rspb hedge campaign

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
how did you coppice? Chainsaw or tree shears? I am guessing coppicing is the traditional method in East Anglia?

Tree shear.

I have very few hedges as they were all ripped out in the 60s. Big flat fields, and very deep ditches. With ditches 8ft deep, it's tricky to cut one side of the hedge. Over time, the hedgeside bank creeps into the ditch. I've maybe 1000m of hedge over 300ac.

If it were nice and even I'd have had a chap in to lay it. In this case, the hedge was old and pretty crappy. I've cut it back to maybe a foot of stump which will thicken up well. I'd say 100m needs gapping up, and of that 50m really needs some of the old hedge ripping out and the bank tidying up. So I'll plant new hedge, then in maybe five years I'll rip the old bit out and sort the bank side.

"Traditional" hedge and ditch management seems to be do sod all! I've a ditch to clear next week that I doubt has been done in 30 years.

Ditches and hedges do a job and require work doing on them. I'm sympathetic to newts etc, but in reality this hedge and bank are simply a resting place for pigeons and a haven for rats.

I don't trim my hedges every year. Maybe 1 in three. And they shouldn't get another snipping until I've got grandchildren. It's enough of a ballache having to go down the dyke with a billhook tidying up!
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
annual trimming is very satisfying, which is one of the reason why naturally the conscientious driver would like it .

yes holly makes a good stock field head hedge , but dont need to take much off
SAM_1334 (3).JPG

1.5 m head on there so thats not such a tall one.
 
Last edited:

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Tree shear.

I have very few hedges as they were all ripped out in the 60s. Big flat fields, and very deep ditches. With ditches 8ft deep, it's tricky to cut one side of the hedge. Over time, the hedgeside bank creeps into the ditch. I've maybe 1000m of hedge over 300ac.

If it were nice and even I'd have had a chap in to lay it. In this case, the hedge was old and pretty crappy. I've cut it back to maybe a foot of stump which will thicken up well. I'd say 100m needs gapping up, and of that 50m really needs some of the old hedge ripping out and the bank tidying up. So I'll plant new hedge, then in maybe five years I'll rip the old bit out and sort the bank side.

"Traditional" hedge and ditch management seems to be do sod all! I've a ditch to clear next week that I doubt has been done in 30 years.

Ditches and hedges do a job and require work doing on them. I'm sympathetic to newts etc, but in reality this hedge and bank are simply a resting place for pigeons and a haven for rats.

I don't trim my hedges every year. Maybe 1 in three. And they shouldn't get another snipping until I've got grandchildren. It's enough of a ballache having to go down the dyke with a billhook tidying up!
This the crazy thing with all encompassing rules, if you have a 60 acre field & only trim every so often & leave a metre by the hedge it’s no big deal but for us that’s 15 individual fields with hedges that need trimming, which of those 60 acre blocks do you think is better for wildlife?
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
This the crazy thing with all encompassing rules, if you have a 60 acre field & only trim every so often & leave a metre by the hedge it’s no big deal but for us that’s 15 individual fields with hedges that need trimming, which of those 60 acre blocks do you think is better for wildlife?

Unsure. I've curlew, lapwings, various birds of prey. Moorhens on the pond, copious worms in the soil. Barn owls, little owls.

Largest field here is 57ac. My farm is six fields. But then it's been that was for many years. Wildlife adapts. Does nature prefer that I can cultivate and drill it all in a week, then leave it be for most of the year, rather than plough 15ac a day?

All we can do is our best.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
this is more the norm around here ,its a mix of Ash, Willow,Hawthorn,Hazel and a few brambles bit of alsorts ash and willow doesnt look quite so nice after as the thorn unless you like the white flicked look :sneaky:
SAM_1318 (2).JPG

them have been annually trimmed for a long long time tbh.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tree shear.

I have very few hedges as they were all ripped out in the 60s. Big flat fields, and very deep ditches. With ditches 8ft deep, it's tricky to cut one side of the hedge. Over time, the hedgeside bank creeps into the ditch. I've maybe 1000m of hedge over 300ac.

If it were nice and even I'd have had a chap in to lay it. In this case, the hedge was old and pretty crappy. I've cut it back to maybe a foot of stump which will thicken up well. I'd say 100m needs gapping up, and of that 50m really needs some of the old hedge ripping out and the bank tidying up. So I'll plant new hedge, then in maybe five years I'll rip the old bit out and sort the bank side.

"Traditional" hedge and ditch management seems to be do sod all! I've a ditch to clear next week that I doubt has been done in 30 years.

Ditches and hedges do a job and require work doing on them. I'm sympathetic to newts etc, but in reality this hedge and bank are simply a resting place for pigeons and a haven for rats.

I don't trim my hedges every year. Maybe 1 in three. And they shouldn't get another snipping until I've got grandchildren. It's enough of a ballache having to go down the dyke with a billhook tidying up!
roughly 4500m over 150 acres here
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
I'd miss the dog roses and honeysuckle if the hedges home here were cut hard into box shapes every year. There's a pale dog rose that covers a hawthorn tree on one hedge in a valley bottom.
that hints at the trimmed 'A' shape which is more rarely seen.
which is a subject i do give thought to at least.
One of the main practical problems with tractor trimming is the reach of the machine and trimming usefully up to an A needs relatively far more reach than a flat top.
Because as a hedge gets wider at its base
...1. to keep a similar /relevant angle ,the top of of the apex needs naturally to be higher accordingly .(basic maths :sneaky:
2.as a hegdger is raised higher the horizontal reach of the machine is lost in a linear way with as the machine stretches higher and higher to complete the job.
Also from a person point of veiw.operator / hedge owner job satisfaction/ neatness /sharp edge sort of thing can come into it i guess.

but yes practical to do on a not to wide hedge (with no ditches both side) and a not too high end result choice, or on a boundary hedge :rolleyes:


Its something i think about ie, how to make an effective hedger that is relativly lightweight but has very long reach, would be good on wetter ground and with wide ditches next to them ,or late season trimming Dec,Jan Feb .
Not for road hedges but maybe Back to A Cutter bar machine would be an idea i reckon ,as its a much lighter head right from the start, and wider cut too.( which also equals more reach ) but with a modern twist of telescopic or really long boom. even so a smaller tractor could be used on it as well which is part of the idea .

course then the issue arises of hedge pairing s needing to be cleared up or not, and removing them is not so eco either is it.

:unsure:
 
Last edited:

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
The trend is for great, wide, swiping trimmers on wide, heavy tractors. Like our contractor though I do, and appreciate that he's willing to take instruction to leave areas of hedge (and he has enough appreciation for the aesthetic to use common sense not to keep dead, urban park, box hedge straight), his new equipment is very big compared with what he started with. It's already inadvertently swiping out hedgebank face, and the flower roots, corms, rhizomes, whathavee's that lived there ~ only from lack of fine controllability of the almost 2m(?) head from the cab. Only bracken, ivy, or sycamore comes back after that sort of injury.
His recent employee is rip, scat, cuss, go, unfortunately. He's hurt one hedge too many by imagining he's playing with the toy hedge bricks of his childhood, and doesn't take instructions.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
no will be !.5 metre as the one in the pic above , i expect thats the widest flail head there is . cutter bar can be got wider,or multiple saw head one can be wider.
a modern High powered flail head is a beast of a thing and can be well over the top for annual trim.iys so heavy as well because it needs to be for the chunky flails spinning at thousands of rpm wheres the slower more considered cut of a knife of a shear bar is at the other extreme. but still needs to be strong to cut bigger like 50mm or so stick :cool:


:unsure:

could be a man thing...:D
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
I will build one when i get chance all other things being equal, ....being Mid mounted would be a good call also i think.



as well as being fairly well hidden away Birds nests are are safer up out o the way of foxes and cats .
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
I will build one when i get chance all other things being equal, ....being Mid mounted would be a good call also i think.



as well as being fairly well hidden away Birds nests are are safer up out o the way of foxes and cats .

It would need good articulation, and to work very closely to the hind wheels ~ to help prevent the tractor having to be driven into the hedge or verge the opposite side of a normal by-road so as to get enough room for manoeuvre.
 

flowerpot

Member
I had a brief conversation with a lady who advises people on how to life an eco-friendly life, like feed your dog on insects.

She also considers that sheep and cattle should not be grazing the fields as they cause damage to hedges.

Um? The hedges wouldn't be there if not to keep the animals in.
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
I had a brief conversation with a lady who advises people on how to life an eco-friendly life, like feed your dog on insects.

She also considers that sheep and cattle should not be grazing the fields as they cause damage to hedges.

Um? The hedges wouldn't be there if not to keep the animals in.
Well she’s a fool then
Hedge plants would usually be one big bush full of berries, they are only in hedgerows because we made them that way
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,293
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top