"Really good website"
"Nice stand, informative and friendly staff."
"Excellent idea."
Just some of the comments we had on our stand at the Cereals event. We're particularly pleased because these comments came from farmers looking at our brand new approach to farm advice. This falls into two complementary halves - direct advice for farmers in key target areas across the UK, and a suite of new resources for all farmers.
We've talked to farmers to find out how we can best support their conservation efforts, and this has helped us develop a new-look website at www.farmwildlife.info and a concise, easy-to-follow booklet which sets out the eight principles of conservation management on an arable farm.
This is particularly exciting because it brings together the expertise of farming and environmental organisations, to give farmers a trust-worthy, consistent and accessible source of information. The idea came from feedback from farmers who have found it difficult to decide which advice to follow in the past. Now there is a one-stop shop for all the environmental advice - the first phase of this work covers arable farming in England, but additional information will be added for all farming systems across the UK.
The other half of our advice programme delivers in-field advice for farmers, in targeted areas across the UK. We'll be offering farmers within these areas a free survey to monitor bird populations on their farm. These surveys are repeated after three years, something which we've often been asked to do. You can find out more about where those areas are here.
Seems like a really good plan,all that is needed to really improve things is for the staff who pretend to be pro farmer but are really anti to keep quiet or leave RSPB or become farmer friendly in reality.Cattle farmers are really suffering financially and emotionally losing about 36,000 cattle a year to BTB and increasing while RSPB seriously opposed the trial Badger cull.If the cull would help it needs trials to prove one way or the other.No good asking for farmers help with plans like this while opposing things that may help farmers in other ways.You have to be 100% with them.