Last updated
15/2/08.
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Watta Lofts.
Birds.
I usually race about 40 young birds and some old birds, about 10 to 16. The club starts racing about the middle June, which is early winter. The first races are the Club Early Series, which consists of six or seven races starting at about 80klm's and finishing at 250klm's, in August the Main Series starts. The first race is from a distance of 250klm's and the last in October is from a distance of 705klm's. The Cowra Club only races from three directions North, North West and West.
The distance of each race point is increased every two weeks, so there is little to no chance of starting inexperinced birds in a race at a later date. This makes it hard to manage a race team of birds if any are injured or are at different stages of moult and fittness etc, because of the high numbers of preditors in Australia it is hard to get young birds through there first season so you can race them as old birds.
My Birds are a mixture of strains as most were gifted to me when I started racing, there is Wards Grizles, Barkers , Van Cussens and the rest are Nyfsuds, over the years with breeding and trying to improve them, and only breeding the best to the best I have blended them into one family, but I have maintained this family for the last 10 years or so with very few introductions. This new strain I call my own they are now called Watta Blue's. I have now added a couple of other familys of birds to my loft these are a cross Pryor X Googder and straight Goodgers and all are performing great so far.
The new birds performed well for there first year in the race loft, with three young of the one pair being timed seven times, so I will keep the pair together again this year and see what happens, the young birds of this pair won 4th Club open Hay (385klm's), 7th Club open Hay, 1st Combine Open Mildura (605klm's), 1st Club open Mildura, 1st Raffle Ring Race Mildura, 7th Club open Mildura and 2nd Breeders Plate Mildura.
Because of a lack of long distance birds in my loft I have introduced another strain of bird into the Stock loft these birds are Goodgers hopefully they will allow Watta Lofts to be more competitive in the longer races. I have also added a sprint & middle distance family to the mix these birds are Van Loon and Marlyn Jansen.
Breeding
Usually I pair the stock birds up in early August , I have about ten pair of stock birds four are my main breeding pairs and the rest being trial pairs.
I run the eggs from under my main birds in the first round to the trial pairs which makes it posible to breed three rounds off the main pairs and one or two rounds of the trial pairs.
By breeding in this manner I can breed about thirty young birds and finish breeding in late November. Which allows me start training in mid April.
Training.
Once weaned I place them in the race loft in the afternoon, after they have been fed by the cocks. I will give them water but no food until the afternoon of the following day.
After the squeakers are in their new loft for a couple of days I open the traps and let the birds out into the Sputnik traps and teach them to come in at feeding time. After the first week I basket train them for one hour out in front of the loft about 10 metres away for about a week.
Once I have finshed basket training them I let them into the Sputnik traps and they are free to do what they wish. I let the birds out at around two hours before sunset and call them in after one hour. They will soon be flying for 40 minutes to 1 hour every afternoon.
When most of the birds are flying I gently encourage and birds that are still not flying into the air. They will soon kit up and fly with the rest. Call them in when they have ALL landed. This little trick will stop them from landing just to be fed.
When the youngsters are kitting and flying together for 1 hour, landing and trapping well, I start basket training them again.
I train the birds around the loft every afternoon for about one hour during the week but on the weekends I train them in the morning then basket them, once they have trapped and had a drink, I then sit the baskets in front of the loft untill about midday when I take them out the road for road training. I start with 10 kilometre training tosses (toss them in small groups say five at a time this will sort them out much quicker) every weekend and I give them a few of these, then 20 kilometres a couple of times , 30 kilometres, be carefull not to make them trap shy. After 4-6 weeks you will be at 80 kilometres and although you may go further, I think it is not really necessary.
If you fly your young birds for 1 hour every afternoon then road train 2 to 3 times a weekend they will soon be racing home in excellent time. You may want to split your birds into there sexs at this time (put them together for half an hour on shipping night).
Feeding
I have been asked to explain how I feed my birds but this is a real jugment call on the part of the trainer, but here are some rules of thumb I use and some of my mixs.
I will start with what I call my race mix ;.
3 part Dun peas, 1 part Prime hard wheat, 2 parts A1 Corn,1 part Red Milo, 1 part Barley and 1 part Safflower.
Small seed mix, 2 parts Millet, 2 parts Canola and 1 part Linseed.
Now from the time of weaning till I start training I feed between 1 1/8 oz's per day (after training).
When racing starts I feed on a curve starting light early in the week and finishing heavy late in the week. Increasing the amount through the week.
Sunday (race day)50/50 Barley and race mix after training to birds that did'nt go to the races.
Birds that return from the races are given half oz of Race mix, then that evening as much as they want.
Monday after training 50/50 Peas and Race mix as much as they will eat.
Tuesday, Wednsday and Thursday 1 oz race mix per bird.
Friday if the race is under 200klm's then feed the same as Thursday,if race is over 200klm's I feed 30/70 Corn/Race mix 1 oz per bird, for every 200klm's extra I feed the same but a day earlyer, back from basketing day.eg if the race is 400klm's feed 30/70 mix for 2 days before basketing, if the race is 600klm's feed the 30/70 mix for 3 days before basketing, I also add some extra Linseed to this mix if the weather is cold but if the weather is hot, add blended peanuts and black rape seed, only on the night before basketing day.
Saturday (basketing day) after training in the early morning I feed 50/50 Corn/Race mix, for races under 200klm's 1/3 oz, races over 200klm's but under 400klm's feed 2/3 of an oz and for races over 400klm's 2/3 oz am and 1/3 pm 1 hour before basketing to take to the Club rooms.
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