French Hedges, or rather the lack of them!

[Jerry]

Currently driving from Calais to the alps, just past Dijon.

There are bugger all hedges anywhere. Odd pockets of woodland but huge swaths of open ground all heavily cultivated. Most seems to be traditional plough based agri.

are French farmers not vilified like us for not having more hedges ??


I thought the French where into direct drilling far more??

no livestock to speak of yet though I know this is mainly an arable are.

crops look well

 

[primmiemoo]

Bocage areas were very similar to Southern England, before England encouraged removal of hedges ~
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocage#/media/File:Bocage_country_at_Cotentin_Peninsula.jpg

A different history within each part of France.

 

[7610 super q]

Yes, very strange indeed. In Blighty the EU overlords made us measure our hedges in metric for our " Greening element ", meanwhile elsewhere in the union, they were bulldozed to buggery ?.
Unless they were never there in the first place ?
Here we had small enclosed strips around medieval villages, then open spaces, then the enclosures act in the 18th century created more ?

 

[primmiemoo]

Well, Western Britain wasn't entirely subsumed into the invaders' strip fields, was it? Aren’t there are still some Romano-British (and earlier?) round, and square-round fields about that show it.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Have noticed the same thing myself with huge "fields" split up into 15 or 20 smaller parcels; the only field boundaries being roads, built up areas, woodland or watercourses.

Also, as someone else said, cultivated to buggery and about one cover crop per 100 miles looking from the train.

 

[Steevo]

Can't see they'll be having a mass tree-planting frenzy either!

 

[serf]

Can't see they'll be having a mass tree-planting frenzy either!

Why ever not ! are they not crazy fruitloops like over here

 

[primmiemoo]

I did read that many hedges in the traditional Bocage areas were removed after the Second World War. In some cases, the landscape is greatly changed since the War.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Why ever not ! are they not crazy fruitloops like over here

Always best to cut a tree down if you get a chance!

 

[Gerbert]

Have you noticed they also drive on the other side of the road and they speak a language different to yours, crazy isn't it?

 

[7610 super q]

Have you noticed they also drive on the other side of the road and they speak a language different to yours, crazy isn't it?

Wrong side of the road, yes.

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

Looks no different from east anglia

 

[kfpben]

I’ve always found it quite ironic that largely left leaning eco types are very attached to hedges which are essentially a symbol from history of an aristocratic land grab.

Don’t get me wrong - I love a good hedge. They aren’t natural though.

 

[grainboy]

Yes, but isn’t it tidy, no rubbish, no overhanging branches on roads,

 

[le bon paysan]

And every farmer knows to the mm where his field edge is!
Plough or plant a bit by mistake and you are soon told!

 

[Princess Pooper]

And every farmer knows to the mm where his field edge is!
Plough or plant a bit by mistake and you are soon told!

So do we... but RPA keep trying to tell us they have shrunk again!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Looks no different from east anglia

Yes, but isn’t it tidy, no rubbish, no overhanging branches on roads,

Yes but it's an ecological desert.

 

[Universe]

Wrong side of the road, yes.

But not when driving home from the pub though...

 

[grainboy]

Yes but it's an ecological desert.

France is a big country, plenty of ecology in the Alps, and central France your lucky to see a field for all the woodlands

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

France is a big country, plenty of ecology in the Alps, and central France your lucky to see a field for all the woodlands

Algeria is a big country too. Not sure what your point is?