 05 Aug 2010, 10:01 AM
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farm-advice
Joined on 09 Nov 2005
Posts 473
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The Farmland bird package for arable farmland in England: a baseline
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Soon we will find out how well the first tranche of ELS renewals have been influenced by the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE). The June 09 ES option uptake figures (used for the CFE baseline) can be used to estimate how much of the RSPB/NE/FWAG/GWCT/WFC ELS farmland bird package was met nationally, before the CFE started.
The Farmland Bird Package per 100ha of arable land is:
1. Wild Bird Seed Mixture on 2 hectares or ELS Over-wintered Stubble on 5 hectares
2. 20 skylark plots in winter cereals, or a fallow plot or extended winter stubble (new options coming into ELS in 2010) on 1 hectare
3. 1 hectare used to create a network of insect-rich habitats across the farm
Firstly, looking at ELS alone, and working on the principle that there are roughly 6.2m ha of arable land in England, there were:
- 4895ha of wild bird seed mixtures and 63830ha of stubbles on arable land, which in total constitutes 24.5% of the target amount of seed food required
- 6419ha of flower-rich margins, which constitutes 10.4% of the target amount of insect-rich habitat required
- 15069 skylark plots, which is 1.2% of the target for in-field nesting habitat
The contribution of HLS, adds:
- 2328ha of seed mixtures and 4980ha of stubble, which in total constitutes 3.5% of the target amount of seed food required
- 4526ha of flower-rich margins, which constitutes 7.3% of the target amount of insect-rich habitat required
- 2661ha of fallow plots for ground-nesting birds plus 2743 skylark plots, which in total is 4.5% of the target for in-field nesting habitat
The combined % met are then 28.0% for seed food, 17.7% for insect food and 5.7% for in-field nesting habitat
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Report
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