The Quail Game Farming Sector in Spain

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In recent decades, populations of several game species in the wild have decreased, which has given rise to the creation of game farms that produce birds to be released in, and to restock, hunting preserves. Some game farming sectors are well known and developed, but in Spain, quail game farms have received little attention in terms of research. To address this gap in the literature, we characterised the Spanish quail game farm sector by administering a survey to farmers. We found that complete-cycle farms, of very different sizes, coexist with a majority of farms that do not have breeding flock, and which carry out only the finishing phase of quail raising. These farms mainly produce quails with good flying abilities that are primarily intended to be released for intensive hunting and shooting practices, rather than for restocking hunting preserves. Quails are sold almost all year round, and the farms also offer complementary services to clients, such as transporting birds to their destination, or organising bird releases at the customer’s hunting preserve. Quail game farms use various channels to promote themselves in a competitive market. These game farms originated in Spain five decades ago, which has led to the creation of a consolidated sector. ABSTRACT: Quail (Coturnix genus) game farms were characterised in Spain using variables related to their age, geographical distribution, farmed species, structure, size, and commercialisation, using a survey conducted on 21 farms in 2018. It was found that 38.1% of the sample represented complete-cycle farms, and 61.9%, which have no breeding flocks, undertook only the finishing phase of quail raising. The average size of the breeding flock, with regard to complete-cycle farms, was 1096 males and 3735 females, with a female/male ratio of 3.6, and 75% of these farms carried out self-replacement of breeding quails. The most farmed species was European quail (Coturnix coturnix), followed by Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), and hybrids of both species. In addition to quail, all farms produced other gamebird species such as pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa). The rearing phase, which began when the chicks were one-day-old, lasted 35.3 days on average (range: 25–49 days), with an average stocking density of 47.2 birds/m(2) in the brooder house. The finishing phase, which was carried out in flying pens at a stocking density of 9.5 birds/m(2), ended when the quails’ average age was 60.5 days. All farms sold quails for release in hunting reserves (EUR 1.54 per bird) and for dog training (EUR 1.65 per bird) for almost 10 months of the year; only 62% sold quails for shooting after being thrown with an adapted clay-pigeon shooting machine (EUR 1.49 per bird). Transporting quails to their destination (95.2% of the farms) and releasing the birds in the client’s hunting preserve (52.4% of the farms) were services offered by the farms, among others. The main advertising and promotional strategies undertaken by the quail game farms to gain a share of the market included maintaining a business website (85.7% of the farms) and attending game and agricultural fairs (47.6% of the farms). In conclusion, this alternative poultry sector has been consolidated in Spain, five decades since the establishment of the first game farms, and it satisfies a relevant part of the demand for quail hunting.