Ludo & Jeroen Panis (Diepenbeek) Outstanding 2026 Season with 125 First Prizes!

For many years now, Ludo and Jeroen Panis have been no strangers to winning first prizes. The 2026 season was yet another truly spectacular one, with the name Panis Ludo & Jeroen appearing at the very top of the results sheet no fewer than 125 times. Yes, you read that correctly… 125 first prizes! I believe we would have to travel quite a distance to find another racing pigeon loft with such an impressive winning record.
Of course, our father-and-son team competes in several races every week, entering their pigeons in both sprint and middle-distance events. It should also be mentioned that each race produces three different classifications: the local club results, the combined results of the “Mijnstreek” federation, and those of the “Stille Kempen” federation.
And what about national races, I hear you ask? Well, Ludo and Jeroen entered only two national races, and they managed to win 1st National Zone twice! Clearly, they are a force to be reckoned with at that level as well.

Thanks to Jeroen

Ludo explains: “I owe a great deal to my son Jeroen. He has been fully involved in pigeon racing for about ten years now. Although he lives a little further away, he comes over every single day, both before and after work, to clean the lofts and take care of the pigeons.
The only things I do during the day are let the pigeons out for exercise and feed them.
I tend to be rather impatient, whereas Jeroen is more inclined to give a pigeon that has experienced a setback a second chance. He is also much more patient when evaluating breeding pigeons. While I might be tempted to remove a breeder after just one year, Jeroen prefers to give it more time, which is obviously the wiser approach.
Besides being a passionate pigeon fancier, Jeroen is also an enthusiastic cyclist. Covering 80 kilometres a day on his bike is nothing unusual for him. Sometimes I wonder where he finds all that energy!”

Hens and Cocks

Anyone who has a conversation with Ludo can immediately sense the passion for pigeons in his voice. However, this passion is accompanied by a healthy dose of realism and the occasional question of whether we sometimes make pigeon racing more complicated than it needs to be.
Ludo certainly gives us the impression that he attaches enormous importance to the quality of his pigeons. When it comes to bringing top-quality birds into the loft, no effort or investment has ever been spared.
“My good friend Ronny Smeers is particularly sharp when it comes to spotting quality pigeons. He quickly knows where the best birds can be found, and together we are not afraid to make a significant investment when the opportunity arises.
At present, the foundation of our colony consists of original pigeons from Ronny Smeers, Paul Huls, Johny Panis, Eijerkamp, Mark Janssens and Van den Bulck.”
Ludo continues: “For the 2026 season, we had 30 racing hens, 30 racing cocks and 120 youngsters in our lofts. Our breeding pigeons are paired up early in the season. When they are about to start their second round, we also pair up the racing cocks. I like to breed youngsters from my older racing cocks, but with the yearlings, we sometimes replace their eggs with eggs from our best breeding pairs. 
The racing hens are not used for winter breeding. The yearling racing hens are paired up on 1 March and are allowed to sit on their eggs for five days. After that, everything is removed, and they join the older racing hens. They are then allowed out for exercise for 14 days, after which their racing season begins. 
Do we race our pigeons on the total widowhood system? No. Every racing cock has its own hen, while we have 26 cocks available for our 30 racing hens. This means that when the pigeons return from a race, their partners are always waiting for them. As for the time they spend together after returning home, we generally allow the pairs to remain together for approximately the same amount of time as the race itself lasted. Only towards the end of the season are they occasionally allowed to spend the night together.
Before basketing, only the racing cocks are shown their hens. The racing hens, on the other hand, are simply taken straight from their loft on basketing day, without being shown their partners.”

Training and Feeding

The racing pigeons exercise once a day. The hens train in the morning, while the cocks take to the skies at around 4:30 p.m. “I like my pigeons to train really well of their own accord, and by that I mean sessions lasting anywhere from one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. I never use a flag to force them to fly, but I also make sure that I never feed them too lightly. Over the years, I have noticed that this has a positive effect on their willingness to train.
What do I feed them? Well, I use a mixture of different feeds, including Matador, Wal Soontjes and various Beyers mixtures. I feed entirely by instinct, always making sure they get enough and, as I mentioned before, never keeping them on a diet that is too light. Again, that is simply my system. I have experienced seasons when my hens hardly trained around the loft at all, yet on Saturday they were absolutely unstoppable! And isn't that ultimately what pigeon racing is all about?
As for supplements, I do give them occasionally, but I certainly don't overdo it. I would much rather spend my money on a more expensive bag of high-quality feed than buy cheap feed and compensate with all kinds of supplements.
From a medical point of view, I administer a treatment against trichomoniasis once a month, although I do not use the so-called yellow drops.

As for ornithosis, I only intervene when the race results start to decline. Last season, this was necessary just once. Rather than experimenting with treatments myself, I prefer to visit a veterinarian and seek professional advice. I either consult Dr Raf Herbots or Dr Vincent Schroeder.”

Young Pigeons

Ludo continues his story: “Unlike many other fanciers, we never separate our young cocks and hens. As a result, they hardly train around the loft during the week. Well, at first you tend to get frustrated about that, but after a while you simply get used to it! In fact, our youngsters are not even allowed outside during the first two days after returning from a race. Does that mean we take them on a lot of training tosses? Not at all. However, on Wednesdays they usually compete in a race of approximately 125 kilometres. We are fortunate that these midweek races are organised every week in our region. If, for whatever reason, there is no midweek race, we take the youngsters out for a training toss ourselves.
Our young pigeons receive exactly the same care and feeding as our old birds and yearlings, and we race them up to and including Orléans.
We do not enter our youngsters in national races, and I certainly don't believe that is necessary for them to become successful racers later in life. I don't select my young pigeons based on their race results either. I rely entirely on my instinct and personal judgement. Any youngster that appeals to me is allowed to stay!”

The Most Memorable Moments  

“I don't have to think long about that,” Ludo continues. “One of the absolute highlights was winning 1st National Bourges with ‘Saskia’ and 2nd National Bourges against 11,952 yearlings. In that very same race, we also won 2nd National Bourges with ‘Fina’ against 8,410 old birds. Those are the kinds of arrivals that remain engraved in your memory forever. To achieve an early result, we calculated that our pigeons needed to arrive at thirteen minutes past the hour. But imagine our excitement when, at just eleven minutes past, both ‘Saskia’ and ‘Fina’ were already diving towards the landing board!

Another unforgettable highlight came on 28 July 2025. It was the provincial Orléans race for young pigeons. Since the fastest pigeon in the competition had not been entered for the Derby, we ended up winning 1st and 2nd prizes in the Orléans Derby. The celebration took place right here at our lofts, with no fewer than 90 people gathered on my lawn! I had arranged for a mobile Belgian fries stand to come over, and what an incredible evening we had! We laughed, celebrated and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

That is another day I will never forget!”

It Is Becoming Too Much…

“In March, my health took a turn for the worse. I ended up in hospital after being struck down by a virus and had to be placed in isolation. I can assure you that during those lonely moments, you start thinking seriously about life and what really matters. Following our victory at Bourges, we had already demolished three lofts, and now, in 2026, we have decided that we need to reduce our activities even further. It is simply becoming too much in every respect. We not only need to reduce the number of pigeons we keep, but we also have to be more careful about the physical effort and daily workload involved. That is why we have decided to offer a selection of our pigeons for sale on the Herbots website. Every single one of these pigeons would normally deserve a place in our own lofts. However, health must come first. It is therefore with a heavy heart and considerable regret that we are offering these birds for sale online. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who places a bid and wish all the buyers every possible success with their new acquisitions.”