Now’s the time to consider arable options in your agri-environment scheme
Graeme Campbell, Countryside Management Delivery Branch, DARD
Stuart Caskie farms near Limavady and has been a Countryside Management Scheme participant for almost five years now. He has always been interested in farmland birds and so has chosen wild bird cover and undersown cereals options as part of his agreement. Stuart has noticed an increase in yellowhammers, tree sparrows and linnets throughout the farm since planting these crops. Stuart’s farm consists of dairy, beef and sheep enterprises and the arable options fit in well with the farm business. Stuart is intending to continue to use these options in the future.
Agri-environment scheme arable options are mostly associated with arable farms but they can also be successfully incorporated into grassland/livestock farms. Arable options increase the diversity of habitats and species on the farm by providing habitats for over-wintering invertebrates as well as nesting and feeding sites for farmland birds such as the yellowhammer and the tree sparrow. A range of priority species such as the Irish hare, skylark, and linnet will also benefit. Water quality can also be improved by arable options where they act as a buffer protecting waterways from pesticides.
The arable options available to agri-environment scheme participants are:
- Wild Bird Cover - a spring crop sown on improved land which is left unharvested to provide food for birds mainly during the winter months. Wild bird cover also provides summer food for chicks and adult birds in the form of weed seeds and invertebrates. One year or two year wild bird cover crops can be chosen to suit the local wildlife.
- Rough Grass Margins - strips of land sown with a recommended grass seed mixture around arable fields in which cereals, oilseed rape or protein crops have been planted. Margins must be between two and 12 metres wide and must be established on at least 50 percent of the field perimeter. Margins should be sited next to a hedge, scrub, woodland or watercourse for maximum wildlife benefit. Rough grass margins must be kept in place for a minimum of three years (preferably five years) and cut at least three times during the year following sowing.
- Undersown Cereals – spring cereals sown after 15 February which are undersown with a grass and clover ley mixture containing at least 10% clover by weight. The cereal seed rate must be at least 100kg/ha and the crop must not be harvested until at least 14 weeks after sowing and not before 1 August. The grass ley must be retained until at least 15 July the following year after the crop is harvested.
- Conservation Cereals - a cereal crop where the use of pesticides is restricted to allow a greater range of broad leaved weeds in the crop. It is designed to benefit weeds of arable land, many of which have declined over recent decades, as well as invertebrates and farmland birds that feed on invertebrates and weed seeds.
- Pollen and Nectar mixture – a new option available only to participants in the new NI Countryside Management Scheme. Pollen and nectar mixture contains a mix of legumes which flower at different times to provide a continuous supply of pollen and nectar for bumblebees, butterflies and other insects from March to September. The mix must include late flowering red clover. For best results it must be sown either in spring (March/April) or in late summer (August).
For further information on arable options available within agri-environment schemes and their management please contact Countryside Management Delivery Branch staff at your local DARD office.
Stuart Caskie, Limavady discussing arable options available within his Countryside Management Scheme with Graeme Campbell, of Countyside Management Delivery Branch
