Farmer Focus: Why not fund farmers to benchmark their ecology?
© MAG/Colin Miller The kind autumn continues, and the oats are romping away. Slugs haven’t been an issue, even following cover crops.
Blackgrass has emerged since drilling, which was always going to happen, but with the oats racing ahead, they should outcompete rather than nurture it, unlike wheat, which tends to help it along.
See also:Wheat growers urged to consider third weed spray in dry autumn
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In late summer, I hand-broadcast the arable margins with wildflower seed, some saved from my sister’s garden meadow.
I’ve now given them a final low cut, which will, hopefully, give the germinating seed a better chance of establishing in the spring.
I’ve also used a lot of locally sourced yellow rattle to parasitise the grass in the margins, helping keep it in check.
Four years ago, we discovered our first orchid in a grass margin, and since then, cowslips, primroses and other wildflowers are becoming more abundant under the hedgerows and around the edges of gulches across the farm.
The field edges are definitely showing more species diversity with the reduced edge-to-edge intensive farming that they used to receive, and the flowers are just the beginning.
With no insecticides used for the last four years, pollinator numbers have increased alongside a few more arable weeds.
It’s been rewarding to see more linnets, skylarks and yellowhammers about the place, proof that small changes can have a real impact.
In my former days as an environmental consultant, working for myself and with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, I often encouraged Natural England to offer annual payments for professional ecological surveys within agri-environment schemes.
Why not find the funding to allow farmers the chance to benchmark their ecology and do so regularly to provide a clearer picture of the value of our nation’s farm land?
