PA048/A/08 Lapwings – Getting The Grazing Right!

27 February 2008

By Phelim Connolly, Countryside Management Branch, DARD

Lapwings, or peewits as they are locally known, are ground nesting birds that nest and feed on farmland.

Ideally, they will nest on tightly grazed, damp grasslands, and in arable areas on spring sown crops. These once common breeding waders have declined by two-thirds in Northern Ireland, from 5,000 pairs in 1987 to 1,700 in 1999.

The decline has continued and the estimated number now is probably only a few hundred pairs. This decline has happened due to a range of factors including a reduction in the area of spring sown cereals in Northern Ireland, and drainage of damp fields.  

Lapwings prefer open fields with a short sward that are not enclosed by tall hedges or trees. This increases their chances of successfully rearing chicks as they can watch out for predators and feed more easily.

Grazing of lapwing sites should take place during winter and early spring to ensure fields are grazed short (3cm/1 inch or less) by mid March, when lapwing are looking for places to nest.

During the breeding season, which runs until the middle of June, these fields must be grazed lighter at a rate of 0.75 LU per hectare which is five ewes or one heifer/bullock to the hectare or the equivalent of three cows per four hectare. This light stocking rate reduces the chance of nests being trampled and also helps to keep the grass height low. No machinery operations should take place in these fields during the breeding season.

Mr Kenny Martin, Birches, Portadown has been a participant in the Countryside Management Scheme since 2006. Kenny had a few pairs of lapwing nesting on some of his fields and so was keen to put these into the scheme’s Lapwing Breeding Site option.

Kenny grazes sheep on the farm over the winter months from November until March, and in late spring buys in some store cattle for finishing. The sheep keep the grass height on the lapwing option fields down to an ideal height while the cattle grazing helps to create a more varied structure which lapwings also find suitable.

If you would like more information on grazing for lapwings please contact Countryside Management Branch at your local DARD office.

All media enquiries to DARD Press Office, tel: 028 9052 4619.