Crop and estate management
The wheat crops that followed the oilseed rape and set-aside in the rotation (the 'first' wheat) were drilled at the beginning of September and the 'second' wheat (follows a 'first' wheat) at the beginning of October.
These wheats contain the next phase of the experimental work at Hope Farm. There is a second year of investigating if undrilled patches attract skylarks to nest - we have a field with patches at two different densities. There is the first year of investigating the effects of more widely spaced rows between the crop plants.
We are also investigating how to manage 'crop-friendly weeds', at this stage assessing weed population potential through replicated strips of fields that have a phased programme of removing herbicides with specific activity against types of weeds and season of application.
Birds and biodiversity
Our family of corn buntings has disappeared along with the summer visitors. Migration has been dominated by meadow pipits that came through in a burst in late September and early October. Other passage birds included small numbers of whinchat and wheatear.
The first of the winter thrushes came in small numbers from late September. We are hoping that the relaxation of hedgerow management (from annual cutting to a three year rotation) that provides more berries will hold these thrushes for longer over the winter.
Food provided on a patch of set-aside (wheat and oilseed rapeseed from our own harvest) has fed mainly pheasants and a chaffinch flock. The spring wheat, mustard and kale wild bird cover crop sown into a different patch of set-aside now regularly holds a dozen to twenty yellowhammers. This is a real change from last year's dearth of seed-eating bird flocks.
The natural regeneration set-aside has attracted a similar number of skylarks. They appear to have switched their attention from the oilseed rape - the lush growth in this mild autumn appears to us to be too tall to be used by skylarks.
Hare numbers have stayed very low and the regular moth trapping (species total over 250 for the year) revealed the streak to be present. This is rarely trapped in Cambridgeshire. The larval food plant is broom and that is hard to find in this area where neutral to calcareous clays dominate.