Farming & Conservation

[Danllan]

...swifts...

Yep, I've not knowingly seen swifts trapped / netted anywhere. I think the suggestion of diminishing nesting opportunities is a fair one; I know of several buildings, houses, pubs etc. that have been made 'weatherproof' and so also swift-proof. But I know others that are still vert popular with swifts.

 

[wanton dwarf]

The talk of nitrate pollution in rivers and watercourses its all too easy to pin the blame on farmers but sewage plants and other sources can be far worse.

No HMG guilt about sending Phospahtes, Nitrogen and Potassium into the sea via human waste.
No HMG guilt about sending viruses into the sea via human waste.
No HMG guilt about sending medicines and hormones into the sea via human waste.

COULD be recycled.
COULD reduce carbon foot print of farming.

But doesn't fit the HMG agenda.

 

[Blaithin]

The talk of nitrate pollution in rivers and watercourses its all too easy to pin the blame on farmers but sewage plants and other sources can be far worse.

Pause. I hate this rhetoric. It’s the farmers go too.

“Well *enter other industry here* is worse. Who cares about us.”

Lots of people. Just because water treatment facilities are bad offenders, does that mean farming can’t try and improve? Just because cities are dirty, is that free reign for farms to be?

I don’t care if something else might be worse. I’m in the farming industry and farming is what I do. I can control things in this environment, not in a water treatment facility. If it’s within my power to improve something within farming, why would I not try and do that?

If we can improve something, let’s improve it. Not act like we’re 5 and say Well Jimmy up the road is worse so I’m okay to just keep doing what I’m doing.

 

[Kevtherev]

Pause. I hate this rhetoric. It’s the farmers go too.

“Well *enter other industry here* is worse. Who cares about us.”

Lots of people. Just because water treatment facilities are bad offenders, does that mean farming can’t try and improve? Just because cities are dirty, is that free reign for farms to be?

I don’t care if something else might be worse. I’m in the farming industry and farming is what I do. I can control things in this environment, not in a water treatment facility. If it’s within my power to improve something within farming, why would I not try and do that?

If we can improve something, let’s improve it. Not act like we’re 5 and say Well Jimmy up the road is worse so I’m okay to just keep doing what I’m doing.

Farming can improve and we are taking the lead in environmental work IMO just need other industries to follow suit.
I’m involved with water every day of the week

 

[Blaithin]

Farming can improve and we are taking the lead in environmental work IMO just need other industries to follow suit.
I’m involved with water every day of the week

Of course you are. It rains there every day of the week

 

[Kevtherev]

Of course you are. It rains there every day of the week

We are prepared

 

[Ffermer Bach]

You raise an important point - control of corvids etc.. There are now nowhere near as many gamekeepers as there were even forty years ago, and they - often over-zealously - kept numbers down significantly, as well as badgers and foxes, all of which meant that wild ground-nesting birds and small birds were being protected as well as the horrible pheasants.

What we see with current corvid numbers is probably nearer a natural norm than when small bird numbers started being recorded during highly-keepered times - and that would have lead to an inaccurate and subsequently unattainable datum...

I am not sure, I think there is so much road kill that there are far more Corvids now

 

[Kevtherev]

I am not sure, I think there is so much road kill that there are far more Corvids now

Lot more ravens about in the last 20-30yrs too

 

[Danllan]

I am not sure, I think there is so much road kill that there are far more Corvids now

Difficult to proove either way, traffic numbers have increased nationally, but rural populations have declined significantly. I know lanes both here and over in England that were in regular daily use when I was a boy, but that now get maybe the same amount of traffic in a fortnight that they once saw in twenty four hours.

I am in no doubt that road kill does help the corvids but, then, I am also absolutely certain that their not having lots of blokes around whose sole purpose in life is to destroy them helps their numbers too.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I was a member of the Covid Exchange on Facebook, it allowed people to give a call bird to someone to bait a Larsen trap, it worked really well. It stopped being on Facebook, someone on here said it was because the owner of the group started getting problems with Vegan types. A great shame.

 

[Muddyroads]

I was a member of the Covid Exchange on Facebook, it allowed people to give a call bird to someone to bait a Larsen trap, it worked really well. It stopped being on Facebook, someone on here said it was because the owner of the group started getting problems with Vegan types. A great shame.

Sounds like a good way to spread a pandemic!