Fields of lush green grass and nothing else.

Lano Lynn

BarryD2 wrote: »

Re OP, not entirely sure that the Golden Vale and Glen of Aherlow areas etc. are representative of the rest of Ireland. There sure are numerous well organised enterprises down there, you can see the lands laid out to the last detail. Large sheds for overwintering stock, tracks radiating out to the various 'fields'. Many ditches have been taken out and the grassland striped / divided into more or less equal paddocks to allow for rotation of stock, resting and cutting silage etc. All very methodical and mathematically managed. It's the industrial approach to dairy farming and little to do with conserving natural habitats etc

But when you move away/ up into less productive land, disadvantaged land then the picture is more normal, smaller fields, bigger ditches, smaller building clusters etc. We live in such an area and see a fair amount of wildlife in terms of small mammals and deer etc. Also plenty of bird life. What is really noticeable though in the 25 years we've been here is the huge drop in things like bees, butterflies and moths etc. The house would have been 'full' of them if you left the windows open of a summers eve and the drone of the bees on a sunny day was unmissable. It can't be sprays as not a lot would be used around here, more grazing for sheep and cattle.

I used to wonder about this to but when u think about it while we may not use insecticide he do use herbicides to kill off plants like thistles which are great for bees . as well as that old hay meadows had all sorts growing in them like knapweed and were not cut till much later in the year now we have a silage cut in may and july august.many areas had a certin amount of tillage a few acres of oats barley potatoes turnips with associated arable weeds this vanished with the '92 CAP reform so the area and variety and amount for pollenators to feed and breed on has reduced dramatically in a few decades

BarryD2

Lano Lynn wrote: »

I used to wonder about this to but when u think about it while we may not use insecticide he do use herbicides to kill off plants like thistles which are great for bees . as well as that old hay meadows had all sorts growing in them like knapweed and were not cut till much later in the year now we have a silage cut in may and july august.many areas had a certin amount of tillage a few acres of oats barley potatoes turnips with associated arable weeds this vanished with the '92 CAP reform so the area and variety and amount for pollenators to feed and breed on has reduced dramatically in a few decades

True, many farmers round here had a few acres of sugar beet for supply to local sugar factory, which is all gone now. Still be barley etc grown on better land and these crops are sprayed. Still you'd think between afforested land, scrub, ditches and rougher grazing that there'd be enough habitat to support insects like moths and butterflies. Must be some other factor that is affecting them. This has a knock on effect on bats as well, used to see plenty here of a warm evening flying up and down the road ditches feeding on moths and the like. Still see the odd one but in decline as well. Ditto for house martins and swallows.

yosemitesam1

BarryD2 wrote: »

True, many farmers round here had a few acres of sugar beet for supply to local sugar factory, which is all gone now. Still be barley etc grown on better land and these crops are sprayed. Still you'd think between afforested land, scrub, ditches and rougher grazing that there'd be enough habitat to support insects like moths and butterflies. Must be some other factor that is affecting them. This has a knock on effect on bats as well, used to see plenty here of a warm evening flying up and down the road ditches feeding on moths and the like. Still see the odd one but in decline as well. Ditto for house martins and swallows.

The big problem for butterflies is that there range is only a couple hundred metres, so you need fairly big tracts of habitat as local extinctions are common (same applies to lots of insects) and a specific area if too small will not support them in the long-term unless they are within a certain distance of other populations due to random local die offs (which are a natural occurrence)

Most moths are highly specialized and need specific plants. In the case of the ones relying on grassland, either the plants they need are not there or else they can be topped/under/overgrazed making them unsuitable.
Beetles and grasshoppers are similar, both can't survive off ryegrass

ganmo

I was walking across the field at the back of the house earlier, plenty of worm casts on the ground so the ground here mustn't be too bad