Blogs

Crop and estate management

September is the start of our fourth crop year at the farm. With a three year rotation this means that the position of the different of crops across the fields is now the same as in our first year. Monitoring over the coming crop year will indicate if we have made lasting changes to our local bird populations. It could be that the changes that we have seen recently have been in response to the position of the crops in particular fields.

Mid September saw the beginning of the drilling of wheat in some of the fields in those fields that had been oilseed rape or set-aside last crop year. This is our first wheat in the rotation and it does not have any specific trials in it. The wheat that followed a previous wheat crop (the second wheat in the rotation) was drilled at the beginning of October.

It is in three of these fields that we are continuing our trial investigating the effect of crop structure on skylark breeding productivity. We have two treatments - undrilled patches and wide spaced rows. These treatments have been swapped between the same group of fields that were used last season. Using the same fields means that we work within the same area that is attractive to skylarks.

By swapping the treatments we can discover if the skylarks are responding to the specific way that the crop was sown rather than the general attractiveness of the area. By the end of the month the wheat was fully emerged and a number of local farmers have remarked on the difference between the wheat fields.

Over this winter we will again be providing additional food for seed eating birds such as finches and buntings.  As last year we are spreading wheat and rapeseed along one edge of a field and have an area of crop that has been sown and left unharvested. This includes kale in its second year.

New for this winter are a series of stubble strips containing weed rich patches. These are from our weed trial plots created to inform us what weeds we can germinate from the natural seedbank, how this weed population changes with herbicide inputs and which birds make use of this food source.

We are keeping a close watch on these areas through the winter and will seek to relate feeding bird numbers to the available seed supply. We will use this information to help develop ways of managing wheat crops to produce additional food for birds without reducing farm profitability.

The wheat that had been harvested from these trial plots was stored separately to our main crop and two tonnes of it have gone to the Ouse Washes nature reserve for distribution around farms in the Fens where we are providing winter feed for tree sparrows.

The sheep that had been grazing our largest paddock since the hay was cut in summer were moved off in late October as they had done their job reducing the late season growth of grass and the ground was starting to become wet and in danger of being cut up.

Birds and biodiversity

This two months covers the change in the seasons with a consequent change over in the bird population. Some summer visitors were hanging on, there were birds passing through on their way south and winter visitors arriving from the north.

The result is quite a variety of birds - 66 species have been seen on or flying over the farmland in the last two months. Our last swallow sighting was on 18 October when one was feeding around the sheep in our largest paddock. Red admiral butterflies were still being seen at the end of October. There were several sightings of buzzard, an indication of its steady colonisation of Cambridgeshire.

Our annual sighting of merlin occurred in mid October. Its appearance usually co-incides with the autumn passage of skylark or meadow pipit. Our whole farm bird count at the same time found just over 70 skylarks, a further indication that autumn passage was occurring.

Other migrants included wheatear, stonechat and whinchat. The first redwing were seen on 8 October, a flock of 70. Other autumn visitors included small flocks of lapwing and golden plover passing over. There was a welcome resighting of a lesser spotted woodpecker after a gap of two years.

We have been seeking to build up a population of seedeating birds wintering at the farm there were precious few when we first arrived. Our wild bird cover crop of kale attracted up to 70 greenfinches in September with numbers falling in October. Chaffinch numbers here stayed constant at around 25 and a few linnets were attracted in this is a new feature.

Where we are feeding wheat and rapeseed small numbers of chaffinches have been attracted. If bird usage follows the pattern of last winter we might expect the numbers on the wildbird cover to decline and the use of feeding site to increase, particularly if we have some very cold spells.

The set-aside strips containing our weed assessment plots have had a flock of up to 50 yellowhammers feeding on them, with less than ten each of linnet and reed bunting. Fifteen of these yellowhammers have had individual combinations of small colour rings placed on their legs. The potential of future resightings will tell us how many of these birds breed locally.

Crop and estate management

It has been a go-stop-go harvest across most of southern Britain this year and here was no exception. A hot period in July got our rape harvest off to a flying start and some of our wheat was harvested before the rain came down in August. Then there was a two week gap when one field stood part harvested. The sun finally shone again and the wheat harvest was finished off.

Our wheat and rape yields are up this year and so we expect to make a modest profit despite the low prices paid for some wheat. The rape yield overall was 3.5t/ha and it was almost 4t/ha on most fields. The average was brought down by one field that woodpigeons had grazed heavily over the winter.

The heavier yielding variety of wheat that we grow (Claire) achieved just over 10 t/ha while the wheat producing a sample of milling quality (Soissons) yielded lower as expected. This latter variety has been sold recently for £70/t when the price for lower quality feed wheat is being quoted at £55/t.

Most stubbles were cultivated rapidly after harvest with the aim of controlling many weeds before the next crop is planted. The weeds germinate rapidly in the seed bed created for them and then are sprayed off with a very short-lived herbicide. The exceptions to this are the fields that are set-aside and the field edge strips where we have been assessing weed populations in relation to herbicide inputs. These areas have been left as stubble and we will be looking to see how many birds make use of the localised rich source of seeds.

The oilseed rape was drilled in late August and it is planned to drill the wheat in early September and early October. The later drilled fields, the second year of wheat in the rotation, will contain a continuation of our trial on exploring how to increase the nesting productivity of our skylarks. We will be swopping the position of the undrilled patches and the wide spaced rows.

Using the same fields means that we work within the same area that is attractive to skylarks. By swapping the treatments we can discover if the skylarks are responding to the specific way that the crop was sown rather than the general attractiveness of the area.

Birds and biodiversity

From the 24 skylark breeding territories identified this year we were able to locate 45 nesting attempts. The first eggs were laid in late March, a month earlier than last year, and the last young fledged in early August. This early start was brought on by the fine, dry weather in March and April and these nests were very successful.

For the rest of the season nesting success was variable. Several cold, wet spells caused some nest failures and there was a poor end to the season, probably through a shortage of food. Losses to predators were low.

We found that the skylark territories, as shown by observations of singing birds, were evenly distributed across the wheat fields, roughly in proportion to the area of the crop. The wheat fields with the undrilled patches and the wide spaced rows both held higher densities of skylark nests during the first two months of the breeding season compared to a conventional wheat field. Later in the summer, the density of nests in the field with the undrilled patches was maintained but the density declined in the field with the wide spaced rows.

Unlike many other farms we have studied over the years, the skylark nest density in the conventional wheat did not decline over the breeding season. On average, we found that the skylark nests in the fields with the undrilled patches and the wide spaced rows fledged one more chick than nests in the conventional wheat.

It will take another year, swapping the position of the trials between fields, before we can be sure if we have found a means for arable farmers to reverse the decline in the skylark population.

Crop and estate management

With temperatures rising, the soil drying (what a contrast to last year) and the crops beginning to lift off, the first nitrogen applications were made in early March onto the oilseed rape and some of the wheat fields. Nitrogen fertiliser was held back on the lusher wheat fields. This was to thin out some of the tillers that were unlikely to add much to the yield and, by competing with the earlier formed tillers, may have resulted in poorer quality and a lower total yield.

Mid March saw the first of the fungicide treatments. Additional nitrogen and fungicide then went on in April. It is likely that a third fungicide treatment will be applied to the wheat in May. The aim of this is to keep the upper leaves and the ears of the wheat free from disease, protecting them with a fungicide as they emerge through the course of the spring.

In order to assess what numbers and range of spring germinating weeds we have in our seed bank, part of our weed assessment plots were cultivated in late March. This shallow cultivation should kill off the existing weed growth from the autumn flush and bring to the surface a new 'crop' of weed seeds, some of which would be triggered to germinate.

We wanted dry weather to allow this cultivation to take place but a little rainfall would have been nice to assist germination. As it turned out the exceptionally dry weather meant that little had germinated by the end of April.

Birds and biodiversity

The feeding of wheat and rapeseed ceased at the end of April. It was only in the last two weeks of our seven month feeding programme that we saw linnets feeding on the rapeseed that we had provided. Linnets behave much like summer visitors to the farm, having been absent for most of the winter.

Singing skylark numbers rose to 28 in March but this peak has not been repeated suggesting that some migrants were included. Our initial estimate of territory numbers, at the end of April, is that there are 15 to 20 singing males, a similar number to last year.

A contrast to last year has been how early some of the skylarks have started nesting - three nests were started at the end of March, all successfully fledging chicks in mid-April. By the end of April, there were 9 more nests on the go with eggs or chicks. We put up some starling nestboxes around the farmyard in the late winter. Within weeks, starlings were showing an interest in them and now there are six nests with a total of 24 young.

Spring came with bumblebees at the beginning of March and chiffchaff and an assortment of butterflies at the end of this month: brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock. They emerged at the beginning of almost four weeks of dry and warm weather.

Our first swallow was on the 9th April and the first cuckoo on the 18th. The emergence of the first blackgrass flower heads on the 23rd April was a sign of spring that is not appreciated. This is one weed that we do not want to foster. It is highly competitive with the crop, produces lots of seeds that are not fed on by birds and is developing resistance to a number of weedkillers.

A long-eared bat crash landed onto the lawn late one morning in March. After a day in care feeding up on mealworms it flew off, hopefully to return to its roost. Apparently, it is not unusual for bats to come out of hibernation at this time of year very weak, hungry and dehydrated.

Crop and estate management

The regular thump of gas bangers is a sign that the wintering flock of woodpigeons has not dispersed yet. There have been over a thousand in the area and it has proved difficult to keep a proportion of them off one part of an oilseed rape field near a house - a gas banger sited here would not have proved popular.

The remaining fields of rape are looking far healthier than last year when our yields were halved by poor growing conditions in the wet autumn and winter accompanied by slug and pigeon damage. The wheat fields that had stayed so relatively weed free finally had their first herbicide spray (other than in our trial areas) during a warm and still period in mid-February.

It is still planned to have the first nitrogen application on in early March and that will be followed shortly after by the fungicide treatments.

Birds and biodiversity

The cold spell at the start of the year put the numbers of chaffinches up, the peak was around 90 birds, and the seed we have been putting out at our feeding site on set-aside has gone faster than ever. We have increased the rate to 20 kg at the beginning of each week and an additional 5 kg at the end of the week if all the seed has gone.

Our first brambling has been recorded on the farm, taking some of this food put out at the feeding site. A small group of yellowhammers has fed with these chaffinches but our wild bird cover crop continues to be little used now that the seed has been stripped.

Comparing this winter with the last, the effect of the feeding on the total population of certain birds wintering on the farm has been revealed. We were able to compare the numbers of chaffinch, linnet and yellowhammer between winters. Chaffinch numbers have more than doubled in this winter and yellowhammer numbers increased by over tenfold. Linnet numbers have remained unchanged at none in both periods even though we were feeding rapeseed, one of their favoured foods over the summer.

A recent sign of spring has been that the skylarks have started singing. The first was on the 30 January and the whole farm count in February revealed 22 singing skylarks. This offers some hope of another increase in skylark numbers this breeding season.

The sorting and counting of the seeds contained within the surface soil samples taken from our fields over the last year is now complete. Initial thoughts on what we have found is that we shouldn't be surprised that our set-aside is so little used from the autumn onwards - there may be a lot of small wheat grains on the surface just after the harvest but they disappear as rapidly as in those fields that are cultivated and sown with the next crop. This appears to be mainly because the wheat germinates with the first rains.

Crop and estate management

Crop treatments came to an end in mid-October as crop growth slowed with the coming of winter. The only activity to benefit the crops from now until spring is the use of gas bangers around the oilseed rape to keep the woodpigeons off. Spring will be signalled in early March (given a 'normal' year) when the first of the nitrogen fertilizers will go on.

The effect of different cultivation and sowing dates on allowing weeds to germinate can now be seen very clearly on the strips of wheat fields where we are assessing the weed populations. We have a series of fallowed areas that have been cultivated, no crops have been drilled and no herbicides applied.

The areas created in early September are a thick carpet of plants. From a distance they look as green and lush as the adjoining crop. The areas created in early October stand out as bare, brown blocks amongst the wheat. Very few weeds have emerged. The whole of the later sown fields were judged so relatively weed free that they have not received a single herbicide since they were sown.

There is also a visible difference between the field sown with wheat at double the normal row spacing and the adjacent field, sown the same afternoon, at a conventional spacing. The latter has an even green finish to the field now the wheat has closed across the gaps between the rows. In contrast, there is still a distinct brown stripe of bare ground between the wider spaced rows. This is the space that we are looking for to attract skylarks in to nest but it may also be a space for weeds to thrive. A careful eye will be kept on this field.

Birds and biodiversity

The last of the summer stragglers went in November - a swallow on the 5th and a red admiral butterfly on the 6th. Blackbird numbers built up in November and we were left wondering if this was the local birds concentrating on our land or if it was due to winter visitors. One carrying a German ring on its leg proved that there were some visitors among them.

These blackbirds and some fieldfares benefited from the apples that we collected from the orchard and now brought out of store. During a period of over a week of frost a dozen blackbirds were feeding together on the apples put out on one small lawn by the farmhouse.

We increased the amount of seed put out at our feeding site on the edge of a field from 5 kg per week to 10 kg per week in mid-November. Chaffinch numbers rose steadily to the end of the year and they were joined by a few yellowhammers. At the same time the number of yellowhammers on our area of crops which were not harvested dropped markedly.

Initial thoughts are that now that the wheat almost all gone, through a combination of being eaten and falling to the ground, there is not an attractive source of food for yellowhammers. The autumn sown crops offer little for birds other than the oilseed rape that attracts the woodpigeons.

Night-time observation for mammals has also revealed three woodcocks feeding on our land, two in wheat fields and one on natural regeneration set-aside. This latter field also held a snipe for a few days.

Crop and estate management

The wheat crops that followed the oilseed rape and set-aside in the rotation (the 'first' wheat) were drilled at the beginning of September and the 'second' wheat (follows a 'first' wheat) at the beginning of October.

These wheats contain the next phase of the experimental work at Hope Farm. There is a second year of investigating if undrilled patches attract skylarks to nest - we have a field with patches at two different densities. There is the first year of investigating the effects of more widely spaced rows between the crop plants.

We are also investigating how to manage 'crop-friendly weeds', at this stage assessing weed population potential through replicated strips of fields that have a phased programme of removing herbicides with specific activity against types of weeds and season of application.

Birds and biodiversity

Our family of corn buntings has disappeared along with the summer visitors. Migration has been dominated by meadow pipits that came through in a burst in late September and early October. Other passage birds included small numbers of whinchat and wheatear.

The first of the winter thrushes came in small numbers from late September. We are hoping that the relaxation of hedgerow management (from annual cutting to a three year rotation) that provides more berries will hold these thrushes for longer over the winter.

Food provided on a patch of set-aside (wheat and oilseed rapeseed from our own harvest) has fed mainly pheasants and a chaffinch flock. The spring wheat, mustard and kale wild bird cover crop sown into a different patch of set-aside now regularly holds a dozen to twenty yellowhammers. This is a real change from last year's dearth of seed-eating bird flocks.

The natural regeneration set-aside has attracted a similar number of skylarks. They appear to have switched their attention from the oilseed rape - the lush growth in this mild autumn appears to us to be too tall to be used by skylarks.

Hare numbers have stayed very low and the regular moth trapping (species total over 250 for the year) revealed the streak to be present. This is rarely trapped in Cambridgeshire. The larval food plant is broom and that is hard to find in this area where neutral to calcareous clays dominate.

Crop and estate management

The brief hot spell at the end of July allowed the harvest to take place more rapidly than normal. We were expecting the rape and some of the wheat crops to be ready for harvest at that time.

The intense heat meant that the remaining wheat, expected to be ready for harvest later in August, was also ready. In this case, however, it was more sun-dried than sun-ripened, with the shortage of water meaning that the grains did not fill as much as we had hoped. On the other hand, the harvest was not interrupted by rain and the crops went into store without needing additional drying.

Almost as soon as the harvest was done, the fields were cultivated for the next crops. We are continuing the crop rotation of autumn sown wheat and oilseed rape. We do not intend that seed-eating birds should starve over the winter. We have stubbles from set-aside, a plot where we are regularly spreading wheat and oilseed rape seed and a wild bird cover crop.

The plans have been finalised for our next phase of trials in the wheat - more undrilled patches at different densities, wide spaced rows and reduced herbicide inputs to assess weed populations - we are after crop-friendly weeds!

Birds and biodiversity

The end of August marks the end of a summer recording season and we have begun to take stock of any changes. The numbers of most of the resident birds breeding birds have stayed the same over the last two years.

The linnet population has increased from six to eight territories and the reed bunting population from three to five territories in a year when the amount of fertiliser and pesticides used has not changed. This is most probably because the rotation placed the oilseed rape crop in fields bounded by bramble-edged ditches or low hedges of blackthorn, with bramble and dog rose growing through them.

These field edges suited these two species that are often associated with oilseed rape. The corn buntings successfully raised young on the farm this year while a young grey partridge was probably hatched on one of our neighbours' land.

Skylarks had a successful year but our trials did not. The total number of territories increased from 10 last year to 18 this year. This appears to be due to two factors.

Firstly, greater overwinter survival in the area (through the greater area of stubbles and fallows as a result of the wet autumn) leading to more birds around to establish territory.

Second, an overall increase in the area of land on the farm suitable for skylarks to nest in - nature's influence on our oilseed rape (poor establishment, waterlogging, slugs and woodpigeons) created bare and thin patches. The increase in skylark territories was not due to the undrilled patches that we had created in the wheat crops.

The skylarks took advantage of the patches in the oilseed rape. Normally skylarks avoid oilseed rape - last year we had only a single territory in rape, this year there were eight in a similar area. In the wheat the skylarks made use of the tramlines rather than our undrilled patches to enter the crop and nest.

This movement into the tramlines to nest indicated that they were finding difficulty finding suitable sites to nest in the bulk of the wheat crop. Individual nest success was good but we were very disappointed that the skylarks did not use the undrilled patches that we had devised for them.

This is, however, what experimentation is about and we have learnt from it. The wheat that will be drilled this autumn has a development of our ideas for creating more nesting sites for skylarks.

There was an increase in numbers of the nationally scarce broad-leaved spurge in one of the three fields where we found it last year. There were 167 seed producing plants in one field this year compared with 75 last year. The field grew oilseed rape and the type of herbicides used allowed this plant to survive.

In the two other fields (in which we grew oilseed rape last year) we found only a few very small plants, including some in the undrilled patches designed for skylarks. The herbicides used to keep the autumn sown wheat weed free do not favour the spurge.

Crop and estate management

The rape as well as looking patchy has increasingly looked very weedy with sowthistle coming through above the crop. In contrast, the wheat crops are virtually immaculate, that is weed-free. Since we are still in our baseline, full commercial practice period, the wheat is as planned. Inputs to the rape have finished but the wheat has had a last combined fungicide and growth regulator.

Unplanned but not unexpected (forecasting systems are relatively good for some pests now) was an outbreak of orange wheat blossom midge. The larvae of this tiny little fly can cause both yield and quality loss of wheat by eating into the developing grain.

It has a very sporadic occurrence, both between years and within an area. It requires crop walking on warm evenings in June to detect and if a specific threshold of midge numbers is passed, the weather is right for egg-laying and the wheat ears just emerged then the answer is that most damaging of pesticide applications - a summer applied broad spectrum insecticide.

Our wheat crops were walked and the threshold was passed one evening. We were all prepared to spray (remember it is a full commercial treatment year) but the weather changed next day with a drop in temperature, stronger winds and rain showers. Such conditions are unsuitable for egg-laying. By the time it warmed up again the wheat had grown beyond its vulnerable stage.

A spray was not necessary. We had received good advice from our agronomist and had not panicked. We saved money and avoided a major wipe-out of insects at the time when many of the nesting birds had chicks needing a good supply of insects.

Whilst we had not panicked, how many farmers had? The quality of grain at harvest will show if our decision was right and that very few midge eggs were laid on the ears over the day or two before the weather changed.

As part of our work to provide a source of seeds for birds over the coming winter a wild bird cover crop has been sown on the set-aside. This was a mix of spring wheat, mustard and kale which satisfies set-aside rules. This is a mix that is cheap to obtain and popular with a range of seedeating birds according to recent BTO/Game Conservancy studies.

It went in very late due to having to wait for the soil to dry after the very wet winter. Spring cropping is a VERY risky exercise on this heavy soil since it is so dependent on suitable soil conditions for cultivation. Time will tell if the wheat is able to produce a head before autumn sets in.

Birds and biodiversity

Intensive effort is going into following the fortunes of our skylarks in order to determine how effective are the undrilled patches that we have provided in two of the wheat fields. Our first nest found was on 7 May.

The real test comes in late June and July when skylarks are raising their second broods - will they be pushed out of the ever thickening crops and into the patches? So far second nesting attempts have been found along the tramlines but not in the patches. The jury is still out.

Very exciting has been the appearance of corn bunting, first a singing male which eventually attracted two females who settled down to nest. Turtle dove and spotted flycatcher eventually arrived to set up territory around the farmhouse.

We have also heard grey partridge calling on warm evenings in June from a neighbour's land. This was from a field which he attempted to cultivate in the autumn but abandoned due to the wet weather.

An attempt was made again in the spring but this was also abandoned, again due to wet soil, leaving a bare fallow that grew a few grass weeds. Unless this was entered into set-aside under the wet weather derogation it will be a major loss of income for our neighbour.

Regular moth trapping has led to many new species being added to the site list each time. The most eyecatching have been puss moth and four species of hawkmoth - elephant, lime, poplar and privet. The broad-leaved spurge, our rare arable weed, has now emerged above the rape (along with assorted other weeds). It has extended its distribution in one field. Currently there are no signs of it in the wheat fields where it occurred last year when they were cropped with rape. The herbicides probably put paid to it.

One field edge containing the spurge will come into our weed assessment work next season. This will have specific herbicides removed so we should be able to identify what the spurge is able to tolerate and what knocks it out. A single flowering spike of bee orchid was located at a place where records date back 15 years.

Crop and estate management

March and April have seen the most intensive period of crop inputs with the rape and wheat receiving nitrogen fertiliser as they begin to pick up with the spring. The wheat has also received additional treatments for fungal diseases and, on a field by field basis following crop inspections by an agronomist, herbicides against cleavers and blackgrass.

The result has been virtually weed free and very vigorous stands of wheat. This has been what we sought, with the pressure on the skylarks to use the unsown patches rather than the bulk of the wheat. The rape has not quite matched this specification, having suffered from poor growth over the winter along with slug and pigeon damage. The result is some unplanned patchiness, not what we sought because this could draw the skylarks away from our trial areas in the wheat.

A further confounding factor is the occurrence of spring tillage and cropping on adjacent farms following their failure to establish a crop in the autumn. If the skylarks still use the unsown patches with all those attractions around, we may be onto something.

Birds and biodiversity

The final tally of birds over the 'winter' (September to March inclusive) was 65 species, eight of which just flew over and could not be claimed as connected to our land. The most numerous species on the systematic whole farm counts were woodpigeon, skylark, blackbird, starling, chaffinch and greenfinch. April saw the start of the breeding season territory counts, weekly butterfly transects and regular moth trapping.

Breeding birds that are settling in already include swallow, skylark, linnet, yellowhammer and reed bunting. The late returning migrants, turtle dove and spotted flycatcher, have yet to put in an appearance. April also saw a flush of migrants through the site including two grasshopper warblers which chose to sing for a few days in the Countryside Stewardship grass margins and recently planted hedges.

Crop and estate management

Nothing has happened to the crops over the last two months. This is simply because there is nothing to do to wheat or oilseed rape in this period other than keep the woodpigeons at bay.

Birds and biodiversity

The systematic counts across the whole farm continue to reveal the lack of seedeating birds. Skylarks picked up again after the mid-winter low and have been singing occasionally for some weeks now. This includes in the fields with the undrilled patches but it will be some months before we can say if they are used for raising second or third broods. Initial comparisons between this winter and the last (part of the period was covered) suggest blackbird numbers up mid-winter and fieldfares down.

Yellowhammer numbers appear to have picked up more slowly in the early spring than last year. The last of the results from monitoring carried out last year are now trickling in. Amongst these was an assessment of the dragonflies and damselflies present. This picked up 12 species, seven of which were probably breeding.

Crop and estate management

The crops (wheat and oilseed rape) received their final treatment (a herbicide) in mid November and then, as they say, the gates were closed and the crops left for the winter.

Birds and biodiversity

The wheat in store has been steadily going out of the barn for final drying before sale. The inevitable spillage that occurs with these movements has attracted pheasants, collared doves and around 30 chaffinches.

The systematic counts across the whole farm have confirmed the dearth of wintering seedeaters such as yellowhammer and reed bunting. Skylarks peaked at 71 in early November, falling back to five in December - moving from our highest to lowest winter count. We have presumed that the peak was of passage birds.

The snow between Christmas and the New Year did not pull any birds in, nor did it drive any away (because there were so few any way).

Site firsts have been redpoll and blackcap, the latter coming to the bird table by the office.

Crop and estate management

The rotation of the last five years rolls on to give us a baseline prior to significant management changes. This has meant autumn cultivations and drilling of the wheat and oilseed rape. These began at the tail end of August and gathered a pace in order to establish 100 hectares of winter wheat and 50 hectares of oilseed rape (the remaining arable area is set-side). This was all complete by 4 October, well before the washout that hit some later in the month.

Two of the wheat fields contain our first experiment - small unsown patches which are there to see if they attract skylark to nest and if they do, how productive are the birds. We will also look at the crop production issues of such unsown patches - will charlock bushes or cleaver tangles impede harvesting and will we suffer weed 'hotspots' in years to come?

Birds and biodiversity

The programme of winter bird surveys is now in place with 'volunteers' from Lodge staff being asked to make, together with us, the team of five necessary to gain simultaneous coverage of all fields. Regular seed sampling continues to take place to monitor food availability but most other biodiversity audits are coming to an end.

Apparently it is a good time to search for mosses and the offer from the local specialists has been taken up of a one day 'foray', or is it 'moss meander'?