All Game Cover Seed Crops

White mustard is an ever popular choice for game cover. Very easy to establish and grows rapidly, providing cover until the first winter frosts. 

• Can be sown alone or as a companion to other species
• Ideal for early cover, killed off by frost will create shelter for birds
• Quick growing - ideal for patching failed spring cover crops
• Also opular as a green manure crop
• Suitable for Countryside Stewardship (CSS): AB2 
• Sowing rate: 15kg / ha

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.

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

Vittasso Brown Mustard is a highly versatile game cover crop - easy to establish, quick growing and winter hardy.

• Sow from late July onwards to produce a dense, leafy canopy.
• Winter-hardy, easy to establish, cost-effective.
• Can be sown as a rescue crop for failed spring sowings.
• Can grow up to 1.5 metres dependent on sowing period.
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre (5kg per ha).

The Traditional Game Cover Mixture combines a broad range of species which will give a full season of cover and a supply of food.

• A tried and tested mixture of species that provide feed and cover
• Sunflowers provide an attractive splash of colour
• Differing seed sizes mean it is best to broadcast rather than drilled
• Game Maize (treated), White Millet, Red Millet, Buckwheat, Sorghum, Kale, Sunflower, White Mustard, Forage Rape, Gold of Pleasure, Phacelia
• Sowing Rate: 10kg per acre. Packsize: 25kg

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.

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.

A combination of three excellent game cover kale varieties will provide a tall varied canopy over an extended period of time.

• Provides superb cover.
• Kale provides cover for two shooting seasons.
• The flowering kale will attract insects and songbirds.
• 40% Goldeneye, 30% Gruner Angeliter, 30% Inka
• Sowing rate: 2kg per acre. Pack size: 2kg

Sunflowers are another great option when it comes to cover crops, whether used straight or in a mixture to produce combined benefits.

• Standard tall variety.
• Excellent nectar rich flowers provide food for pollinators.
• Dead flower heads provide an ideal overwintering habitat for pollinators. 
• Frequently sown as part of a game cover mixture or with Kale.
• Sowing rate: 5kg per acre.

Triticale produces long straw with an excellent resistance to lodging. Impressive root development extracts nutrients from deep in the soil profile.

• A wheat/rye hybrid cereal providing good cover and feed in low fertility areas.
• Clean crop with a low susceptibility to fusarium and ergot 
• Resistant to attack from rabbits
• Higher grain yield than other leading varieties
• Sowing rate: 100kg / ha

Spitfire Hybrid Forage Rape is a rape and kale hybrid, is a good companion to use with other fast establishing brassicas. 

• Provide cover for a whole season
• Very vigorous and quick growing, ideal for replacing failed crops or patching
• Good disease and bolting resistance
• Sowing rate: 2.5kg per acre.

A fast establishing, maturing mixture ideal for patching failed crops or where a later sown crop is wanted. 

• Provides cover and potentially seeds within 16 weeks of sowing
• Rescue mixture for failed crops 
• Rapid establishment
• 50% Buckwheat, 15% Fodder Radish, 15% White Mustard, 10% Gold of pleasure, 10% Texsel Greens
• Sowing rate: 5kg per acre. Pack Size: 10kg 

Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris arundinacea) is similar to Canary Grass (Aquatica) however it is much hardier.

• A perennial species which can last for 10 years
• Suitable for exposed northern sites - good frost and winter hardiness
• Strong stems and thick leaves provide reliable cover for ground-nesting birds
• Similar to conventional canary grass with improved hardiness 
• Inoculated with rhizobia
• Sowing rate: 2.5kg per acre Pack Size: 2.5kg

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.

Rapid Fire remains one of the most trusted game cover maize products on the market. Varieties are selected for standing ability, early vigour and low cob carriage.

• A good hybrid selection with high germination that will provide feed and cover.
• Treated with bird repellent and fungicide.
• Very good standing, medium maturity and good cob development.
• Sowing rate: 50,000 seeds per acre. Packsize: 1 acre (50,000 seeds).

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

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

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

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

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).

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.

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. 

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.

HiBird Maize blend is a mixture of early, intermediate and late varieties.

• Provides a great food source.
• Good early vigour and standing power.
• Treated with Fungicide and Korit Bird Repellent.
• Spreads timings of cob ripeness.
• Sowing rate: 50,000 seeds per acre. Packsize: 1 acre (50,000 seeds).