In my experience stubble turnips can be really beneficial for farmland birds through providing food and winter cover.
I work with a farmer who has sown stubble turnips into an area of his stubble, but has done more than he needs. He has asked me whether he can incorporate the surplus into his area of ELS over winter stubble if he does not graze it. I am pretty sure this cannot be done, even if it is not grazed. I would have also thought that grazing of stubble turnips would increase their wildlife value (though this is restricted according to the ELS handbook).
Has anyone else come across this before?
Hi Gallinago
I think you are right, this would not be counted. Grazing of stubble turnips often does increase the wildlife value - seed-eating birds forage in newly grazed strips as they are opened up by the stock.
Formerly, stubble turnips would have qualified for ELS under the "Brassica fodder crops followed by over-wintered stubbles" option, but this was removed in the second edition of the handbook because of soil protection concerns. Interestingly, a farmer in the South Downs who uses stubble turnips for his stock and his grey partridge conservation did not put them into his ELS application because they would not allow him to cultivate the stubble post grazing, which was his standard practice to protect the land from soil erosion. Partridges and other seed-eating birds still had time to make use of the seed resource as the stock were grazing the strip down, before they were moved to the next strip and the cultivations were done.
Richard
Thanks Richard
Unless I hear otherwise I will advise my farmer that stubble turnips cannot count toward his over winter stubble.
I think that stubble turnips are often overlooked as a good wildlife habitat and it was a shame that the option was removed from ES. Interestingly I have found that stubble turnips are also a habitat of choice for roosting stone-curlews, presumably because of the cover provided by the plants combined with open areas.
G