BDS Deer management course

Yes, I did the course some years ago when it was held at Elveden.

As its name implies, it is a Deer Management course and not a Deer Stalking course, so I found it very useful from the perspective of understanding different aspects of managing deer - interaction with landowners and the public, population studies, forestry and other land use, etc. From that perspective (compared perhaps to the DSC1 and 2) your knowledge of stalking deer is of marginal advantage. What this implies is that the course requires a significant amount of pre-work and study on the course itself.

The attendees came from a wide variety of backgrounds, including DDM, farmers/landowners, deer farmers, forestry professionals and a smattering of deer stalkers. They were there because they wanted to take the course, not because they needed it to get their FAC (e.g. DSC1) or stalk on FC ground (e.g. DSC2). That meant it was a very interactive course with a lot of discussion and differing points of view, something I found really interesting.

There was/is an advanced shooting test, but it was optional.

I didn't take the course to give me any sort of advantage when it comes to finding stalking, but I have subsequently used numerous aspects of the course that otherwise would have been a real challenge (deer population modelling, etc).

Overall I really enjoyed it, but then I am as interested in all aspects of deer as I am in deer stalking itself.
 
As above really
I thoroughly enjoyed it but wasn't aware of the diversity of aspects studied on the course
The only criticism I could give "and I did" was that the training booklet should have been sent out to attendees on booking to enable them to see exactly what expected of them
I was "as we're many more on the course" expecting it to be more stalking related than it was.
 
Yes, there is a test at the end. It is mostly written narrative style answers to a number of questions (I forget how many) but there is also a cull plan analysis, where you work out a plan to control a deer population based on a numerical model and you construct a management plan based on a given set of information, including geographical interpretation from a map. Now I think about it there were also some more simple "question and answer" style questions - I remember that as one of them was "what does HACCP stand for"! At least that's how it was when I took it.

I don't know the pass rate as the answers are/were all sent off and independently assessed. I just received notification that I had passed together with my score and the certificate.

Edit: Did read in another thread that it's around 95%, so out of 14/15 attendees one might fail

As I mentioned above, at the time there was also an optional advanced shooting test. If you search the threads on this Site there is a description of it that I posted some time ago.

Edit: Found it - here is the description: https://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/showthread.php/18041-Advanced-Shooting-test
 
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I did the course some years ago at Wadhurst, and my comments are in line with those above, It was 5 days duration at that time, with the shooting test as optional on Day 5. I thoroughly enjoyed the Course, and the interaction and discussion with the other candidates who all came from different backgrounds in deer stalking and wildlife management, and so opened up a range of experience that was different to my own.

Pre reading was an essential part of the Course, but was also a source of knowledge about deer generally, which did me no harm at all. Not having ever been an academic , I got sweaty about the testing and the cull plan write up, but amazingly the right information seemed to have penetrated and stuck with me on the test day.

Excellent experience IMHO. Did it enhance my chances of obtaining stalking permissions? Probably not, but that was not the object of the exercise anyway.
 
Hi all,
i have booked onto the BDS deer management course, has anyone on here done it, and if so, how informative did you find it, and has it helped you going forward?
thanks
Phil

The value was mainly in meeting up with and chatting to many other stalkers, a large proportion of whom were professionals. The population modelling / cull pan planning was interesting but very theoretical and i.m.o. difficult to translate to a real-world scenario. Ecology, food-hygiene etc. etc was of course much more in-depth than what you learn at the DSC1 course. I was baffled to find a very well-know author of deer stalking books was also on the course as a student in my group. The various tutors were well briefed, entertaining and knowledgeable, however one was on a bit of ego-trip by showing lots of video footage of himself shooting lots of park deer. The qualification does not help with finding permissions - but then it wasn't meant to be a stalking course. I was disappointed that the 'optional' shooting test wan't an option any more when I did the course (2015) - it just wasn't available. I would suggest to the BDS to add a butchery skills element to the course, I think that will be a very popular module.
 
I did it 10 years ago and would echo exactly what WG has said already above. It has most definitely helped to open a lot of doors for me since then.
I certainly have no regrets, and it is the logical direction to take for Continued Personal Development in this line of work.
MS
 
Echo all of above - if you are interested in the subject area it is a natural progression.
 
The value was mainly in meeting up with and chatting to many other stalkers, a large proportion of whom were professionals. The population modelling / cull pan planning was interesting but very theoretical and i.m.o. difficult to translate to a real-world scenario. Ecology, food-hygiene etc. etc was of course much more in-depth than what you learn at the DSC1 course. I was baffled to find a very well-know author of deer stalking books was also on the course as a student in my group. The various tutors were well briefed, entertaining and knowledgeable, however one was on a bit of ego-trip by showing lots of video footage of himself shooting lots of park deer. The qualification does not help with finding permissions - but then it wasn't meant to be a stalking course. I was disappointed that the 'optional' shooting test wan't an option any more when I did the course (2015) - it just wasn't available. I would suggest to the BDS to add a butchery skills element to the course, I think that will be a very popular module.

On my course we also had one of the best-known magazine writers on deer.

Regarding the butchery module, whilst I think this would doubtless be attractive to the stalkers amongst the attendees I am not sure those who don't stalk would find it quite so interesting. For a course on deer management maybe it would make more sense to look at how the output of stalking can be commercialised - so spending some time on venison, antlers, photography, etc.
 
On my course we also had one of the best-known magazine writers on deer.

For a course on deer management maybe it would make more sense to look at how the output of stalking can be commercialised - so spending some time on venison, antlers, photography, etc.

I couldn't agree more!
 
My course was 5 days long, but the estate visit and the advanced shooting test weren't really necessary looking back at it. Some people on the course didn't even shoot deer! The estate visit (Cowdray) was slightly useful, but more in the sense that it showed some very 'bad practice'! I remember seeing some very rustic 'extremely' high seats which I wouldn't have climbed if you'd paid me!
I don't know if the syllabus for census techniques has changed much over the past 10 years, but some of the methods taught were extremely dated and unreliable even then. Cohort analysis, line transects, dung pellet counts, etc... May have been ok in the past to manage small pockets of roe in Wiltshire/Hampshire for trophy stalking, but for today's needs, they are just not suitable. We now have areas with up to 5 different species on around here, with some of them being very invasive! As well as more modern census techniques that we now use such as thermal imagery counts from drones which we have recently had great success with, I'd like to see more taught from the forestry perspective. Understanding deer impact is essential to be able to then carry out effective deer management. Just shooting numbers of deer, off a general area, that have been generated by a mathematical model based on an unreliable census is a very poor way to manage deer, and yet that is what most old methods rely upon! Actually understanding what is going on in the woods is what is required! Only then can you begin to target specific species in specific areas to achieve the aim of effective deer management.
Courses such as this need to be dynamic and move with the times if they are to maintain credibility. There has been far too much resistance to change in deer management with some very highly respected 'old boys' teaching ineffective methods, because that's the way they've always done it, without actually realising that the world around them is changing rapidly!
MS
 
I did the course last year and would highly recommend it. Glyn from BDS and all the guest speakers were very informative and had honed their pitch to perfection. I did it purely for CPD because its been over 15 years since my level 2.

I cant say it has helped me going forward because I was already where I wanted to be with regards to deer management. However, It might help me stand out from the crowd in the future!

Its quite intense but if anyone wants to develop further I fully recommend.

Anyone score over 96% in the written exam? :D

DS
 
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