Down on the Farm - Bird Song
IN one of my earlier pieces you will recall that I mentioned the work we have
been doing on the farm in association with the RSPB recording the number of
birds in the sugar beet crop. This has involved recording the number and breed
of birds both in the crop and on the boundaries.
On the area of our farm to be covered, the following were observed: Skylark, lapwing, goldfinch, redlegged partridge, common buzzard, yellow wagtail, meadow pipit, wren, great tit, yellow hammer, chaffinch, blackbird, whitethroat, reed bunting, chiffchaff and dunnock!
This is a very good spread of birds for one part of a field, and I hope it demonstrates that sugar beet is a crop, which is not only good for the farm rotation but also very good for birds and other wildlife. It can provide cover at nesting time and because it is a crop that it harvested later it is also beneficial to the birds. Most of the chemicals that are used are harmless to wildlife and insects and any weeds that do remain in the crop are beneficial to the birds and insects as they can feed on them.
The RSPB would now like us to leave half a dozen strips undrilled in the field for weeds to grow to encourage skylarks in particular. There is a strong argument to preserve sugar beet in our crop rotation for environmental benefits.
Work continues on the farm, winter jobs are getting done and thoughts are turning to Spring work. One of the first things to be done is a lot of field walking. I will go round each field in turn, there are over 130 in all!, checking the health of the crop and seeing how well the autumn weed control has been. If I feel there are any problems I will consult my agronomist who is independent and self-employed and not contracted by any single chemical firm. I can therefore rely on his advice to be impartial and I can then also "shop around" for chemicals and achieve the best price.
There are rarely problems with crop health at this time of the year and it will just be a case of cleaning up any weed control that has not come up to my standards. I will achieve this by using a selective Herbicide to target the specific weeds I am after, for example, in the oilseed rape there will always be a volunteer cereal carried over from the previous crop, whether it is barley or wheat. In this case a graminicide will be used to kill off any of these unwanted weeds.
We do this for two main reasons, firstly, if weeds get a hold they can then compete with the crop and smother it when it is not in a competitive stage i.e. fairly young and small and secondly, cereals carried over in another crop will always carry disease and aphids, which will be detrimental to the following cereal crop and which would then have to be treated later with the expense of time and money.
With everything well in hand I'm now off to the ski slopes!