Farmers, Silage and Butterflies

[Willrow]

Last Friday evening I sat quietly on Collards Hill, Somerset (after a day with the Large Blue) taking in the wonderful view, it was a beautiful summers evening, the farmland below was a patchwork quilt of fields, some were still being mowed for silage as I watched, many other meadows had already been cut, it started me thinking about all the other fields I have seen cut for farmers silage during the last couple of weeks, literally hundreds. Most are cut as tight to hedgerow or fence as possible to maximise the yield, and this is at the height of the flowering season and the cost to our butterflies (and other critters) must be truly horrific. Now I understand that many of these fields are grown especially for silage, but they still support countless flowers, herbs and grasses that our insects depend on for survival, I will leave it to your most fertile imaginations the effect that regular silage cutting can have.

How much thought is given to the devasting effect this type of wholesale cutting has on our critters - or does it matter - providing the farmer makes the very best profit he can and the livestock is fed to feed the nation. Just a small set aside margin of three metres wide adjacent to each hedgerow or fenceline could make an incredible difference, just image a country full of such fields and the positive effects it would have to all our critters (not just butterflies). Farmers rarely do such things without being paid subsidies. As by far the largest group of custodians of our countryside, I believe they have a moral obligation to the wellbeing of our environment. If they would just take a little less then we would all (ironically) have a little more...especially our wonderful butterflies!!!

Bill

[Susie]

I understand what you're saying and I think the stewardship scheme used to pay them to set aside but at the moment things are tough and I can understand them wanting to get as much hay from a field as possible. I know of farmers having to put their sheep on their barley fields because the stuff isn't growing because of lack of water and the grass isn't growing well either.

[Piers]

The switch made in the early 1970's from an annual hay crop to a bi (or tri) annual silage crop (with copious application of high N, P, K, fertilisers betwixt harvests) has probably done as much to harm our lowland grassland ecosystems than anything else you could care to mention.

Most are cut as tight to hedgerow or fence as possible to maximise the yield

This has been the practise for centuries so nothing new here, traditionally meadows were scythed by hand right into the corners after the horse drawn finger mower had done it's work in order to minimise wasted hay. The practise of leaving unmown corners only arrived with the advent of the tractor (which couldn't physically run the mower into the corners of the fields) and a greater awareness of commercial viability. Modern machinery is however once again able to maximise yield.

Silage production and the switch from spring sown to autumn sown cereal crops have significantly changed the face of the countryside even during my relatively short tenure in England. As a boy growing up in Somerset, the fields visible from 'Collard Hill' (it had a different name back then) were all hay meadows and dairy pasture.

Piers.

[JohnR]

Certainly in the south recent activity in the fields has been haymaking and this year's hay crop looks to be less in volume than last year's disastrous season. Hay will be in short supply and more livestock will have to go to market in the autumn. Farmers need all the silage and hay that they can get, this year more so than ever.

Hay fields are not the best places for insects. Often the grass that is sown is specialised for hay or silage production, it is fertilised and selective weed killers are applied to kill off anything that isn't grass.

On the farm that borders my garden I am currently rotovating the 4ft gap between the edge of the fields and the sown crop of maize. This allows a narrow margin for wild flowers, nectar and seed bearing crops. 4 feet all around several fields will add up to an acre or two given over to wildlife. This is being done with the co-operation of the gamekeeper for that estate and I know that a number of other gamekeepers are working towards the same end. On another nearby estate a thousand yards of hedgerow was planted this year for pheasant/wildlife use. I think that it is to the shooting estates that we need to look for wildlife support because the reared birds need insects and we need insects.

[Gruditch]

the fields visible from 'Collard Hill' (it had a different name back then) were all hay meadows and dairy pasture.

The farm directly below Collard hill is still a dairy farm.

I have a feeling that a field has to be over 5 acres, or something like that, before there is a requirement to leave a 2m margin. Makes sense, as it would seriously impair the amount of crop return, if that policy applied to every tiny little paddock. Plus it would encourage hedge removal.

Regards Gruditch