Country diary: The biggest burst of partridges I’ve seen on the farm. We must be doing something right | Colin Chappell — SkimNews
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- Colin Chappell spotted a covey of 26 grey partridges on his farm, the largest flock he has seen in his lifetime; a covey of 12 is normally considered large, with red-legged partridges only ever appearing in pairs.
- Chappell planted specific field margins to encourage sawfly larvae, crickets, weevils and ground beetles — insects that form the entire diet of grey partridges and yellowhammers during their first two weeks of life.
- Chappell adds millet seed to his overwinter cover and catch crops as a food source for older birds, aiming to build a mosaic of connected habitats across the farm.
- After roughly 100mm of rain in three weeks, Chappell has begun drilling cash crops, starting with oilseed rape alongside three companion crops: berseem clover (nitrogen), buckwheat (phosphate scavenging via root exudates), and fenugreek, whose curry-type odour masks oilseed rape from cabbage stem flea beetle.
- The companion-crop combination provides near-complete winter ground cover, protecting oilseed rape from pigeons that target any visible gaps in the crop.
- Most of Chappell's barley is tolerant to barley yellow dwarf virus, allowing him to skip insecticide applications and let natural predators control the aphids that spread it.
Why it matters: Chappell's 26-bird covey offers a measurable on-farm indicator that targeted habitat interventions — insect-supporting margins and millet-augmented cover crops — can support grey partridges without sacrificing cash-crop production. The piece spells his method out crop by crop, giving other farmers a concrete template rather than an abstract conservation pitch.
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