How to secure high-quality poults

For most lowland shoots, the cost of pheasant and partridge poults is probably the biggest single outlay in the annual budget, so you want to spend your money wisely. Shopping around is clearly sensible, but beware of going on price alone. All poults are not equal and it is an ancient axiom that the cheapest price is rarely the best value for money.

I am often asked about strains of pheasants and what sort has those magic qualities that we all want. For the gourmet, they need to eat well, but I think they all taste much the same, so what we are interested in is that they fly like dingbats. We also want them to hold to the shoot like glue and for those left