Sustainable Wetland Farming and Biodiversity

the government is financially supporting farmers who manage wetlands through agri-environment schemes.  

farm support payments, including agri-environment schemes, are only available to active farmers between the ages 18 and 60 years old. Absentee landlords, investors and NGOs are not eligible.

farmers in important ground nesting bird areas are paid to cut hay form the inside of the field outwards; so as to encourage fledgling birds to disperse safely.

money from the Rural Development Programme has been used to support the purchase of capital equipment for farming co-operatives.

French farmers seem to work very effectively in co-operatives and this is one of their strengths.

many wetland farmers are mixed, with some diary and some beef cattle.  

rushes and reed are controlled by regular topping.  Herbicides are rarely used, nor is weed-wiping. 

marsh ragwort is not regarded as a problem despite being abundant in some areas.

there is some concern regarding the impact of parasites such as fluke and agencies may be interested in undertaking research into this.

there is a pilot scheme that pays farmers to hold water levels high in winter and spring. 

nature reserves are generally managed by NGOs, but funded by government through agreed costed management plans.

up to now, the main approach to nature conservation has been for the government to purchase large areas of conservation land and put them into the hands of organisations that manage them with wildlife as the primary objective.

agri-environment schemes are available to syndicates of farmers but the focus is on landscape conservation rather than nature conservation.  

farmers utilise conservation land by taking it on annual license.  

licenses for nature conservation land require farmers to undertake maintenance operations such as topping and ditch and gutter clearing. If the works are not done then they are automatically undertaken by contractors and billed to farmers.  

nature conservation land grazing is valued because farmers have to balance nitrates across the whole farmed area as a part of their extensification scheme. 

intensive dairy farmers consider that hay from unimproved meadows provides an important mineral health supplement for stock that are subject to silage and high protein feed systems.

fields on peat soils that are splash flooded in winter and spring are well guttered to encourage surface water to be removed quickly and efficiently in the spring.

I came across a really good relationship between an organic arable farmer and a conservation NGO. This involved the NGO using the farmer's rare breed beef animals for grazing marginal sites during the summer, while the farmer was busy with his arable business; and the farmer keeping the animals inside during winter in order to supply much needed organic manure. 

in-field gutters are generally spaced so as to allow two passes of the tractor. 

only mechanical means are used to control weed species.  This may involve topping twice a year.

some farmers are being paid to raise water levels during the summer in order to try and ameliorate damage done to peat soils.  Freeboard is reduced from 80cm to 40cm and there is no wildlife benefit.

farmers in some areas would like more opportunities to be supported to manage nature conservation land through agri-environment schemes. 

it has been shown that it is possible to create large enclosed wetlands that are rich in biodiversity and grazed entirely by wild herds of large herbivores. 

there are large wild wetlands that have changed significantly since the “state farm” system ended in 1992.  

currently production subsidies are limited and abandonment or intensification are problems. 

at the end of  WWII, 10 million refugees were relocated to the eastern part of the country to work in state farms which have now closed.  This had a major impact on the population of the area and has left much of the state owned land abandoned.

both government and farmers are aware that, with accession to the EU next year, there comes an opportunity to support managers who farm wetlands to maintain their wildlife interest.  

there are serious concerns that subsidies will encourage intensification with limited regulation to protect the environment.  

most farmers have such few cattle that they are currently able to run very extensive systems.  This makes it easy for them to graze opportunistically with a large wetland where there is little competition for grazing. 

farmers do not seem to have problems with toxic weed species but there are concerns about the ability of intensive dairy cattle, such as Holsteins to be able to cope with rough grazing.  

farmers did not seem to have any major concerns regarding the impact of parasites such as fluke.

large areas of ecologically important tussocky sedge vegetation that were once utilised for bedding, now have no economic use and are rapidly succeeding to woodland.  It is hoped that these areas can eventually be maintained as tussocky sedge beds by a combination of grazing with ponies and cutting and removal for use in biomass power generation stations. 

agri-environment schemes to encourage farmers to utilise such areas are ambitious but in the early stages of development.

in some areas mineral licks nailed to posts are being used to attract large wild herbivores into areas where grazing, and a small amount of poaching, are required to maintain the sward biodiversity, particularly in bogs.