeepers and gamekeeping students come to hear key note speaker, Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, Jim Fairlie.

Mr Fairlie addressed the audience on the challenges and opportunities facing the sector but the prevalent issue of the day was the controversial new Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill.  BASC delivered an in-depth presentation on the bill, explaining the organisation’s opposition to mandatory training for all deer stalkers and the challenges posed by new regulatory intervention powers to reduce deer numbers for ‘nature restoration’.

At the northern gamekeepers conference, the first of the three to be held, Robbie Moore, MP for Keighley and Ilkely, acknowledged the challenges gamekeepers face and urged the government to provide greater reassurance on key issues such as licensing and gun ownership.