All Game Cover Seed Crops

White millet is a popular choice as it provides cover and a source of food. Particularly attractive to English and French partridges.

• Produces a plentiful supply of small seeds for birds
• Often sown in conjunction with maize or kale
• It is vigorous and will grow to a height of up to 90cm
• Thicker leaved and higher seed production than red millet
• Sowing rate: 5kg acre.

Thousand Head Kale is a popular, tried and tested variety with good standing ability and winter hardiness.

• Thousand Head is a slender stemmed variety bearing leafy foliage. 
• Excellent winter hardiness providing forage for feeding after Christmas. 
• Can supply approximately 90 tonnes/ha of green forage matter.
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre.

Red Millet is best sown alongside other crops to provide a source of food which will help to keep birds in the covers. 

• Will produce a plentiful supply of small seeds for birds
• Often sown in conjunction with maize or kale
• Red millet is earlier maturing than white millet
• Susceptible to frost
• Sowing rate: 5kg acre.

Japanese Reed Millet is a stronger and hardier member of the millet family when compared to Red and White Millet.

• Stronger plant than others of the millet family
• Improved winter hardiness
• Mix with white millet to provide an excellent cover and feed crop
• Sowing rate: 5kg per acre.

Fodder Radish is a quick growing cover crop which scavenges nitrogen, produces large amount of organic matter and improves soil structure.

• Quick growing, produces high organic matter in short periods
• Suppresses weeds and deep roots benefit soil structure
• Ideal as a green manure crop sown in early autumn
• Effective as a standalone green cover or in mixtures
• Sowing rate: 15-25kg / ha

Very popular for use in potato rotations to control soil borne pests and can be incorporated into moist soil to maximise biofumigation.

• Green manure crop with biofumigant properties
• Winter-hardy, easy to establish, cost effective
• Reduces wireworm and PCN populations and their effect on potatoes
• Suppresses Verticillium wilt and Sclerotinia in potato production
• Sowing Rate: 5kg / ha
• VITTASSO Brown Mustard Brochure

Ethiopian mustard is a fast growing frost hardy, brassica which produces a dense leafy canopy and acts as an excellent weed suppressor.

• Produces a dense leafy canopy to supress weeds
• Fast and easy to establish providing rapid ground cover
• Frost hardy cover crop ideal for use in later sowings
• Can tollerate and improve poor soil conditions 
• Sowing rate: 5kg / ha

Quinoa will provide cover and a plentiful supply of seed making it a popular crop for holding partridges, pheasants and attracting seed eating song birds.

• Produces a number of seeds to provide a valuable source of food
• Also attractive to many species of seed-eating song birds
• Often grown with kale as it begins to collapse with first frosts
• Available ready blended with Kale, see Overdrive Seed Mixture
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre. Pack size: 2 kg

A blend of three varieties of maize with different maturity dates to provide effective cover and feed for the duration of the season.

• A blend of early, intermediate and late varieties.
• Varieties selected for good early vigour and standing ability.
• Treated with Redigo M (or equivalent Fungicide) and Korit
• Sowing rate: 45,000 seeds per acre. Packsize: 1 acre (45,000 seeds).

Use this mixture for CAHL2 (2024/2025) and AHL2 (2023) Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and AB9 Countryside Stewardship (Winter Bird Food), to provide important food resources for farmland birds, during autumn and winter.

• Farmland birds eat the seeds from October and beneficial insects including bees and butterflies use the flowers during the summer
• Sow in spring or early summer for optimum establishment - suitable for later sowings and re-sowing of failed crops, where permitted
• Re-sow in each year of your agreement
• Suitable for Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI): CAHL2 AHL2
• Suitable for Countryside Stewardship (CSS): AB9
• Contains: 35% Buckwheat, 30% Linseed, 15% White Mustard, 10% Oil Radish, 5% Brown Mustard, 5% Phacelia
• Sowing rate: 8-10kg/ha (added to c.40kg cereals) or 15-20kg/ha (as a standalone mix). Pack size: 20kg

A new variety with the potential to deliver high dry matter yields making it and ideal choice for dairy, beef or lamb producers.

• A taller stemmed variety with excellent resistance to lodging.
• High leaf to stem ratio.
• Available untreated or treated with Start-uP & Sepiret.
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre.

Buckwheat is a fast-growing annual crop, with a dense canopy for excellent weed suppression. Buckwheat scavenges phosphates, helping to reduce leaching. Use as a short-term, fast growing cover crop, or as a companion crop to oilseed rape and other species.

• Rapid establishment and growth make it an ideal short-season crop
• A dense canopy works efficiently as an excellent weed suppressant
• Nectar-rich, helping boost pollinators and other beneficial insects
• Scavenges phosphates from the soil for future crops
• Sowing rate: 50kg / ha

Canary Grass (Phalaris aquatica) gives excellent long term nesting cover for partridges and pheasants.

• A perennial species which can last for 10 years.
• Perfect for poor quality sites where annual sowing is difficult or impractical.
• Can grow to 60cm in first year and over 150cm in following years.
• Requires sowing in wide rows to prevent it from becoming to thick
• Sowing rate: 2.5 kg/acre Pack Size: 2.5kg.

Short stemmed, sturdy, broad-leaved and has a substantial seed head. Its shorter growing habit is ideal for exposed sites.

• Average height 1 - 1.25m.
• Very good standing power due to short growth habit.
• Ideal cover providing a warm holding area for birds.
• Sowing rate 12kg per acre.

Dwarf sunflowers are a shorter stemmed hybrid variety which provide better standing ability over conventional varieties.

• A stiff stemmed, shorter hybrid variety
• An effective feed crop for shoots in the southern half of the UK
• May require 'swiping' down to allow game birds to access the seeds
• Frequently sown as part of a game mix or with kale
• Sowing rate: 5kg acre. Pack size: 5kg

This fastest growing rye, POWERGREEN is a high yielding variety which can grow at the lower temperatures, making it ideal for late sowing or early harvests.

• Fast initial development, high tillering and high output
• Good growth in cold conditions, excellent winter hardiness
• High nitrogen uptake throughout autumn
• Sow in autumn for incorporation and use in the spring
• Sowing rate: 150kg / ha

Giant Sorghum is a cross between Sorghum and Sudan Grass Hybrid. It can grow over two metres tall providing excellent cover.

• Produces warm and dense cover that can grow 2-3 metres tall.
• Deep roots help it to withstand drought conditions
• Works well as a windbreak protect more vulnerable crops
• Sorghum is useful for flushing as it encourages the birds to lift above the cover
• Sowing rate: 12kg per acre.

A crop well suited to poorer and nutrient deficient soils. Fast maturing, free-branching plant producing seed attractive to birds.

• Useful mixture for exposed areas.
• Sow April/May for use from September onwards.
• Available mixed with Triticale, Barley and Linseed, see Partridge Mix.
• Annual specie providing cover up until Christmas.
• Sowing rate: 5kg per acre. Pack size: 5kg.

Very tall variety with excellent winter hardiness. A branching, umbrella shaped canopy creates plenty of room underneath for pheasants and partridges.

• Good winter hardiness and excellent feeding quality
• Fresh yields 15% higher than Caledonian and 10% higher than Bittern
• Tried and tested for many years and is still very popular today
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre.

Intermediate Sorghum as the name suggests grows to a height between the Giant and Dwarf varieties. 

• Grows to a height of around 1.5 metres.
• Useful as a windbreak around other game cover crops
• Tall cover provides birds with protection from overhead predators
• Similar to maize but does not produce a cob
• Sowing rate: 10kg per acre.

Interval is a hybrid variety, produced by crossing rape and kale together. Creates a thick, leafy canopy to utilise in as little as 10-12 weeks.

• Fast growing properties of rape with the greater leaf canopy of kale.
• Winter hardy for a full season of cover.
• Grows to a height of 80-100cm.
• Sowing Rate: 2kg per acre. 

Late Straight is late maturing and selected for its good standing ability.

• Produces a small immature cob that rarely develops past the 'bright white' stage.
• Very late maturity and of less interest to rats and badgers.
• Will still be looking good at the end of the shooting season.
• Late maturing varieties - cob maturity rate can vary depending on the growing season, time of sowing and husbandry
• Treated with Redigo M (or equivalent Fungicide) and Korit
• Sowing rate: 45,000 seeds per acre. Packsize: 1 acre (45,000 seeds).

A high yielding, shorter stem variety - a popular option for spring sowings to help control black grass and broad leaved weeds.

• Very quick and early to mature, generating excellent yields
• Strong reputation for producing high yields in following wheat crops
• Performs well on thin soils. Not frost hardy
• Provides interest well into the winter, particularly sown with other species
• Sowing Rate: 50kg / ha

Phacelia is a prolific seed producer, very fast to establish and an excellent source of pollen and nectar. This makes it attractive to both insects and wild birds.

• A popular green manure crop which is an excellent weed suppressor
• Establishes fast and matures within 10-12 weeks
• Produces a large root mass making the plant an excellent soil improver
• Will produce a multitude of flowers - loved by bees and other insects
• Sowing rate: 5-8kg / ha