One of the joys of starting a new job is to be able to inherit the success of others.
Hope Farm is perhaps one of my predecessors' great legacies. Bought in 2001, thanks to the generosity of RSPB members, we have managed to demonstrate that it is possible to run a profitable arable farm and restore farmland wildlife. I was there on Friday filming for Countryfile. John Craven was putting together a package on farmland birds to be shown on telly on 29 May. It was great to meet John and even better to be able to celebrate the fact that over the past decade we have tripled the number of farmland birds on our farm.
Populations of skylarks, yellowhammer, linnets, reed bunting and starlings have all increased, while grey partridge, yellow wagtail, lapwing, turtle dove have all returned to the farm. And this year, greeted with much excitement, we also have a pair of corn bunting.
We've done all this while still returning great wheat yields.
So what's the secret of our success? Well lots of praise should go to the farm managers we have had over the years - especially Chris Bailey who moves on to a new job within the RSPB in Scotland later this summer. But it is simple really, we have put 3% of our farm into Entry Level Stewardship Scheme (ELS) - a government grant scheme available to all farmers. This subsidy allows us to get paid to get the basics right for farmland birds: habitat which provides somewhere to nest, food in spring/summer as well as food in the winter.
If it is that simple, why aren't farmland birds doing much better across the whole country?
Unfortunately, not all the options in the the schemes are effective. This is why the UK Government is currently reviewing the scheme. We are encouraging them to concentrate on scheme quality, ensuring all agreements contain a minimum of the best options for wildlife, while ensuring that farmers get better advice about what's appropriate for their their farm.
My predecessor was convinced that if you could get ELS working more efficiently, you could see farmland bird numbers rise again - offering more people a chance to enjoy the sountrack to spring and summer.
Have a great Sunday.
P.S. This blog will be silent for three days until Thursday 19 May. The RSPB computer people have some maintenance/upgrade work to do. After a couple of weeks in the new job, I might ask them to reboot me as well.
Thank you Martin for detailed reply and length of it also,have seen the accounts of course on Hope Farm web site.think we are almost in complete agreement as you would have noticed I praised Hope Farm on everything except the fact that RSPB insist on calling it a profitable farm,yes to the contract farmer but poor returns in my opinion for RSPB.For instance when farming we rented 78 acres at a bit above the average level of rents for that time and to make it more economic we bought 30 acres so reasonable level of debt.Obviously my family would have starved at the level of profit to RSPB from Hope Farm converted to that acreage of 108 acres.All your points very valid about proof of things possible and like yourself wish more farmers followed your Skylark patches.Having retired find it sad that the RSPB and farmers in general see each other as the enemy and as I seem to have foot in both camps(I do after all think the RSPB do a wonderful job and provide me with lots of pleasure for a small sub and your wonderful staff help me above the level expected)think the criticism from the RSPB about farmers hurts them more than the RSPB think and breeds hostility.
If I could have one wish for your term of office it would be that somehow ignoring N F U attitude if necessary you could get RSPB and farmers more understanding with each other.that really should not be too much to ask but of course at the same time it is a big ask.If you can you will have my admiration but more importantly wildlife will benefit MORE THAN you could ever imagine.After all the reserves in total are miniscule to the acreage on farms and even 5% increase across all those acres would be colossal.I always find it a fantastic achievement in what can happen where you work together with farmers on projects.This is not criticism of RSPB just a sad reflection of what seems a block between the two camps.
Thanks for invitation but having retired we enjoy visiting your reserves more than farms in general and in Dorset we are blessed with so many good ones plus we like to go to Mull which to me is almost a RSPB reserve and have come to be friends with Dave Sexton through him helping us.
Nothing wrong in the way RSPB obtained Hope Farm and should help with conservation in the long run but it is a fact that all farmers could farm differently if given a farm.Sorry went on a bit there but as Mark found sometimes get a bit passionate.