How do you approach landowners

[Hook'N'Bullet]

My last round of letters netted me 1300 acres of unshot land.
I highlighted the issues in the area re growing deer populations and the impact on crop damage and potential spread of TB and explained how I work.

Letters were all hand delivered and if I saw any of the farmers then I had a chat, else I left the letter and didn’t hassle them.

Two responded out of c45 letters, so a reasonable result.

That's sort of what I'm leaning towards. I've a lot of documentation already regarding deer management/methods etc but unsure if its a bit impersonal to get a random letter of a random person asking can I shoot

 

[Stevie/P]

Maybe an eyebrow trim might help

Haha cheeky!
Luckily for me I was a subcontractor for a farming company building a working relationship with farmers real does open doors.
Offering to help out on the farm is another way to gain trust.
Be patient and let the farmer know you’ve done pest control on other bits of land he may well offer rather than you asking.

 

[TringSaint]

That's sort of what I'm leaning towards. I've a lot of documentation already regarding deer management/methods etc but unsure if its a bit impersonal to get a random letter of a random person asking can I shoot

If you already have a perm then ask if you can name the farmer in your letter, explaining how you have helped him/her with their deer and other pest problems.
That will give you more credibility and farmers talk!!

 

[Puds]

Doing a good job & getting recommendations by word of mouth. I’ve had phone calls from neighbouring landowners saying farmer so-and-so gave them my number & do I fancy sorting out the deer.
Having got to know them all, I can pretty much guarantee that if they had some chancer knocking on the door they’d tell them to jog on.

 

[.222roebuck]

Doing a good job & getting recommendations by word of mouth. I’ve had phone calls from neighbouring landowners saying farmer so-and-so gave them my number & do I fancy sorting out the deer.
Having got to know them all, I can pretty much guarantee that if they had some chancer knocking on the door they’d tell them to jog on.

Exactly this !

 

[kieran222]

I have gained a lot of permissions by just knocking on doors at farms where I had never met the owner. However most permissions were through people I knew. Timing is key, the last thing a farmer (or anyone else) wants is someone pestering them to use their farm for a hobby when they are having a bad day.
Introduce yourself, explain what you do, your experience and as soon as possible what they will get out of it, venison, money, deer management, whatever you are offering them.
They will probably have made their mind up about you within 30s of your meeting. Good luck.

 

[Ratel]

Approach on your knees waving wads of £50 pound notes.
Joking apart it's not as simple now, I started legal deer shooting at 16 when helping a farmer to cut and box 100 dozen lettuce an evening. I did a bit of ferreting for him but the fallow were giving the lettuce a hammering. I offered to sit and wait for them as he was a busy man. Just built hides of lettuce boxes the farmers .22 rf with a full mag, and I was a deer shooter. From there over many years the requests came my way. All the wild deer in the area around Meriden and Maxstoke came from Packington park and were melanistic.
Today unless you are working with deer it is nearly all money orientated.

 

[dryan]

When I lived in Cheshire I got most of my shooting from posting flyers into farm post boxes and also driving round and stopping to talk to farmers when I saw them tending stock. No gun with me but dressed reasonably. Once I got one bit of land in an area it was easier to get the next.

I will add that the initial shooting there was fox control, I got red stalking from that as the farmer was made aware of the job I was doing.


Over here, I can shoot game, fox or deer in any part of my parish bar a couple of properties who are anti shooting, the parish is probably 6 or 7 thousand acres.

We are out lamping foxes regularly and get to talk to the farmers on a regular basis, any deer problems also get raised with us and numbers passed on to friends in other areas.

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

Interesting input from everybody here - seems to a mix of "get out and start knocking" and "the landowners wont want you bothering them"

I've asked around on my current permissions, albeit a lot of them are vermin but one lad has a cousin with a farm bordering a wood and he said he'll contact him. Another lad I work with has a family farm (small) but he said he'd ask his neighbors so fingers crossed!

If these two fail, then I will draft up some one page letters and start dropping them in letter boxes

 

[The Grouse]

I gained my first permission via a friend and fellow shooter who wasn't able to give it the time. Just taking out crows for a smallholder around lambing. The smallholder then asked me to take out the foxes. A few months down the line he was speaking with another local farmer with some pest issues, my name was given and I started shooting the corvids for him as well, then his foxes and now have been asked to keep the deer in check. Something small can certainly lead to greater things.

 

[Ben23]

I haven’t done any door knocking (yet) but often get my door knocked for fishing. I tell them no, sorry, it’s a private syndicate, as I have no idea who they are and what kind of people they are.

Couple years ago though one of the chaps from the EA who comes and works a lot on the land tidying bits up and mending fences etc. laying out sandbags when it’s going to flood etc. asked if he could join the syndicate, and the answer was absolutely - he was known to us, puts in a shift, cares about the land and the ecosystem. Right sort of guy. Honest, nice, hardworking, respectful.

So I’d echo some the above saying gain trust. If you can help out with some chainsawing or land work to build a relationship first, that counts for lots.