Growing Farmland Wildlife

all living creatures need three things to survive the home food and a mate a farmer can provide to mother nature takes care of the third this meadow has been 800 years in the making nobody can hope to recreate that but what farmers are being increasingly asked to do is to sow from a bag a collection of plants that tries to provide pollen and nectar that once came from these natural sources the demand for food production in the 40s and 50s and the mechanization of Agriculture led to major changes in how the British countryside was managed all kinds of diverse habitats gave way to intensive farming methods farmers answer the nation's call to feed the people they did this so well that by the mid sixties everybody had their daily bread intensive farming worked for food production now it worked for wildlife production we will never be able to recreate the ancient flower meadows but what we can do is to provide new habitats with a proven wildlife benefit for birds and insects the last 17 years ceh has undertaken research to underpin the management prescriptions in the Agra environment schemes it's also been very important for us to work with practitioners and farmers to make sure the solutions we develop a workable and cost-effective Els is the entry level stewardship scheme it's the basic anchoring environment scheme it's non-competitive and it aims to get a wide range of farmers into the scheme to deliver simple yet effective environmental management the booklet contains the background of the scheme how Els works how to apply any additional requirements the farmer may need to consider such as cross compliance and most importantly a list of options and management prescriptions and the points associated with them HLS is the higher level scheme which unlike the entry level scheme is discretionary and geographically targeted to high-priority situations it aims to deliver much greater environmental benefits and therefore requires a higher input of support and training to the farmer Natural England works with a wide range of partners to deliver environmental stewardship but the key partner is the farmer we've got good coverage of environmental management across England but there are gaps there any more farmers to do more my role in that is as the national lead on arable is to make sure options are the right options and that advisers and farmers have the right tools to to manage the landscape for wildlife which is what we're after in the end we've got a national target for 70% of land under agreement but it's more important to have agreements with the better options in it that deliver for the birds and the invertebrates across the landscape and that's what we're focusing our attention on farmers receive a lot of public money and like it or not it's probable that the political agenda is going to include environmental management for public money the supply of what we call now public goods the environment happens to be one of those goods and it happens to be one of the things that farmers can supply the management on the farm we try and put the waldburg covers in and the pollen electors we do to our best ability like farming it is a job that you have to manage you have to use slug pellets you have to drill you have to prepare the ground properly and try and treat it like an Arabic crop if I was asked to pick two habitats out of the handbook and there are dozens to choose from the two that I feel every farmer should have a go at a pollen and nectar and winter bird food research has shown those to really do the business and if we are going to increase wildlife on-farm let's go for the best and do the best since 1970 there are a number of species which have declined very dramatically the Fallen bird indicate which is a suite of 19 species as a whole of declined by 50% since 1970 now there are amongst those 19 species some species which have done very well and and either remain stable or even increased by putting in simple measures that were available to arable farmers through entry-level stewardship you can actually reverse that decline simply putting the right measures in the right place and managing them in the right way every farmer understands the importance of good crop establishment and this is about as good an establishment of bird food you're gonna see around two months ago this would have been sown up comes the cereal we've got the millet we've got a brilliant establishment of linseed I can see a bit of canola in there and kale that's five plants established well in need of a bit of rain but this will give the birds the food they need over the winter months when it comes to bird food two things that greatly increase the chances of success is the right mix in the right place behind me is a specialised mix for corn bunting and tree Sparrow and we've put it right in the middle of their home territory as you would expect a two year bird mix comes in two halves yo one is the cereal and the quinella year two is the kale problem with kale is its inclined to shed seed so we've introduced a new member of the team this is father beat father beat is a good cedar but above all else it really does hang on to its seed january/february and even into March we're now coming up for Midsummer's day and this is already delivering food insects for chicks the bonanza of winter seed has yet to come main aim of the well birth seed mixtures is provide birds with the seed food through the winter but of course they are low input crops without as much pesticide and fertilizer inputs they can also develop as insect rich habitats in the summer which is important for birds that are feeding their chicks on insects during the breeding season this spring sown mixture like many others is well researched what we do know is that one of the biggest declines of farmland birds is starvation through the winter months this is one example there are others this is the other alternative the annual winter bird food mix six or seven species providing a much wider range of choice of seed for the farmland bird dominated by fodder radish fodder radish is one of the few plants that doesn't naturally shed seed tell much much later in the winter we've certainly gone really well with it and it surprised me how well this is done this year third year we've had this in bird food mix Reed ruled it every spring thought it might have started to yield a bit less but it looks every bit as good as it did last year and the thing I like about this patch is next to the trees birds have got security got safety pop in for food tummy disturbs them but they go into safety and security again yeah I think the sighting is important and this particular one works really well and the cold spells in the winter these are absolutely full of small birds but as you say they're straight back into the bushes there and it works well from one farming point of view we've got rid of a little short headland under the would seems to be the right place to put it really this is the third year where this mix has been sown in the same place the idea is to test for how long the same mix can be sown in the same place and we're beginning now to see a buildup of weeds at the expense of the bird food species weed control in bird food presents us with major problems mowing is not an option because that destroys the bird food and the bird food itself is a collection of differing plants which makes a active herbicides almost impossible one of the things farmers can do under the pressure of major weed problems is to select a range of species that are safe to a known herbicide the problem with this is that the range of birds food species then becomes very limiting one of the things more farmers are starting to do is to use the agricultural rotation in the world of environmental crops yeah this is on a wild bird seed mix that the farmer sowed under his environmental stewardship scheme it was sown in late April this year we had a bit of wet weather just afterwards and it went quite warm so it established very successfully you can see he's got some linseed and here there's triticale yeah so the serial component those Qin OA yeah there's and there's a millet in the base as well you're not gonna seem any better than this are you he's obviously very good at this yeah absolutely mark I mean he's taken as much pride in this as his adjacent wheat crop I mean he has actually farmed this crop this received a good dose of fertilizer in the spring and yes absolutely so in the winter this is gonna provide a bank the modern stubble as a source of bird food is pretty unreliable it relies on weed seed and most farmers don't have any the one that really does the delivery is where we put a mixture of plants together designed to feed birds what we have sinned since early hours this morning at first light a lot of tree sparrows here which is very encouraging large flocks of Linux and green finches having a go at the year one bird food of this two year mix it really is for the farmland bird a pretty grim time as new without the food that we're gonna provide there isn't much at all it it's no wonder they starve to death in the winter birds on a night of minus 7 they're going to use up huge amounts of energy just keeping warm unless they can put that energy back there on a downhill slide the food that we provide has to be to them the lifesaver they're looking for what we're in now of course is what we call the the hungry gap we're faced from mid-february to that you start of the sowing of the swing cops and and writing a four seed rapeseed that this there's a real shortage of seed food out there is this area actually deliberately flattened like this no do you remember three weeks ago we have all of us know oh yeah this just rotted it pressed it down what every honest it might surprise you to know that areas like this are not necessarily a bad thing I mean you've got standing crop around a lot of the field but often you can get right in in the mixture by having areas of chalk flatten like this week so this is not a write-off it's not it's not necessarily a write-off it'd be bad news if the whole crop went like this but to have little patches like this is no bad thing if you had a hectare of wild bird seed mix for every hundred hectares of arable farm and that seed source is going to last a lot longer it would make a a massive difference it's really the nitty-gritty of it is these birds and a lot of the wildlife on which these bursts depend they basically are dependent on seeds and insects in the formed environment beginning of April this bird plots have done its stuff Stewart turned it over and created the first step in his seedbed preparation he leaves it fairly rough and open for the weather to start to break it down to grow a few weeds he will then spray those off prepare a final seed bed towards the end of May then he'll show his bird seed and off we go again most farmers would know they're lower yielding areas and their problem areas so it's a case of looking at it on a field by field basis and if we took a new field for example on this map it's got an awkward triangle at one end there's a little rectangle at this end which has got a pole in the middle that's gone into wild bird food the triangles gone into pollen nectar which a later date we will rotate and a row of poles here which we've managed to put a margin round so we no longer have to try and spray that with a 24 metre sprayer and of course the top end of the field is shaded by the wood and he's always very wet and a bit damaged so you know it becomes quite evident once you look at the habitats where where you should put them for many years now the environmental scientists have been recording the link between good quality habitats and increased wildlife delivery the handbook in entry level or higher level is actually a distillation of all these habitats so that the farmer has the confidence through the book that he will deliver an increase in wildlife autumns are very busy time straight after stubble we start ground preparation ready for the next crop and the next crop has to include the pollen and nectar mixed ISM I'm in the middle of a sandwich pollen and nectar on the left pollen and nectar on me right this plot on my left it's a grass and flour mix it's recently had a trim in a couple of weeks time it's gonna get its full autumn cut this is the second part of the sandwich this is the legumes half the clover mix it doesn't live as long as the flower so we've had to resew it but together they work in perfect partnership to supply pollen and nectar from spring right through to autumn absolutely brilliant for bumble bees and butterflies an essential part of every farms habitats bumblebees are really important pollinators of many of our crops and al our wildflowers and so if you want to keep our wild habitats alive and our crop systems sustainable we really need to conserve our wild bees we might want to survey bumble bees for one of two reasons firstly to ask about how they interact with flowers which bees prefer which flowers and secondly it's about comparing the different numbers and species of bees visiting different habitats particularly on farmland well of our 22 or 23 British bumble bee species only six are now commonly found the decline in bumble bees is primarily down to a massive loss of habitats of their undisturbed nesting sites and most importantly of the flowers that they need to survive in the countryside it is fantastic to turn up at a place where formerly we might have just seen a crop to the edge and hardly any space for wildlife at all we've got these wonderful areas that are absolutely buzzing with bees and I think if we look hard we probably could find some of the rarest species here today because we know that they do occur on this particular site and they do use the mixtures so the flowery mix here and the point of the nectar in the corner yes we've got a difficult time wetters we can remember it's come up raw or power heretic once that because that's all you could do then ring roll and then see how we go off you can see whether we go now or spring because if you're going spring I wouldn't touch it again no I think we go we go now because it's not it's not as I'd like to see it this isn't an autumn that anybody I want to see it work drilled in the autumn flowers next summer build in the spring you ain't gonna get much laid September the time for autumn management of pollen and nectar margins field corner sewn to a grass and flour mix it's done its job for the year flowers of God what we got to think about now it's how we put this to bed for the winter the autumn cut of pollen and nectar is key to good margin management not everybody has a bit of kit that size but this estate is found but a machine like that gets the job done so quickly they can move on to the next autumn task and at this point let's look at what we're doing and why three key points number one don't cut right up to the base of the hedge leave a bit for the overwintering insects and small mammals number two a new farmers hate this bit removing the cuttings makes a better job please if you can get those cuttings removed and point three very much ties into point two unless we cut the flowers don't have the space they need to accelerate away successfully in the spring tsuki grass not the most attractive habitat at this time of year but vital to the pollen and nectar story this in the summer was full of small mammal holes and this is where the queen bee goes to overwinter out of harm's way ready to fire up in the spring and begin the whole cycle again the queen bee now will be tucked up hibernating in this tsuki grass her hungry period will be March 8 for when she comes out we're now in the middle of winter the early morning frost is gone and I really want to see what things look like we've got a green haze certainly some of the same species have begun if this level of volunteer of cereals was over the whole plot I think we'd have a weed problem thankfully it's just in a small area but I think now what we do is wait till late March early April and then the spring work will begin this is another area sown at the same time as the flower mix this one's based on legumes mainly red clover looking round most of what I can see a weeds there are one or two very small clover plants ideally what we'd be looking for from a July or August so would be four to five plants to square-meter with a minimum of three leaves then we know we've got something worth waiting for we'll keep our eye on it and see what it looks like in the spring mid-april we're back on top farm we're gonna go down and see how the plots are fed through what was a cold winter but just before that I want to spend a couple of seconds looking at this unfarmed wall thanks to the Telegraph post this unfarmed buleria stuffed full of wild pollen and nectar a mixture you won't find in the book we've got red dead nettle we've got forget-me-nots we've got some white dead nettle these three of Vital early pollen and nectar sources we've got a bit of teasel we've got a bit of ground so the birds will pick up on that later these almost overlooked opportunities are absolutely vital early deliverers last time we were on this patch there was this light green haze things were just beginning to emerge about a fortnight ago I gave Stuart a ring and said how are the plots progressing absolutely great he said they're going green came and had a look sadly wrong coloured green what does that mean what we've got to do is to determine whether these are the species we want or whether they're the weeds that are gonna give us problems most farmers are familiar with bromb there's also some black grass in the field if I don't recognize a grass the chances are it's a sown grass that's come out of the bag for example don't recognise that on the farm haven't seen it before valleys actually a chewings fescue over here we've got a crested dog's tail dealing with the broadleaf plants can be a little bit more difficult because we're generally not as familiar with them we've got here what looks like a shepherd's purse yet buried underneath all that is a common sorrel and that one is out of the bag farmers in the spring will make a decision on whether the autumn sown plot is good enough or needs patching and the right management on top of that will get us the way we need to be this is the pollen and nectar patch that Stewart sowed last September we've got similar problems here to his wild flower patch we've got one or two clover plants showing in one or two places it looks good from a management point of view this I think is going to be easier than the flower bit we've got grounsell it's brilliant for the gold finches that we saved in the winter but this is for clover this is for bumble bees so the grants all has to go through regular mowing there are some concerns about mowing and nesting birds but experience shows us that if we mow often enough which is absolutely critical in year one the birds actually don't move into the plots at all farmers and wildlife moved from the more demanding spring workload to a more leisurely summer pace but the bees are now at their busiest we could be on any well-managed farm in England good healthy crop next to the standard or average grass margin but I want you farmers to do more than average I'll give you your two meters of tussocky grass but what we then need are the flowers flowers provide the food for insects insects provide the food for wildlife and that's the bit we're so desperately short of we're on the edge of the clover crop we've left a bit unknown so that I can show you the importance of mowing for weed control come down and have a look at what I mean poppies may weed bits of bromb are all producing a canopy under that canopy is the young clover unless we remove that canopy the establishment of the clover will fail therefore the clover crop we've sown will fail we've done some mowing here but the grass weeds are beginning to overshadow the clover now when we get the mowing right as we have here the clover has the field to itself this year we took a bit of advice we decided to broadcast it on the top and just ring roll it in and obviously it's been a great success the advice on when to top it and keep the vegetation down to allow the veggies and everything else to come through and the clover it's created a nice looking plot the most important thing is to not stick the seed too deep we're back in the flower patch where last year we're of two minds whether to sow or not and what have we actually got after sowing it may look a bit disappointing but all the flowering species are here they're small but they are alive neck here is the year of delivery this heavy land margin is quite fantastic it's got a score 11 out of 10 for effort and result let me go through what's happened we know that the heavy land margins are more difficult than the light land this had - lots of slug pellets because the slugs were eating everything we sewed it hound a groom in aside to do battle with the black grass it had five mowings to do yet more battle with the black grass and we've got a result its position is absolutely ideal south facing tsuki grass next to ditch water course protected wildflower margin containing the right species for heavy land and they are oxide meadow buttercup knapweed red clover and bird's foot trefoil and on the outside is a path and we also sowed the farm path with wildflowers as well because that shorter mowed area gives us a better range of species diversity this is near as we're gonna get to one of those ancient meadows this was sown six seven years ago and make sure fifteen different flowering species three or four different grasses and yes it's full of wildlife and it does have some fundamental differences to the straight clover mixtures the seed is about twice the price of a simple pollen or nectar mix but this will run for ten years and more the one we're in now is about six years old and it's getting better and better and better the straight clover or leg you mix that seed is cheaper and it's big advantage is this one month midsummer bonanza of pollen and nectar both of these provide different jobs and different services and both of them are needed on the modern farm EF for the nectere flour mix beginning of July maximum flowering maximum wildlife delivery this was sown four years ago run its course and this is year one of the second sowing but I want to take you a stage further this is flowers again but with a very subtle difference this was sown six years ago and is getting better every year wider variety of flowers wider variety of insect opportunity there are four plants that I think are essential in these mixtures knapweed red clover birdsfoot trefoil and musk mother the marriage of these two habitats side-by-side is the sandwich margin that every farmer should strive to deliver I hate weeds get out of it cool hear the noise meadows

Channel: Ken Slater

Views: 4,051

Rating: 4.6842103 out of 5

Keywords: Environmental, +agriculture, wildlife

Id: ccRYnaikC4s

Length: 31min 21sec (1881 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 30 2012