Against the grain series Radio 4 this week

[milkloss]

just a heads up that there is a Radio4 series about ag at 1345 everyday this week.

Anyone on here given any input to the series?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08cj40g/episodes/guide

 

[llamedos]

Glad someone else is interested

 

[milkloss]

Glad someone else is interested

Oh, I had this annoying thought that I knew someone else had mentioned it! Heard another ad for it today is all.

 

[llamedos]

Oh, I had this annoying thought that I knew someone else had mentioned it! Heard another ad for it today is all.

Me too, this aft'

 

[Princess Pooper]

Starting shortly http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08b7st7

 

[Tim W]

Today featured a few interesting items around subsidies ---- their potential future (or not)

Worth a listen --- it's on just before the Archers which is handy

 

[llamedos]

Tomorrow

National Farming

Charlotte Smith visits Minette Batters, the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union, on her farm near Salisbury. Minette takes Charlotte to a water meadow which is flooding at the wrong time of year - but, she says there's nothing she can do. She has to comply with policy regulations. So when did the idea of national farming policy take hold, and where did it come from? These are questions Charlotte explores with the Professor of Landscape History from the University of East Anglia, Tom Williamson.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.

 

[ollie989898]

Why is a water meadow flooding at the wrong time of year and what exactly is a farmer supposed to do about it?

As a matter of fact, as a tax payer, why should I give a hoot about it?

 

[Red Fred]

The meadow is probably flooding at the wrong time of year because the weed cutting regime on the river has been handed over to the EA who claim it doesn't need doing, so as to save money. They have also abandoned any attempt at controlling the weirs, which were built and maintained at huge expense in the not-too-distant past.
It matters to those tax payers who care, as it is leading to the destruction of the final small areas of water meadow, whuch once covered all the vallies of southern England and form a shrinking resource from an ecological point-of-view as water meadows were very skillfully built and maintained over 200 or 300 years, but began to fall into ruin as they were abandoned in the 1930s.
The weed cutting also has a direct impact on taxpayers as it is leading to flooding along the banks, even in houses that have been flood free since Victorian times.
Whether any of this REALLY matters in the big world is up to individual taste

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I was going to post about this too.

I heard it today and thought it was interesting but too short to really convey much. I'll be listening to the others.

 

[Red Fred]

In case anyone is interested, I've pinched my own photo from the old Rotary Ditcher thread, and it shows my new ditch cleaner at work in our water meadows. The term water meadow tends to be used for any wet grassland in the floodplain, but actually refers to drowned meadows, constructed from about 1600-1850. M.Batters is several miles upstream.

 

[Princess Pooper]

In case anyone is interested, I've pinched my own photo from the old Rotary Ditcher thread, and it shows my new ditch cleaner at work in our water meadows. The term water meadow tends to be used for any wet grassland in the floodplain, but actually refers to drowned meadows, constructed from about 1600-1850. M.Batters is several miles upstream.
View attachment 459798

I think we have an old and now unmaintained water meadow - different from the ridge and furrow - v flat land adjacent to the river called 'Flat Meadow' & is on 'Lag Lane' which is I gather a name often associated with flood meadows. The distances and general appearance of the ditches look very similar to the picture taken by @Red Fred and yes it floods.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Having just listened to today's episode I found the section on the history of the hedgerow interesting. Basically they said that originally hedgerows were a mix of species so that the thorn acted as a barrier and other species provided firewood. From the 18th century onward coal took over as fuel and pure thorn hedges became dominant.

Does that mean that when local councils insist new hedges for developments are multi-species that they are trying to re-engineer the countryside?

The explanation of farms getting bigger was good though.