1066 Higher Tier Farm Walk Meeting Report
On Thursday 15th May, the group and officers from Natural England came together for a farm walk around one of our cluster member’s higher tier agreements. Throughout the walk we stopped at several options and discussed not only the management needed to maintain the option but also the rationale behind the incorporation of the option into the farm business. Emphasis was placed on highlighting the opportunity to adopt a land sharing mindset using stewardship where nature and farm profitability can co-exist.
SW7: This field of arable reversion fitted into business decision making as it is barely a sprayer wide, creating difficult management issues. Therefore, the choice of SW7 was of environmental benefit and had no substantial impact on the farm’s profitability.
GS13: Target features grassland was described as a good option for areas of the farm that might not suit a particular aim such as GS9 or 10 which are species focused. The target features here mainly focused on encouraging low inputs and more recently, grazing with native longhorn cattle.
AB9: Next, we came across a winter bird food plot, which was awaiting some rain before being sown. The winter bird food was chosen to be in a poor dry fertility area of the farm where the sacrifice in crop yield was insubstantial. Several AB9 plots have been included in the agreement and dotted across the farmed landscape. This increased the connectivity of the food source for farmland birds across a wider area of the landscape. It was mentioned that the seed mix would include sunflower, chicory, and kale to name a few. The mix was usually sown an annually depending on the success of the Kale, and whether it would come up more in the second year as a biannual crop.
AB8: Flower rich margins and plots is a well-paying option which is great for supporting pollinators within the farmed landscape. The plot we looked at had been in stewardship schemes for several years, allowing the distinct species present to change year on year, to what is now a species-rich plot of land. The management of the plot involves periodic cutting and removal of nutrients to keep fertility low and species diversity high.
SW3: In field grass strips and arable field margins have been incorporated into the landscape to protect watercourses and improve soil health through reduction of nutrient runoff. All the fields in the agreement were also direct drilled to reduce soil disturbance and increase the long-term resilience of the farm.
Capital Items: The farm which has been in some form of stewardship agreement for the last 35 years included hedges at various stages of their lifecycle from newly planted to 10-year-old thick hedgerows. The restoration of hedgerows across the years has re-introduced important habitat while also providing shelter for livestock such as the Longhorn. In addition to hedgerow capital payments, we also discussed the changes to capital items involving farmyard construction and development. One Natural England Officer highlighted the value that Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) could bring to capital works ideas you may have on farm. CSF can develop infrastructure reports that can support capital applications for a variety of projects such as rainwater harvesting, when they re-open to all hopefully later in the Spring/Summer. They also stressed the value of investigating alternative arrangements for capital items such as FETF, especially with the return of capped capital grants, changing the extent to which grants could assist on farm work and equipment.