CHRIS GIBSON
Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club
Loft report: Mr & Mrs Paul Plant
The Plant family
My final loft report before the season begins is one that I have been looking forward to writing but a visit to the Plant’s family home has been difficult to arrange due to both my own and Paul’s work commitments. Due to this Paul very kindly provided me with the relevant details and photos so thank you Paul.
Pigeon sport in the Plant household is huge part of life with every member of the family being involved, so much so that Dan and Adam, Paul’s two sons, have for 2011 got their own loft of birds to race and have even joined the Championship Club. Fair play to you both for being prepared to test yourself and your birds in such a highly competitive club and doing so at such a young age.
When I first spoke to Paul about writing an article I was surprised to hear that a lot of the time he is only actually present at the lofts at the weekend, as he often works away from home during the week so the birds are managed by his wife Amanda and Dan and Adam. The reason I decided to write about this family partnership is because in many ways they have similar ideas and thoughts in regards to the way they approach their season as we do at our loft in that the birds and the racing season must fit around them, not them fit around the birds and racing season. The most important aspect in the sport has surely got to be enjoyment of it, with being successful being very close behind. A very good friend of mine often has a moan about the hard work and time he has to spend on his birds to continue to be successful and they prevent him and his wife from enjoying their retirement as they aren’t able to go away for weekends in their caravan that just sits idle on their driveway until the end of September. Not to mention the increasing cost of corn and products. My reply to him has always been that racing pigeons really doesn’t have to be like that, but he insists that he has to keep a certain amount of birds to enable him to compete the full programme.
Adam with some of his young birds
The Plant family don’t share this mind set that a lot of fanciers seem to have, as like me and brother Daz they decide just what their goals are for the season, what is achievable and also perhaps most important of all what gives them a kind of work / life balance so the birds don’t become a chore or too much hard work thus enabling them to still enjoy a good family life. Plus by doing this you only keep the amount of birds that are relative to your goals/set targets ie; ours is only racing a small team of cocks aimed at the sprint section of the Championship Club and the Plant family tend to aim their birds at certain races mainly over the water as it would be imposable to compete at the highest level each week due to their work situation.
Perhaps sitting down in the winter months with the race programme and planning the season ahead is something more fanciers should do to help cut down on the work load and money, but each to their own I guess. Like I tell my pal, if he wants to continue keeping the amount of birds he does, spending the amount of money that he does and spend a large part of his day working with the birds all to win a few quid on a Saturday. Then this for me will only increase the amount of moaning he does and force him, like many others to quit the sport due to work load and cost all because they think they have to race the full program from April to September and send 20s and 30s in order to compete. For me this is part of why some people leave the game, particularly when they do all the above and don’t even get near the prizes on Saturdays, but as I say each to their own, this is just my personal opinion.
The Plant family's main race loft consists of 24 widowood boxes, but no more than 18 pairs are kept as they fly the roundabout system and feel that any more than a team of 36 race birds would just be too many to manage. Plus, they only really concentrate on the Championship and certain channel races with the bigger organizations so a team of 36 is more than enough. They like to give the race team about 3 or 4 training flights by car before the racing season begins then once the racing starts the birds are given the odd toss as and when they have the time. Their roundabout hens are kept enclosed on lift off perches, and are only let out when its time to exercise before being fed and watered then back up their perches before being enclosed again to prevent pairing and to keep the keen. On days when weather is good they maybe locked out in the aviary. Both the cocks and hens are exercised only once per day when racing and are locked out for up to 2 hours. The roundabout team are not broke down at all during racing and are fed Gerry Plus seven days a week until they reach a distance of 200 miles, then sport mixture is added along with cheese and peanuts being fed separately to help build them up for the longer distances.
The young birds are raced on the usual darkness system with lights being used on a timer for the later races to help prevent them dropping into the moult towards the water races which is what they aim them at. Their best results have come from the young hens that have been pared and sitting. However, the young birds are often started off on the door system for the first part of the season. Training by car for the youngsters is done as much as is at all possible and again they are fed on Gerry Plus as their base mixture.
Retford Poultry Partnership is used for all the medication with Amanda taking a few birds for testing up to four times over the year. This gives Paul peace of mind, as although he knows the birds are in good hands while he’s working away it just provides him with the knowledge that they are healthy while he is away. The usual treatment of canker and yeast infections is done periodically. During the season all surfaces in the loft are wiped down with Vercon S or Jay’s fluid every three to four weeks.
As for the blood lines in the loft all the original base pigeons came direct from Holland in 2001/02 from lofts of W.J.Van Der Kruk, W.D.Van Tuil, Weyst Ganus lofts and Leo Rijsdijk . And the presant day stock is 95% this blood and are mainly retired race birds and late breds bred from the winners. For reasons mention at the beginning of this article you have to admire fanciers like the Plant family, particularly Paul having to work away and only seeing the birds on a weekend. They admit that due to work and family commitment it’s just too difficult to be at their best in every race they send too hence they target certain races to really have a go at that work around the work and family commitments they have. It has to be a real joint effort by all the family as it couldn’t be done any other way. Dan and Adam have a keen interest in the birds and with them racing their own team of nine pair to be flown on the roundabout to their own loft, Saturday’s will be very interesting with the two lads racing in direct competition against Mum and Dad.
Here are some of the highlights of Mr & mrs Plant’s racing over the recent seasons: Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship, 1 x 1st, 1 x 2nd, 1 x 3rd 2 x 4th, 1 x 5th finishing 7th Highest Prize Winners 2010 from the 40 members. In the NMCC they have won: 5th N Sec, 9th Open Tours, 5th N Sec, 16th Open Sartilly, 3rd N Sec, 44th Open Portland. And in the Northern Classic they have knoched up the following: 2nd Open Messac, 2nd Open Portland, 3rd 4th 15th Open Yelverton, 5th 6th 12th 17th Messac, 6th Open Turo, 8th Open Messac, 7th Open Picauville, 14th Open Yelverton, 15th Open Picauville, 15th 20th Open Turo, 20th Open Messac and they were also Combined Average winners in the Northern Classic in 2006, I think you’ll agree that’s not bad given their circumstances.
I would like to wish the whole of the Plant family all the very best for the coming season, especially Dam and Adam in their first season with their own loft and birds. Thank for reading,
