Changes to benefit the environment...

Maybe if we cut a field or two of hay instead of mowing silage in the months of May or June it might give the ground nesters a chance to bring off a brood.
Uncultivated stubbles left over the winter to provide some winter feed would be a help.
Sowing a small copse of trees in a corner that is difficult to mow.
I am going to try some of the above anyway

Timmaay wrote: »

Fantastic post/rant there and I need to implement more of thoses. On the above, it's a win win in that the birds spread around the dung also so less unpalatable grass patches. I've noticed the crows doing it here the whole time with maize in dung (the harvester didn't crack the corn in the maize well enough so reasonable amount passing thro). Duno how I would get it to work with milking parlour dairynuts however, 6/10ton blown into the bin each time, and it's not practical to try get the mill to mix in, maybe if I added a small hopper to the parlour auger that drip fed in the whole barley.

Being a contrary fecker. .

But if you start that craic won't you start upsetting the earthworm, dungbeetle balance of those critters taking those dungpats below the soil surface?
I.e. they won't last long if rooks and jackdaws are lighting into their meal/cover.

Birdnuts wrote: »

That relationship has been there since day one so I don't think it would make much difference - indeed a bird that is of high conservation concern that is now only found on scattered sites on the West Coast (The Chough) depends heavily on dung from farm stock to find its preferred food of beetle grubs. Speaking of dung beetles its reckoned that certain modern medications given to farm stock hit them hard as alot of it is passed out in dung which is why their abundance is way down in recent years.

Yea but farm experience here shows me that the dung pats that birds go rooting and scattering are not the ones that worms and beetles get a chance to pull underground.
I bet I'm posting double Dutch to some people here as their dungpats are left on the surface for only weather and bacteria to work and reasons most likely the medications, Birdnuts.

If you're going to be putting in whole barley in a diet just for the purpose of scattering a dung pat. You've bigger problems than you realise as a farmer.

_Brian wrote: »

Haven’t done it yet but still have a yearning for a bee hive, help keep bee number up and tasty honey too.

I actually made a suggestion that it would be a good GLAS measure to make a payment to farmers for keeping bees, it would make sense.

I’m the same- trying to buy a few acres near me with a few strips under esb pylon lines running through forestry would be tempted to try establish wild flowers first before looking at bees.

Plus the price per jar of raw is ok on adverts and looks liked there’s interest in it too.

kollegeknight wrote: »

I’m the same- trying to buy a few acres near me with a few strips under esb pylon lines running through forestry would be tempted to try establish wild flowers first before looking at bees.

Plus the price per jar of raw is ok on adverts and looks liked there’s interest in it too.

I haven’t done it for the fickleist of reasons, just when honey is flowing and bees would be thinking of swarming is when we go away for a few weeks holidays.

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I thought leaving stubble exposed wasn’t good, from a carbon & soil erosion perspective?
And more modern thinking is that cover crops are better, both from a fertiliser, weed and environment perspective?

(I could be wrong on this...)

Spring sowed crop with the stubble left overwinter provide huge amount of both crop seed and weed seeds for birds. The transition to autumn sowed crops has hit birds like skylark, bunting, finches hard.

_Brian wrote: »

I haven’t done it for the fickleist of reasons, just when honey is flowing and bees would be thinking of swarming is when we go away for a few weeks holidays.

I want to do the seed savers bee keeping course first so it will be a few years due to work commitment.

Capercaillie wrote: »

Depends what you have sowed and how you have sowed it. If you have sowed triticale you can attract masses of rats/crows. I have 0.3 acres of fodder radish/Caledonian kale/phacelia and have around 200 linnet, 30 twite, reed bunting, skylarks etc.

Big difference.

Reducing nitrogen usage by over 90% would go a long way to turning things in the right direction. Immediately farmers would turn to multi-species grasses, legumes etc.

That’ll never happen without legislation because the Irish farming system is totally addicted and dependent on nitrogen...

Kinda like that Braveheart quote “they can take our lives, but they’ll never take our NITROGEN”.
American NRA...” they’ll have to pry our NITROGEN from our dead rigor mortised hands”. . Lol.

Government and Teagasc need to lead on this. I won’t be holding my breath.

Where I’m farming now the usage of nitrogen has dropped by nearly 55% since 1990. Yields and production have increased!
This is a result of Government just setting limits. Simples.

_Brian wrote: »

Haven’t done it yet but still have a yearning for a bee hive, help keep bee number up and tasty honey too.

I actually made a suggestion that it would be a good GLAS measure to make a payment to farmers for keeping bees, it would make sense.

The country doesn't need more honeybees, needs more food for bees. Plenty of very large barren areas for them down here in south east.

For beetles and grasshoppers. They benefit from a mix of grass heights
Leaving a bit of patchiness by not topping a field in one go and doing it in strips over the course of a few weeks maintains their cover.
Beetles and grasshoppers do best off cocksfoot and Yorkshire fog. Fescues, timothy etc all support other insects like moths.
Also going in too fast with the topper can prevent a lot of flowers setting seed (why lipp was originally limited to after July 15th). If a lot of these don't set seed every 2 years or so they won't persist.

Mob type grazing is a good option for keeping sward productivity up in the absence of fert. It encourages tall leafy growth, excess topping and overgrazing just encourages bent grass/weeds.


Add in good management of ditches with a wide variety of trees/bushes is a big plus, a small bit of coppicing or laying on a rotational basis can go a long way towards keeping a healthy hedge. Lots of old tired whitethorn around getting overran by ivy that would benefit from being rejuvenated.



From the beekeepers POV,
Hazel, lesser celandine, willow, dandelion, apple/crab, horse chestnut, sycamore, whitethorn, clover, BlackBerry and ivy to finish off the year are the main flowers.

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

The country doesn't need more honeybees, needs more food for bees. Plenty of very large barren areas for them down here in south east.

Would more polonators not increase fruiting if species and so increase numbers of plants for pollinators ?

_Brian wrote: »

Would more polonators not increase fruiting if species and so increase numbers of plants for pollinators ?

Possibly, until someone comes along and flails, sprays or does some other management that intentionally or unintentionally prevents that happening.
Average field size of greater than 8-12 acres, ditches cut to the but regularly and no flowers inside the fields just can't support a very big pollinator population in the same way an acre of land can only support so many cattle. It's very easy to put hives in an area and feed them to keep them alive but it can put wild bees at a disadvantage

I think you're right Muckit. As soon as I had it posted I went looking up the difference. Elder does grow high though, maybe 25 feet. Is that it in the pic?

Genghis Cant wrote: »

You know elder well. The creamy white flowers in spring and the purple / black elderberries when they fruit.
Common in hedgerows
Alder favours damper ground. Common along some riverbanks. No noticeable flower and cluster of little round cones.
That's elder in the pic. It has a soft core, you'd often be able to push your nail in to the centre. When it seasons the core sometimes becomes hollow.

Ya, that's it. I cut a lot of it aroud here. I've cut it right to the ground and it grows up again mad fast. I try to dry/season it for 2 years before burning. Not the best for firewood but considering how fast it grows, worth cutting all the same.