I have had two vocational visits with a strong focus on the relationship between agriculture and environmental management so far. The first was with the Kent Wildlife Trust based out of Maidstone at Tylands Barn. I had a fantastic day, spending the morning with the rangers at a series of reserves being managed to improve the quality of the grasslands in both biodiversity and as public spaces. They are managing chalk grasslands through grazing by domestic stock to encourage rare herbs and orchids to be able to compete with the dominant pasture grasses and bramble scrub. They have some wonderful old English sheep varieties and 6 very tame cows, though it is not being managed as a commercial herd of sheep, more like a large accumulation of pets (yes they come when called and all the cows on this reserve and the neighbours farm have names) mainly due to the animal rights movement within some of the trusts members. As a result the stock are purely a management tool and therefore quite an extensive cost. The rangers would like to change this but are meeting significant resistance to the sending of the stock to an abattoir.
Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours with an Agronomist, Richard, who is advising farmers and assisting with the management of farms enlisted in the new environmental stewardship scheme. Farmers are no longer being subsidised on a production basis but on the level of environmental management they are willing to implement. This includes returning arable land to grasslands, managing hedges, restoring wetlands and maintaining fallow for breeding habitat for birds. It also includes increasing diversity in strip headlands to maintain insect populations. It is an incredible scheme, how long it lasts I'm not sure, as a result of the increase in commodity prices, in particular wheat the incentive for farmers to return to cropping is high and a number of farmers are pulling out of the scheme. The problem with incentives/subsidy systems...once they finish, the reason for managing for the environment is diminished and the good work is undone.
Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours with an Agronomist, Richard, who is advising farmers and assisting with the management of farms enlisted in the new environmental stewardship scheme. Farmers are no longer being subsidised on a production basis but on the level of environmental management they are willing to implement. This includes returning arable land to grasslands, managing hedges, restoring wetlands and maintaining fallow for breeding habitat for birds. It also includes increasing diversity in strip headlands to maintain insect populations. It is an incredible scheme, how long it lasts I'm not sure, as a result of the increase in commodity prices, in particular wheat the incentive for farmers to return to cropping is high and a number of farmers are pulling out of the scheme. The problem with incentives/subsidy systems...once they finish, the reason for managing for the environment is diminished and the good work is undone.
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