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Some management suggestions
to
help farmland wildlife
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- Obtain advice and learn about environmental stewardship. Natural England deliver the Government's programme
of advice and financial incentives to farmers and land managers for the protection and enhancement of the natural environment - for link to Natural England's "Farmers & Land Managers" web page click here: Farmers & Land Managers.
- Maintain as varied a landscape as possible by retaining
semi-natural habitats such as wetlands, old grasslands, heath and
woodland and having a wide mix of crops and livestock. Extensively
managed pasture and arable (including spring-sown) maximises the insect
and seed food sources for wildlife and increases the number of breeding
sites.
- Keep fertilisers, farmyard manure, herbicides and insecticides
away from hedges and water.
- Do not fertilise old meadows and pastures or drain wet
grasslands. Continue traditional management. Grazing is usually
the preferred management, cutting and removing vegetation (hay or
late silage) is second best. To do nothing will damage the site
- On improved grasslands, leave margins or corners unfertilised
and do not cut or graze these annually. Large populations
of insects exist on extensively managed `rough' grasslands. Reducing
inputs and grazing intensity can increase the wildlife value of pasture.
Silage fields are used by some ground-nesting birds and breeding hares
but early and repeated cutting will destroy the young or leave them
exposed to predators. Consider converting some silage to hay production,
and also reducing the intensity of after-math grazing.
- Create wide rough grass buffer zones alongside streams
and rivers to protect freshwater and its wildlife (including
fish) from any fertiliser, pesticide or soil run-off and provide habitat
for mammals. Protecting banks from cattle trampling and over-grazing
will improve conditions for rare mammals such as water vole and otter.
- Link existing farm habitats with a network of hedges and
grassy margins. Do not over-tidy: weedy areas and long grass
provide food and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife.
- Retain winter stubbles on land going into spring crops
or set-aside and delay spraying until as close to cultivation
as possible. Stubbles, especially ones containing broad-leaved weeds
and left unploughed until the end of March, provide essential winter
food of spilt grain and weed seeds for finches, buntings and larks.
`Green' stubbles support voles and so attract barn owls and kestrels.
Even small strips left unploughed can provide important winter feeding
habitats for farmland birds. Tailings can be put out to provide winter
food for birds.
- Leave ivy on trees and walls: it is unlikely to
harm healthy trees. Ivy provides nectar and fruit for insects and
birds late in the year when other food sources are scarce. Ivy provides
roosting and nesting habitat for birds and hibernating sites or insects
- old stems and bark are very valuable.
- Create rough grass margins around arable fields and consider
dividing some fields larger than 16 ha (40 acres) with `beetle banks'.
Predatory insects (including ground beetles) will overwinter in grassy
margins in huge numbers and move into the crop to feed on pest species
in spring. Larval and adult ground beetles are carnivorous and eat
slugs and pest insects. Beneficial insects have been found at densities
of c1,500 per square metre in grassy hedge bottoms in winter. Birds
will feed on the rich insect and small mammal populations in grass
margins, which will also attract ground-nesting birds such as grey
partridge, and provide habitat for the declining harvest mouse.
- Continue or re-instate traditional management of farm woodland.
Safeguard veteran trees - do not cultivate under the canopy. Leave
standing and fallen dead trees to provide habitat for fungi, insects
and birds.
- Talk to an agronomist and consider treating the outer 6m
of your arable crop using selective pesticides and reduced inputs
of fertiliser as recommended by the Game Conservancy Trust's Conservation
Headlands prescription. Many arable plants are now very rare,
some found in only a few sites in the country (eg, pheasant's eye
and cornflower). This management will result in colourful displays
of plants in field margins, such as corn marigolds and fumitories.
- Where hygiene regulations allow, ensure farm buildings,
especially new ones, can still accommodate bats, barn owls, swallows,
swifts and house martins. Provide boxes or ledges where necessary.
- Do not cut hedges annually and do not trim all farm hedges
in the same year. Retaining hedgerow berries and nuts into
late winter provides food for birds and small mammals. Some plants
only flower and fruit on growth more than one year old, so cutting
only every other year will produce a thick hedge that provides food
and safe nesting sites for birds, and habitat for rare mammals such
as dormice. Many insect eggs overwinter on hedges and are destroyed
by annual cutting. Always use a mix of native, locally occurring species
when gapping up or planting new hedges.
- Take care with wormer use - residues of some types
persist in dung and reduce the populations of some of the insects
which break down cow pats. This causes problems for bats as dung-dwelling
invertebrates are an important part of their diet.
- Restore and manage old ponds. Seek advice before
digging out ponds previously filled in (old maps often show their
location). Manage existing ponds sensitively - avoid clearing more
than 75% of the pond in any one year to avoid disturbing all the wildlife.
- Make the most of set-aside and game management to provide
habitats for farmland birds and other wildlife. Delayed cutting
of set-aside and creation of wild bird cover provides nesting and
feeding sites.
- Retain wet grassland and marshy areas for waders and wetland
plants. Seek advice before draining or digging a pond on
existing wetlands as it may not be the best option for wildlife.
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