The North West One Loft

THE ONLY ONE WITH COMPETITION.

The North West One Loft Race now consists of four lofts ( red loft,white loft,junior loft and an old bird loft) who compete against each other. Each loft is run differently the red loft only consists of a maximum of 300 pigeons, white 450 and junior 60 ( we feel that this is the maximum that each loft can hold comfortably).Our lofts are split into 6 sections on intake that give the managers a section with a maximum of 70 young birds per section. In the first three months these young birds are kept in these sections as much as possible. Each section is given an hour of liberation time per day, this allows us to keep different age birds seperate.We believe this does two things it allows the managers to feed differently,train differently settle the birds into their new surroundings and get that love of home. Every pigeon that comes to us is in the first instance is an individual.We understand that the cost of entering One Loft Races is high, and we want to give your pigeon the best chance of winning our race.

To achieve this we have an extensive team behind us, We have Chris Ryan ( owner and transport. Old bird loft manager ) Lisa Lightfoot ( owner/administration/benzing manager and finance) Gary Lightfoot ( owner /transport/grounds maintenance ) Joanne Ryan ( owner /transport/entertainment and bar !) Holly Ison ( admin/entertainment) Thomas Winterburn (entertainment/chef ) ! . Chris Ryan ( White loft manager ) John Hughes ( Red loft manager)

As you can see to make a race like this a success takes a lot of time dedication and hard work, and we believe it shows in our results. In 2024 red started the campaign with 319 young pigeons, John managed to get 145 birds to the final and ended up with 131 returns on the clock, but 154 birds overall with late returns ( this does not include collected pigeons) that is nearly 50 % . The white loft ( in it’s first season ) started the campaign with 301 young pigeons. Ste managed to get 115 to the final and achieved 87 returns on the clock, but finished the season with 109 birds in the loft, again to say this is the first season Ste has run a race such 30 plus percent is a great achievement.

The lofts initially are trained separately until we reach the 20 mile point upon which we start to liberate the pigeons together. One thing we can say and so can our satisfied customers is that our young birds certainly know what the training crate is. Having the team we have allows us to train our young pigeons twice per day ( weather permitting of course), education is the key ! They have to learn what it is we require them to do,it’s our job to give these birds the tools to be able to compete effectively in our race , the rest is down to the breeding and the heart of the birds to get to the home they have come to love!

THE NORTH WEST ONE LOFT TEAM

( left to right) Gary Lightfoot,Lisa Lightfoot,John Hughes,Ste Slicker,Chris Ryan,Joe Ryan,Thomas Winterburn,Holly Ison,Andy Mcmaster……..