The Game Conservancy Trust has set up a demonstration of how to manage farmland for grey partridge conservation using legal control of partridge predators, habitat management to provide nesting, brood-rearing and winter cover, and supplementary feeding in winter and early spring.

We wanted to demonstrate a range of environmental options to our students. We chose conservation headlands to maximise returns from the unproductive headlands of the crop. They have worked very well on our land, in that the payment more than compensates for the loss of yield in the headland, especially the conservation headlands with no fertiliser inputs, which have a higher payment rate.

Skylark plots have been put into winter cereal crops at Grange Farm for four years and had no effect on yield in subsequent crops. The Entry Level Stewardship payment rate more than makes up for the lost profit from not cropping these small patches.

We have created beetle banks in locations where there is an obstacle to cropping, such as under electric poles. We used a lot of cocksfoot in the mix to create a thick sward and have not had any weed problems.

On our 6m margins, the 3m next to the crop is either cut and spread by the combine, or cut and baled for composting. The 3m next to the hedge is only cut if necessary to prevent woody plants taking over.

We do not use broad-spectrum herbicides on the outer 12m of some of our spring barley crops on our lighter wold land to provide good habitat for grey partridge chicks. In addition to the standard prescription, we do not put any N on this 12m to reduce the competitive weed problems.

We have tried fallow plots for nesting lapwings, but they have not worked well to date. We need a better method of controlling thistles on these plots and probably need to alter the way we cultivate them in the spring. They are well used by grey partridges and hares.

We retain a lot of our cereal stubbles through the winter. We do not use pre-harvest treatments on them. We leave stubbles of different heights to provide areas of cover for gamebirds.

Pollen and nectar mixtures have been used to boost insect numbers. Half of the area is cut in summer to encourage late flowering. We cut early to ensure that no nesting birds are disturbed. We are discussing with Defra how to revive plots where the number of flowering plants has declined.

We use a two-year mix of kale, cereals, quinoa, sunflower and sweet clover. The 1st year mix is good, but the kale has been suppressed in the 2nd year, possibly due to competition with the clover and a shortage of nitrogen.