Gwyn Thomas uses native breeds and trtaditional farming practices on his 321 ha hill farm in the Snowdonia National Park. Extensive grazing benefits ring ouzel on the moors and snipe in the wet grassland. Use of arable fodder crops benefits twite. He has also erected barn owl boxes and otter holts, as both occur on the farm.

A viable hill farming business has been developed from direct sale and selling through the local market of lamb, cattle rearing (which also helps with management for snipe and curlew), ESA payments for low-input management and re-wetting, and a farm campsite.

Following an RSPB bird survey identifying the farm as important for yellowhamers, which are now scarce in Wales, the farmer has grown a wild bird cover crop and yellowhammer numbers have built up. Initially a range of crops were sown, but the best results have come from an all-cereal mix. Rare arable plants have also been recorded for the first time.

This farm in Scotland has set up a system of siltation traps to ensure that water entering the burn is of the highest quality. The water management features are also managed to benefit the local wildlife, notably water voles, newts and sea trout.

Traditional crofting management is being used to provide an economic return from cattle rearing, whilst benefiting the corncrake, corn bunting, breeding waders and the great yellow bumblebee.

Lapwings nest in the stubble of typhon (a leafy fodder crop) after it has been grazed through the winter. Damp areas of the field are left uncultivated and the damp grassland provides good foraging areas for chicks after this has also been grazed down through the winter.

Hywel Williams manages his upland farm for lapwings by careful attention to sward management to create the right nesting conditions, rush management, scrape creation and predator control. His habitat management is supported by Tir Gofal.

A trial of leaving natural regeneration on rotational set-aside for two years without any management was conducted on Grange Farm, the RSPB arable farm in Cambridgeshire. This case study explains the wildlife benefits of this action and the agronomic implications in the following crops.

The farmer has established wild bird seed mixtures primarily for winter food for tree sparrows. Plots have suffered from flea beetle, which needed a spray, and rabbit damage, which led to a change in the mix to introduce triticale, which is more resistent to rabbit grazing.

Langdon Barton Farm took up the ‘Cirl Bunting Special Project’ in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, where farmers in south Devon were offered the option of low-input spring barley followed by over-wintered stubble for £150/ha. Similar management is now possible across England within Higher Level Stewardship. John Andrews describes his experience of doing this for the last five years.