All Game Cover Seed Crops

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.

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

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.

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

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

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. 

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

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.

Texsel greens are a fast growing, shiny leaved brassica developed from Ethiopian mustard. Very easy to establish and provide frost hardy cover.

• Produces a broken canopy, ideal for flushing birds.
• Texel Greens are fast and easy to establish.
• Frost hardy cover crop.
• Ideal for suppressing weeds.
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre. Pack Size: 2kg. Treated seed.

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.

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.