This is an integrated package to protect wildlife, soils and water on an arable farm through agri-environment schemes or voluntary land management. It is being developed with a wide range of agricultural and environmental organisations to simplify environmental messages for farmers. We would value any thoughts you have on the practicality of this package and what you would need to help you implement it. Please click http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VHKH6Z9 to complete a feedback questionnaire. This should only take a few minutes, and would be very valuable in helping us to make this as useful for farmers as possible.
The following advice will maximise the environmental benefits of agri-environment applications and voluntary environmental land management. It will complement best practice soil, crop, fertiliser and pesticide management to ensure full environmental protection on an arable farm. The general principles given here should be considered in conjunction with local priorities for soil and water protection and wildlife conservation. If you need further advice then consult a competent environmental adviser.
Choosing the right measures, putting them in the right place, and managing them in the right way will make all the difference. Full environmental protection could be achieved by management of as little as 4% of the arable area if high quality habitats are maintained or created. However, the precise area required will depend on factors such as the area of vulnerable soils and length of watercourses.
Adopting the following measures that are appropriate to your arable land should help to ensure the reduction in greenhouse emissions, and conservation of soil, water and wildlife. It is important to have a balance of environmental measures that contribute to each of the relevant points below to achieve the full environmental benefits.
1. Look after established wildlife habitats
Start by assessing what you already have on the farm! Looking after any existing wildlife habitats, such as woodland, ponds, flower-rich grassland or field margins, is critical to the survival of much of the wildlife on the farm, and may count towards some of the following measures without the need to create new habitats. Unproductive land can be used to create new habitats to complement what you already have.
2. Maximise the environmental value of field boundaries.
Hedgerow management and ditch management on a 2-3 year rotation boosts flowers, fruit and refuges for wildlife. This is most suited to hedges dominated by hawthorn and blackthorn, and ditches where rotational management will not compromise the drainage function. Establish new hedgerow trees to maintain numbers within the landscape.
3. Create a network of grass margins
The highest priority is to buffer watercourses, ideally with a minimum of 5m buffer strips. Grass margins can also be used to boost beneficial insects and small mammals, and buffer hedges, ponds and other environmental features. Beetle banks can be used to reduce soil erosion and run-off on slopes greater than 1:20 and boost beneficial insects in fields greater than 20 ha.
4. Establish flower rich habitats
Evidence suggests that a network of flower-rich margins on 1% of arable land will support beneficial insects and a wealth of wildlife that feeds on insects. Assess whether this is best done by allowing arable plants in the seedbank to germinate, establishing perennial margins with a grass and wildflower mix, or using nectar flower mixtures. Improving the linkages between these features on the farm will also help wildlife move in the landscape.
5. Provide winter food for birds with weedy over-wintered stubbles or wild bird cover
Provision of seed for wildlife is best achieved by leaving over-wintered stubbles unsprayed and uncultivated until mid-February on at least 5% of arable land, or growing seed-rich crops as wild bird cover on 2% of arable land.
6. Use in-field measures to help ground-nesting birds
Use rotational fallows, skylark plots in winter cereals or (if breeding lapwings occur) fallow plots to support ground-nesting birds where spring cropping forms less than 25% of the arable area. Fallow plots should not be created on land liable to runoff or erosion. Evidence suggests that at least 20 skylark plots or a 1ha fallow plot per 100 ha would support ground-nesting birds.
7. Use winter cover crops to protect water.
Land cultivated and left fallow through the winter prior to spring cropping should have a winter cover crop (e.g. mustard) to capture residual nitrogen for the following crop. This is not necessary if the stubble is retained until at least mid-February and forms a green cover.
8. Establish in-field grass areas to reduce soil erosion and run-off
Convert land liable to act as channels for soil erosion or run-off (e.g. steep slopes or field corners) into in-field grass areas.