Farming Matters: Hedges helping us and wildlife

EVER wondered what is growing in the field behind your house? Once a month I will be giving a farmer’s view of the countryside, covering whatever is topical at the time, from cultivations to conservation and wider subjects, such as politics and food production.

Often farmers talk about hedgerow farming, which describes how we look over the hedges as we drive around the countryside to see what other farmers are doing. What I am referring to is how we actively manage the hedges on our farm. It’s a scene you will see across our beautiful British countryside; the patchwork quilt of fields divided up by hedges, stone walls, banks and fences.

In medieval times, farming was based on large, open fields. Some areas at the time were divided by a form of enclosure, which made managing the land easier. It wasn’t until the Enclosure Act in the 17th century that this became the normal way of farming.

There were some 5,200 Bills enacted by Parliament between 1604 and 1914 , which turned open, common land into enclosed land areas and so began the formation of a road and communications network and the start of a more efficient agricultural system.

The latter was greatly needed at the time due to a rapid increase in the population, so demand for food was at an all-time high. Sound familiar?

A little of the history of hedges might help to put things in perspective before we consider why we actively manage them.

It’s often quoted that farmers are responsible for ripping out miles of hedges. That may well have been the case in the middle of the last century as mechanisation led to larger machinery and we were encouraged to produce more food. I like to think we have learned a lot since then.

Most of the hedgerow destruction nowadays is through infrastructure, for example, roads, high speed railways and, of course, developments such as out of town stores and housing.

However, in the last 20 to 30 years, farmers have planted or restored more than 30,000km of hedgerows. Here on the estate at Dunsden and Binfield Heath, we have established and improved more than 10km of hedges.

You can tell a lot just by looking at a hedge. Its age, for example; the more species in its length the older it is, what shape it is, how wide and what grows alongside it. Think of hedges as a conduit linking different habitat areas. They also provide food and somewhere to live and breed for birds and small mammals.

Then there are the arable plants, as we call them, growing alongside the hedges. We have several red list (endangered) plants on the estate growing in our field margins, notably a rare orchid, pheasants eye and shepherd’s needle.

So how do we actively manage the 50-odd kilometres of hedges we have? If you have been in our area recently, I am sure you will have come across Trevor working his way around the roadsides with his hedge cutter, making a beautiful job of ensuring cars can safely use the lanes without losing wing mirrors or getting their paintwork scratched.

We cut roadsides every winter after the nesting season and a proportion of the field hedges. The latter we do in an annual rotation to leave some food for the birds and to allow hedges to fill out and grow in width.

We ensure that any fertiliser we apply to crops drops short of the field margins and also any sprays that we use. We do not apply anything to our crops to control pests, only to treat diseases and control weeds. By not using insecticides, we hope that we can build up populations of beneficial insects which will feed on the crop pests.

You can all help, too, with our hedgerows by staying on dedicated public footpaths and bridleways and not wandering across crops and disturbing the flora and fauna that we are working so hard to protect.

Monthly column by Simon Beddows, farm manager at Coppid Farming Enterprises at Dunsden Green Farm